cuteusagi

Hi everyone!! I have a question about my male Bolivian Ram's diet habits that have developed lately. We've had him about 3 weeks or more now, and he's been an excellent fish!! After a week and a half or so, he would start coming to the top of the tank when the lid was opened so he could get food, and he would nibble on the flakes a bit and retreat back down to the gravel to pick at leftovers. It looked like he was eating, so I wasn't too concerned. I had purchased some small Hikari Cichlid staple pellets for him (and my angelfish) and neither of them really took to them, so I was fishing them out of the tank and quit putting them in.

With the Cichlid pellets, I noticed that the Ram finally decided he wanted to eat them, but they were a little too big for him after they absorbed the water, so I got a size smaller, and he seemed to either eat them or spit them out, along with the flakes. This is because he has discovered the algae wafers I put in the tank for the corys!!! Even though they are far too large for his mouth (I break them in half or quarters even for my corys, but they're still too big for him), he still tries very hard and won't eat anything else. He just tries to get it in his mouth and swim around with it until he's able to slowly break off enough to eat, or until I guess he's full.

My question is: should I be concerned? I'm a little worried that he keeps trying to eat them and they are far too large for his mouth (even the smallest size wafers broken in a quarter piece) and I don't want him to choke on it (do fish choke?). I'm also concerned that it's possibly not the best diet for him. He continually spits out flakes and the cichlid pellets, and when I fed the tank this morning, I've never seen him swim so fast just to get to that algae wafer. Is there anything I should do, or just let him be with his algae wafer??

Sorry this got a little long, I just wanted to include as much detail as possible!!! Thanks again for all your continued help!

neverendingninja

Feed the algae wafers at night, about 30 minutes to an hour after lights out, and everyone should be asleep except for the corys and other nocturnal fish(which rams aren't). Then, the corys can get to the wafers without the ram running off with it.

Chief_waterchanger

I agree. Feed them while he is asleep, and only give him what you want him to eat. Eventually he'll get hungry enough and eat it.

Yes, I believe fish can choke.

cuteusagi

Great idea!!! I've been giving this a try over the last several days, and my ram is still spitting out everything I put in there...I just don't know what to do!! The corys gobble up the algae wafers at night, and the ram sleeps pretty soundly, but I'm still worried that he's not eating. Any ideas as to what to do to get him to eat?

neverendingninja

He shouldn't starve himself to death. He's just being picky, and sometimes fish have to be "trained" to eat certain types of food. Really, its just consistently offering the same type of food until they decide to accept it. Eventually, he'll be hungry enough to keep that stuff down. If you're really worried about him, you could get him some frozen brine shrimp or frozen blood worms, but don't feed too many! It doesn't take a lot.

My fish just decided to eat the cichlid pellets, but I have to let them saturate in a cup until they are semi-buoyant, then add them too the tank and the fish will eat them from the middle of the water column, but not too much from the top.