peacock bass hasn't eaten yet (10 days)

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Swifterz

Exodon
MFK Member
Aug 20, 2010
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Lexington, KY
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i got an ocellaris peacock bass that is about 7" 10 days ago. tank mates are a tiger oscar, a spotted gar and a silver arowana. from the first moment it was added it was never the least bit skittish or shy. very active, always out. never once have i seen it hide. it just isn't interested in any foods at all... live meal worms, freeze-dried shrimp, pellets, i even got desperate threw feeder goldfish in there and they were completely ignored. every other fish devours all offered food. with it being 10 days now and i don't know at what point i should start to get worried??
 
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Swifterz said:
fnVpjl5.jpg


i got an ocellaris peacock bass that is about 7" 10 days ago. tank mates are a tiger oscar, a spotted gar and a silver arowana. from the first moment it was added it was never the least bit skittish or shy. very active, always out. never once have i seen it hide. it just isn't interested in any foods at all... live meal worms, freeze-dried shrimp, pellets, i even got desperate threw feeder goldfish in there and they were completely ignored. every other fish devours all offered food. with it being 10 days now and i don't know at what point i should start to get worried??
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isde02 isde02
 
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I bought 2 kelberi bass from Pet Zone in San Diego back in November. They didn't eat for a week and I reached out to Pet Zone and they seemed concerned.
So I think you should be concerned.
Where did you get this fish and what do they say about this?
Have you tried blood worms?
Have you tried freeze dried krill?
Have you tried tilapia?
For my problem I described above I got them eating blood worms. I also think it helped that I had more than one bass. They do tend to follow the leader.
 
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1 month. I had a pike at 6" total length that did not eat for 1 month. It didn't have a sunken belly.

Throw food into the tank and walk away. You can set up a video to see if it eats while you are in the room. Turning off the light above the tank can help, just need ambient room light.
 
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At 7inches I wouldn't be extremely concerned yet, sometimes peacock bass take a while to settle in. I once moved some growouts from a 75g to a 125g across the room and they stopped eating for a couple of weeks. I was worried and posted a thread on it but they eventually started eating.

Have you noticed tankmates being aggressive or any weird behavior? If not just give him time he'll come around.
 
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Mine ate nothing but brine shrimp for the first 3 months of me having them. I tried everything, including garlic gaurd from sea chem. Bloodworms- not even a mouth
Earth worms- hardly cared
Frozen shrimp-4 different types- chewed for a second then spit out
Pellets would hit the bottom
Live fish would get gobbled but I didn’t want to go that rout for many reasons.
In this time I would not feed them for sometimes a week at a time to get them hungry, turned up the temp to get their metabolism going and nothing. Then I tried the method mentioned in the sticky by gangster but with brine shrimp instead of blood worms and it worked. They hit the brine shrimp mixed with crushed pellets.

I had a plethora of different types of pellets that I had tried. The one that broke them was the carnivore pellets by hikari- they simulate a fish flesh type feeling in the fish’s mouth so they just go nuts for them. I’d say keep trying new things until something sticks. They are all very different from each other. And they change their ways over time. I picked mine up in June or July and up until about last week they wouldn't eat anything off the ground of the tank. Now after 6 months of target feeding them they will finally eat off the ground.

HTH
 
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LBDave said:
I bought 2 kelberi bass from Pet Zone in San Diego back in November. They didn't eat for a week and I reached out to Pet Zone and they seemed concerned.
So I think you should be concerned.
Where did you get this fish and what do they say about this?
Have you tried blood worms?
Have you tried freeze dried krill?
Have you tried tilapia?
For my problem I described above I got them eating blood worms. I also think it helped that I had more than one bass. They do tend to follow the leader.
Click to expand...

Got it from a LFS but picked it up from the bag it came in from a shipment. Never went in their tank. Impossible to know what it was eating before. I tried to get bloodworms but another LFS said they were out of most live foods because of the cold temperatures. I’ll check again. As stated I just tried freeze-dried shrimp and the other fish absolutely loved it. I’ll try to find some freeze-dried krill as well. Thanks for your reply.
 
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Swifterz said:
Got it from a LFS but picked it up from the bag it came in from a shipment. Never went in their tank. Impossible to know what it was eating before. I tried to get bloodworms but another LFS said they were out of most live foods because of the cold temperatures. I’ll check again. As stated I just tried freeze-dried shrimp and the other fish absolutely loved it. I’ll try to find some freeze-dried krill as well. Thanks for your reply.
Click to expand...
I had some some small orinos and they were indifferent to brine shrimp. They didn't eat for a few days but start eating frozen blood worms (after place I bought them from in Florida suggested it).
After that they would eat some crushed up freeze dried worms.
4" Kelber's I got back in November were "pellet eating". BS. I finally got them eating frozen blood worms. I fed them freeze dried krill and they spit it out. After a day or 2 they started striking. You can target feed with the krill (while you distract the oscar(s).
Freeze dried krill smells like a fish market. Mine go crazy for it. I think I almost have them on the sticks now. Let'em sweat it. Sticks or nothin.
Don't be surprised if you have to get them on pellets or sticks a little later.
 
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@UaruJoey had peacock bass in an indoor pond. They didn’t eat for weeks. Are your bass wild caught or captive bread?
 
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