# Is this normal? I'm worried!



## jsmeesterr (Nov 28, 2011)

I have some platties, a couple guppies and a male and female Bolivian ram in my 25 gal high tank.
I don't think they are quite a mated pair yet.

I've had the female for like 1 week and the male for 2 or 3.

I'm really worried about my female Bolivian ram!
When I feed the tank in the noting and when I go to bed, she doesn't eat! It's weird. From what I see she doesn't swallow a flake. Yet everyother fish and the male goes crazy for it! This food is what I feed all my fish! Guppies to cichlids!
And she just swims towards me when I sit by the tank to watch them feed and she doesn't eat anything, she might eat a flake but spit it out.

So I think the problem is she speak like my food. But I got them male from the same place and tank so I don't get it. She still is a nice body weight but I don't c her eat.

Could it be that she's scared of the male?


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

I find that a lot of cichlids are reluctant to eat prepared foods at first; try feeding frozen foods, or just starve her for a few days and try again. If that still doesn't work, you could try soaking the food in garlic extract first before feeding. A few days without food won't hurt your fish, so don't worry about it too much. As long as she's a healthy weight, there's no need for concern, so I would'nt stress over it too much.


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## jkozolan (Jul 27, 2011)

Great advice, I had the same issue with my rams, I never saw them eat and it bothered me. I started giving them bloodworms as a treat and they went wild and now eat everything I put in the tank.


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

They can't refuse frozen mysis shrimp. If they do there's something wrong with the fish. Bolivians do go off food a little bit here and there but not for long. They can also become picky eaters and some individuals just 'don't like that flake' or pellet. They seem to like New Life Spectrum's flavor. The cichlid formula. SA's generally compared to, say, most african rift lake cichlids, tend to be quite picky eaters. If you had, say, a tank of orange metriaclima (africa, lake malawi) they'd be 100% guaranteed to eat anything that said fish food on it any time every time. Danios more so.

Both types of Ram and angels I find especially the adults they can get picky. Odds are the fish just doesn't like what it is being offered. It happens.


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## jsmeesterr (Nov 28, 2011)

Luckily I have some mysis shrimp left of in my freezer from when I had salt water! I'll try and give them some, if they'll venture to the top to get it!


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## jkozolan (Jul 27, 2011)

The only time my rams go to the surface is for bloodworms, they compete with the angels for them. Have tug of wars with them.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

I train all my dwarfs to accept floating foods  I don't usually feed them floating foods, but it's still fun to watch them scramble up to the surface and beg for food


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## zanardi (Nov 26, 2011)

I just added 4 German Blues to my tank about two weeks ago. Three will readily take flakes off the top with the other fish. One simply will not do it. Has never done it once. For that fish (still haven't determined for sure if it is a male or female) I bought a decent quality sinking pellet which it loves. It just is not comfortable eating from the surface. I'm hoping it will be with time. Just the past few days it is showing at least some interest at feeding time. By the way the fish will readily take any flakes that sink so it recognizes flakes as food. It's the surface feeding that bothers it.

I might be wrong - but I thought I read where Rams in general tend to be prefer picking food off the bottom by nature?


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## jsmeesterr (Nov 28, 2011)

Woah how did you train them to come to the come?

And congrats on the new rams! That is weird that only one won't go to the top!


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## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

Only time my BRs come from the bottom of the tank is to eat... lol

They know it is time to eat cause I show them the bag of crushed up flake. lol

Also, a great way of "training" them is to get a shot glass, dip it in the tank a bit, put the food in it, let is soak for a min... then swirl it around a bit, and dump it into the tank, that way it all floats to the bottom, and since most Rams are bottom sifters, it is a win win, because ALL fish will go to the bottom if food is there!


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## zanardi (Nov 26, 2011)

The three I didn't train at all - they did it from day one. My guess is they may have been getting flake from the time they were tank raised and at the LFS. Why the one from the same "batch" will not is hard to say.

Wetting the flakes in a shot glass first sounds like a great idea.


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## jsmeesterr (Nov 28, 2011)

Oh I guess there naturals!
Hopefuly mine starts eating soon!


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

jsmeesterr said:


> Woah how did you train them to come to the come?
> 
> And congrats on the new rams! That is weird that only one won't go to the top!


I'd usually start by feeding them bloodworms/brine shrimp, which would sink down to the bottom. After a while (few weeks), once they've recognized me as a food source, I would float the frozens on the surface, and after a while they catch on and dart up to the surface for the food. Eventually, they'll come to the surface whenever I go to feed, and that's when I start feeding flakes/floating pellets. After they learn to accept floating foods though, i switch back to sinking pellets (i use NLS).

IMO, the most important thing is getting them to associate you with food. After that, getting them to eat prepared foods/come to the surface to feed is not very difficult. Starving them for a few days tends to speed up the process.


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## jsmeesterr (Nov 28, 2011)

Thanks


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## tabby003 (Dec 29, 2011)

I've found that my young german rams like the small sinking cichlid pellets.

At first they wouldnt eat them because the breeder I got them from fed them live brine shrimp and I dont have the setup for that. I tried flakes and they won't touch them. So I always drop a few pellets in there when I do my regular flake food.


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## jsmeesterr (Nov 28, 2011)

I'm going to petco today, so I will pick up a different kind of food for them because she must b starving!


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