# Finicky Apistogramma panduros



## Kalin (Mar 23, 2007)

I'm having considerable difficulty getting my female and especially my male panduro to eat a varied diet. All they will accept is frozen brineshrimp, live daphnia, and I occasionally give them frozen bloodworms. If I put flake or pellet food in, they'll come check it out, then turn away disinterested. They used to like frozen mysis shrimp but they refuse that now. This behavior started fairly gradually about a month ago. The male became finicky first and then the female soon followed suit. I have numerous cans of flake and pellet food that I have tried, without success. I thought NLS's Finicky Fish Formula would work, but they just spit it out. I'm concerned that their diet will compromise their health.

Tank Parameters:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 13 ppm
pH: 6.10
GH: 53 ppm
KH: 60 ppm
Temp: 77F

Tankmates: 1 clown pleco, 1 zebra danio, 2 honey gouramis, 3 Espe's rasboras, 5 emperor tetras, 4 otocinclus, 15 Amano shrimp

55g planted tank supplemented with CO2. Has been set up for 9 years, although I changed the substrate a little over a month ago.

Male panduro is 1.5 years old, female panduro is 7 months old. They both look very good, good coloration, no indication of ill health.

Any suggestions/comments would be very appreciated.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Well, it sounds like you have some spoiled babies! :wink:

I've had fish do this before.

As far as getting them to eat the flake and other foods you are offering, the only way I know to do it is to NOT offer them anything else. Sometimes fish are more stubborn than I am, though. :roll:

If you want to supplement some veggie matter to their diet, you could pick up some frozen Emerald Entree - it's used mostly for salt water, but most finicky eaters will eat it. Of course, that's just another frozen food to add to the menu, and you're probably trying to get away from that.


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## Kalin (Mar 23, 2007)

I'll try the Emerald Entree. They don't have that at my lfs but maybe I can find it online. It would be great to have them eating something different and maybe I can use that to wean them off being so focused on one or two foods. I may have to go cold turkey and only offer them flake and pellet. Thanks!


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Keep in mind that they are omnivores, so it's okay for them to have a mix of veggie and meatier food, as well.

Just shave off a bit of one of the cubes of the Emerald Entree...Don't drop a whole one in there...It's pretty compact and unless you have alot of fish, they won't eat it all.

Let me know if they eat it!


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## Kalin (Mar 23, 2007)

I found a lfs that carries it. I'll try them on it tonight. It's in a multi-pak with 3 other varieties; I hope I can identify which one is the Emerald Entree. I'm assuming it's the darkest cube, since it has veggies in it.

I always cut the cubes in half with a single edge razor blade and save half.


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## Kalin (Mar 23, 2007)

Well, they did eat it! They didn't go after it like the brine shrimp, daphnia and bloodworms but that's ok at least it's new behavior. I CAN get them to eat other things. :wink:


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

It's a dark green, almost black looking...

Glad they ate it...Now you can at least balance their diet out a bit. :thumb:

I can't remember what the other two cubes in the multipack are. I used to feed all of those to my SW fish, then I started having some problems with a freshwater fish that was being picky. It worked for me, too.


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## Kalin (Mar 23, 2007)

Well, now my large male is not really eating anything. Just before this, he would take food in, mouth it a little, then spit it out. He comes out when I approach the tank, like he's hungry, but when I put food in, he looks at it briefly then swims away. The female panduro is still eating fine as are the other tank occupants.

It's unlikely that I'll be able to catch this fish to treat him separately in another tank as the tank is heavily planted. To treat him, I'll have to treat the whole tank. Is it likely he has internal parasites? His color looks good, his belly is not sunken and his behavior is otherwise normal. I have not been able to see his feces. I have Metronidazole (as well as Clout) on hand, should I treat?


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

It does sound like he _may_ have internal parasites. It's impossible to know for sure. I've had fish with bloat that looked perfectly normal up until the time they died, so the good colour and no weight changes doesn't really mean anything.

The problem is, this could also be a multitude of other things, since the only symptom we have right now is not eating.

I would try the metronidazole, and follow the treatment regimen in the link below.


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## Kalin (Mar 23, 2007)

I'll do that. Thanks much!


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