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Tom asked in PetsFish · 1 decade ago

Senegal Bicher? Rocket Gars?

I recently purchase a 4 inch senegal Bicher and three Rocket gars that are all around 4 inches. Its almost been a week now, and they wont eat anything i give them. I have a couple of healthy feeder fish already in the tank with the gar and bicher but it seems that these predatory fish are not interested. So yesterday i went and bought some small meal worms to feed them. Since the gars and bichers are still pretty young, i bought small meal worms that can fit into their mouths, but when i put the meal worms in, and it floats on the surface of the water, the gar and bichers ignore them and my masheer endded up eating the worms. (i have a couple of the masheer not much bigger than the gars and bichers at around 5 - 6 inches and they seem to school with the small feeder fish) the aquarium they are in is pretty big around 180 gallon. The water quality is good, no build up of nitrates, nitrites etc. What could be the problem? how can i induce the fish to eat? The current tank mates of my new fish are 4 masheer around 5 - 6 inches, 2 parrot cichlid around 4 inches, and one red tilapia around 5 inches and a whiptail catfish around 5 inches. All the fish in the aquarium are eating except for my new bicher and rocket gar.

1 Answer

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
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    Monsterfishkeepers says virtually all Bichirs eat if you dangle the food in front of their face. They impale the food item on a thin metal rod. You also have to give them time to adjust, and if possible check for pH differences between where they came from and where they are now. A pH difference greater than 0.2 may keep them uncomfortable enough to not eat for a week or so.

    I recent got a big male Midas Cichlid who wouldn't eat for the first 5 days I had him. Then he took a very small piece of shrimp, and now he eats small shrimps whole. sometimes acclimation takes longer with a larger fish who was used to a different place. My Midas cichlid just hung out in a top corner for almost a week. Now , in addition to eating to eating, he has dug a huge cave big enough to get in. If your pet store fed your fish fell, they actually might indigestion from the move. It's usually the fish that are poorly fed in stores that gobble up everything the first day.

    Source(s): Robert Price, Ichthyologist Monsterfishkeepers.com
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