Training Killies to take flake foods.

[gary35111]

Hi guys,

I have been trying to train my new killies (Orange Australe) to take flake foods. Personally, I feel that the best food (for killies having passed the fry-stage) is still these commercially prepared foods as they have all the vitamins, omegas and immune substances and best they are free of parasite. Or perhaps occasionally a treat of frozen live-food (the 'Hiraku' brand with vitamins substance added) but NOT "live" so as to train and make it a habit for them to eat 'healthy and hygenic' foods. And it is cheaper in the long-run and less messy. :P Haha, many, especially the breeders will disagree, perhaps defensively

I have newly acquire some killies and put them in a makeshift solitary tank, throwing in flake foods every 3-4 hours and removing all of them almost every 40 mintues - they were mostly untouched. My fishes seems to hate them. The male (in his solitary tank) is less finicky, he took some of them and maybe it is just him or the foods, his orange and red spot with the cute red lips intensified even though in a bare tank. The thing is, when I got him, he was almost light yellow like a female and smaller than the other females. Now, he is bigger and much more colourful. No livefoods.

*sigh* How I wish these beautiful fishes will all be like guppies and the rest, readily take up all these good foods. Maybe it is with the breeding, conditioning thingies. I suppose when guppies were first introduced into the aquarium hobby "ancient" years ago, they must be something like killies but because they have been bred and fed with prepared foods while growing up, this sort of make them now all indiscriminating towards such foods and fortunately able to appreciate and obtain all the nutritions, anti-biotics and vitamins our worldwide good fish-lover scientists (okay, maybe money-lover) researched and prepared for them.

I did a little bit of research on-line and discovered that Bettas was very similar to killies when in comes to diet in their natural habitats but we have flake foods expecially made for Bettas but not killies. I experimented these foods with an unfortunate Betta and they are not eating too. Hmm, funny...the label on the flake foods says 'Betta's Buffet Omega'. Maybe the Betta I got had been instilled with the "BAD" habit of eating only livefoods from its breeder since young. Or maybe the 'Betta's Buffet Omega' flake foods is only meant for "well-groomed" Bettas.

May I know who in this forum use flake and frozen live foods as staple diet for their killies? And how do you train them? I am afraid of starving my fish for I had once tried starving a Betta and female orange australe and she literally starve herself to death! Not touching the flake or granulate even after days! Will like to hear from some of the more experienced and old-timer here.

Gary

(*Joke* Lives will be much easier for us all if killies eat like guppies)

[stormhawk]

Gary, yes life would be alot easier if killies feed like guppies but the thing is, they don't.

I had some australes that would gladly chow down on flakes. But they don't always feed on flake alone and sometimes that diet isn't good enough for them. You don't get the same efficacy as when live foods are involved.

To train them you need to keep them with fish that have acclimatised to feeding on flakes, for example tetras. Fish seem to "learn" from observing the other fish so this worked for me last time. However, not all individuals are the same and some will never adapt to flake foods.

[whuntley]

I agree with Jianyang that "dither" fish can help get them in the mood by creating a feeding frenzy. I like Het. formosa or Endler's Livebearers for that. Less likely to nip fin tips than some guppies.

In my experience, the key factor is taste. Most LFS products are just not very tasty to killies, but high-grade Brine Shrimp Flakes from places like www.brineshrimpdirect.com are eagerly taken once they get a first taste.

www.kensfish.com is another mail-order source of real quality foods, some that killies really like. I think Ken lives near and is a friend of Dr. Terceira, so knows quite a lot about feeding killies.

I have even used Hikari small pellets (Oranda Gold) in a hand pepper mill to feed quite small babies. They eagerly attacked the floating "dust" particles.

Try different brands and see what they like.

It is hard to get enough dry food into killies (without fouling the tank) to put them into real breeding condition, so I still feed mostly live foods, with a supplement of flake pretty much when I feel like it. Mosquito larvae and blackworms (Tubifex, where available) are much more certain to produce lots of eggs, I think.

For just keeping pretty fish, I think flake food can be OK. It can produce full color, too, and it can add the variety that assures trace elements are not missed.

Wright

[erikthur]

One week starvation might do the trick.
Better to buy Tim Addis stuff than LFS flakes.
http://www.killifish.f9.co.uk/Killif...ried_foods.htm
I suggest the granular stuff.
But have not you guys bought it?

[stormhawk]

Erik, not everyone bought the item during the last order.

[PohSan]

Hi all,

If someone want a try of the Tim Addis's food, I am glad to provide some sample size packs FOC (but pay me postal). PM me if you are interested.

Regards,
Ong Poh San

[Al Baldwin]

I have to agree with Brother Huntley that if you want eggs you need to feed worms. Whenever I need eggs from my Pachypanchax Playfairi that I keep for the KCC I use black worms and get loads of good eggs.

[keehoe]

Gary,

All product sold in LFS have one thing in common. They are labelled with words/ picture that the end consumer (the fish) don't understand. How does the fish knows what you had put in is meant for them to eat. The labelling and wording is to attract you to buy, not to attract the fish to eat. Imagine you are the fish and someone put some Un-identified Flooding Object (UFO) in your water, would you go a head and bite them?

How many of your fishes read the lable of the fish food container before eatting? Even guppy don't do that.Does fish knows what is Omega 3?

I have fishes that were trainned to eat Frozen cyclop-eeze but not touch Tim-Addis's and some would readily take Tim Addis's but not cyclop-eeze. They are of exact same species but kept separately due to their size difference. Of course they have different childhood experience as i offer a bit of the different prepare food during their day of birth.

I still prefer to feed all my smaller fish BBS as that is universally accepted by all my smaller fish. As my lampeyes takes forever to growup.