Nice. And have they started accepting non live foods? Mine used to take pellets for a while but then he stopped. I think the massivores are too small for his massive mouth now. Kind of like asking a big payara to eat a neon tetra lol.
My Chinese Perch
- Thread starter sunnysjourney
- Start date
No,still on live at this point.They do go after the frozen bloodworms that I drop in for the fire eel.
Well the big perch will try to eat all of them but I like to give both of them two to three each per day.Lately the smaller perch has stopped trying to compete for food so I may have to separate them.
Yeah I had two to start off as well. Both of them were doing great and eventually this guy started to bully the other one. And the submissive one started to hide a lot more. One day I noticed a big burn on his forehead and didn't think much of it. It was a heater burn, he died about 3 days after that.
Wes sent me 4 in Aug 2015 too, so I think our fish are all from the same batch. Siniperca shuatsi. Two were tiny ~1". They ran out of energy to even feed after the shipping. One fed (offered small guppies) but died shortly thereafter too, maybe it was too exhausted to digest a super meal he had had.
Only the fourth, biggest survived. Learned to associate food with me and since then follows me like a puppy. Got him onto live frogs (caught in my yard) first, then he started taking frozen baitfish in Sept 2015. Grew quickly from the initial ~1.5" to ~4". Then stopped eating well, would only eat every 4th or 5th offering and a loss smaller portion. In part I think my water has been too soft, so I have been hardening it but yet to see an effect on this guy.
He appears stuck at ~5". Quite an achievement OP's is nearing 1'!
Mine is a quite a bit less spectacular looking than yours, usually pretty drab:
Only the fourth, biggest survived. Learned to associate food with me and since then follows me like a puppy. Got him onto live frogs (caught in my yard) first, then he started taking frozen baitfish in Sept 2015. Grew quickly from the initial ~1.5" to ~4". Then stopped eating well, would only eat every 4th or 5th offering and a loss smaller portion. In part I think my water has been too soft, so I have been hardening it but yet to see an effect on this guy.
He appears stuck at ~5". Quite an achievement OP's is nearing 1'!
Mine is a quite a bit less spectacular looking than yours, usually pretty drab:
Thank you. And I can't take all the credit for getting this guy this big this fast. For starters, I got this guy when he was around 3" (September 15th, to be exact). And he wasnt in bad shape either. He was a little skinny but quickly started putting on weight. And I did the same thing as you with regards to getting him eat non live food. I started off with one feeder at a time till he associated me with food. And then started putting half dead feeders -> dead ones -> krill / shrimp.
And I think he grew fast because he was in an 80 degree water all the time. And as soon as he started eating shrimp I fed him twice a day until he looked like a balloon lol. And as you probably already know, they never refuse food. Never. At least until his head / swim bladder injury a few months ago. Now he just eats one 4-5" long , .75" thick tilapia piece every few days. And doesn't eat anymore even if the food is right in front of him.
I thought his reduced appetite was due to his previous injury. But after you mentioned yours has a reduced appetite as well I'm wondering whether it's actually something related to their age..?
Also, I just measured him more accurately and he is exactly 10.2" From nose tip to tail tip. Probably just an inch longer than yours if I don't count the tail length.
A general question: do you guys count the tail length as well when determining how big your fish is? Or just the nose tip to the start of the tail?
I could be wrong but I measure my fish from the tip of the snout to the edge of the tail.That to me is the total length of the fish.
