My method for breaking them is simple. I cheat and have other fish do it.
I've found that ATF are very in tune to the actions of other fish that look like them. I take advantage of this to get them to eat. IME, tigers won't look to the surface for food if they're left to their own devices. Taking advantage of their awareness of their surroundings, I decided one day to add some tinfoil barbs with my old pack to see what happened. Within a week, the tigers were copying the barbs and eating Jumbo Carnisticks off of the surface.
Here's the complete write up:
So you want your new African tiger fish to eat pellets?
It's also VERY important to note, that as soon as I added the dithers this afternoon, the aggression that I mentioned earlier stopped like someone flipped a switch. IMO, other than breaking them, the key to getting them to play nice is to have so many similar fish that no one can get singled out.
Thanks man!
You guys might be happy to know that the BATF is already starting to put on weight. He ate 10 gut loaded rosy reds over the past 24 hours and seems to have filled out a tiny bit. Here's a pic from today:
I'd kill to have access to my Nikon right now. If I snapped that pic with my good camera, I would have captured sufficient detail to be able to definitively identify that fish with that picture. As it is, I'm pretty sure that I'm able to confirm it as brevis from that picture.
1- It appears to have three scale rows between the lateral line and the pelvic fin insertion. This would give a diagnosis of brevis if I could confirm it.
2- It appears as though the dorsal fin and the pelvic fins are roughly in line with one another, again consistent with BATF.
3- It has seven scale rows between the LL and the dorsal fin.
4- The scales cross the back at the eighth row, consistent with BATF. FATF crosses at the seventh.
5- The way the stripes are marked on the scales. Batf has the tips of the scales on the top three or four rows marked, FATF has the whole scale marked.
While three, four and five are my own original research, I feel confident in the diagnosis of this guy as brevis now. One and two are straight out of the published descriptions of these fish, and my original research as confirmed 3,4 and 5 to be consistent with fish that were diagnosed with the published data with 100% accuracy.
I'm still hesitant to say "100% brevis" until I can look into the tank and count the three scale rows, however. I can do this with the FATF very easily, so there's no doubt in my mind as to what it is.
Once I have all five, should I start a new thread or just keep it going in here?
