It would take him a couple times before he consumes the pellets. Each time he chew and spit, he would eat part of the pellet. Anyone seen their flowerhorn eating like that? This habit is polluting my water with small fragments of the pellets.

Thanks,
Khoa

How big is your fish? What size are the pellets? What brand? Soften the pellets by soaking them in water for 2-3 minutes then drop them in the tank. See if that will help.

By the way, how long have you been having this fish? How long have you been feeding him this pellet?

This post has been edited by naminator: Apr 23 2008, 11:30 AM

This to me is an indicator of a underlying problem. Either disease, parasite, or something even as simple as stress. Have you noticed any other symptoms such as loss of color, stress bars, laying at the bottom of the tank, white poop, etc? Does he do this with all foods or just pellets?

It happened to me once. They're spitting their food then after a week, they totally stopped eating. Did some water change, and didn't feed them for 2 days. After that, they're fine. Maybe it's something about the water.

I have been feeding pellets for 1 week ( I only have the fish for 1 week). The seller has been feeding his fish with pellets.

I am feeding him ChingMix SP80 and another brand with the same pellet size.

The first 10 pellets he would swallow them whole, possibly because he is hungry. After that he could consume up to 40 pellets but he seems to be spitting out more as he eats more.

There are partial white poops. Most of the poops are solid brown/black.

As for fish behavior, he is very active. I spent of the day swimming around the tank.

I will try to soak the pellets before feeding to see if it helps.

Thanks,
Khoa

IMO it's because he is full... 40 pellets at one time is too much for a fish IMO.

try feeding him more times a day but with less portions.

Probably just having trouble digesting all of those pellets. I would starve him for 3-4 days and raise the temp to 86. I would recommend adding some live food to your fishes diet to aid with digestion.

I am hearing mix opinions regarding adding livefood/worms. I tried feeding my fish with frozen tubiflex and he loves it. One of my hypotheses is the chewing/spitting problem might be due to fact i fed him worms before.

Eating 40 pellets is really over the course of 1-2hrs. Usually the first batch of pellets is about 10-20. Then slowly i fed him in group of 5 once in a while as snacks. The chewing and spitting problem could be seen during the first 10-20 pellets itself so it not because I over fed him.

Khoa

Its more healthy for your fish if you feed him in meals, much the same you would a person. If you feed him consistantly over long periods he will always be digesting without break. This takes up a lot of their energy and can cause stress, and eventually lead to diseases like bloat. Don't feel like I am coming down on you bro because I have done the exact same thing, just trying to save you the heartache of losing a fish like I have. It's so hard not to feed that little guy swimming up and down whenever you walk into the room, but in the end its better for him.

Personally and I think most members here prefer blood worms over tubifex worms. If you get the hikari bloodworms and others that state 'parasite free' on the label you should be fine. Think about it in terms of yourself. If you ate processed foods like powerbars all day everyday you would get stomach problems as well. Even though they have vitamins and other nutrients. But you also need some veggies and natural foods so you can digest more normally. Balance is the key to both

This post has been edited by Pantherlax: Apr 23 2008, 04:21 PM

Bloodworm as dessert is really to help your fish digest the food (pellets) easier and faster.

Another factor of your problem, in my opinion, is also that your fish is still new in the tank, and he's new to ChingMix. From my personal observation of my new arrivals, chewing/spitting seems to be normal on the first few days. Until they're used to the environment and the pellets, they'll stop doing that. So, don't feed your new fish too much in the first few weeks.

Ok i will give that a try. Thanks.

Khoa

I stop feeding worms, and the bad habit is reducing.

I keep him in a 20 gals tank. He is happy and eats endlessly. He produces so much waste that the nitrate lvl is going over the roof. I have to change the water 2x a week @75% just to keep him not turning dark (advised by a great hobbyist at "408 Flowerhorn"). Its a bit painful, but I am enjoying the reward. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to upgrade the tank.

After 4 days of feeding ChingMix SP80

Nice fish you got there brother. lots of potential. Pump him up, look like you take a very good care of your baby, it will reward you bro. I notice the sp80 is little harder than other pellets... cheers

Update of the fish. I will upload more pix. Need to wait for flash to charge.

Nice fish man, I have one just like that except is BIGGER, hehe.
Although Im not really sure what type he is, KML or ZZ. From a couple of Ca Kien Magazine in VN, I always though mine was a KCPLT though.
KCPLT = Kim cuong phuoc loc tho, a mixed bred from VN.

Anyways, back to ur questions I think ur flowerhorn spit alot is b/c u keep switching between his food, example morning pelet afternoon worm and nite time you feed him pellet again, he gonna spit it out cause chances are he like worm better than pellets. As compare to live fish and blood worm as well. Mine did that and so I just feed him pellets only, it cheaper and less hazle that way. You can do 1 a week treat for him, that would nbe ok.
Dont over feed him, easy to get him sick; white excrement and red excrements when feeding him food with TOO much protein. side effect is that he could get constipated and he instestine will be exposed ( bi tri ddo) and /or he could get bored and spit out food cause he's not hungry.
Im new to the flowerhorn game too for bout 9 months since I got muh 1st, now I have 24 flowerhorn in muh house, 2 big and the rest are babies.

Oh, one more thing, Chingmix are good, I know lots of pro uses it and it give good results, but I like XO humpy head, XO redsync and XO Forever red better, they're hard to find b/c they're oversea but trust me once u uses them they are way better than chingmix. Faster growth rate and bigger KOK.

Pics of muh 2 big FH...

ok i guess

why you allways have to be a rude smartass dude??