# Female Green Terror not eating



## Tejay (Jan 22, 2013)

Hi All

Just searching for some suggestions to this problem.
1. Purchased a male and female GT some time ago - neither would eat pellets at the start.
2. Introduced some other fish that did eat the pellets and the male GT caught on and now guzzles them. The female will not touch them.

At times I have let the female go without food for 3 or 4 weeks until putting some feeder fish in the tank. She will eat feeder fish.

I have also tried soaking the food in a garlic mixture before feeding to encourage her to eat - no luck.

What do you do? Play brinkmanship with her until she eats or just give up and keep buying feeder fish?

Thanks


----------



## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

IMO, it's always risky to use feeder fish, since you can easily introduce disease to a tank.

Have you tried anything other than the pellets fish food wise?


----------



## Tejay (Jan 22, 2013)

Yep, I have already had to treat the tank for ich which might have come from feeder fish.

I have tried some pellets that sink instead of float (to drop the food right in her face). She will grab one occasionally, chew it for a bit and then spit it out.

Same goes for different frozen foods.

In fact the only thing I have seen her convincingly eat over the last two months or so (aside from feeder fish) is some earth worms I put in there shortly after I added her to the thank. Either the other fish eat the worms to quick now or she is just not interested anymore.

Any other ideas? I didn't want to go buy a heap of different pellets if the fish is just retarded.


----------



## Tejay (Jan 22, 2013)

I don't know what the deal is.

She has a little hiding hole in a ornament we put in the tank and she has been hiding in that quite a bit lately.

This morning I heavily dosed some of these sinking pellets in garlic mixture and dropped them into the ornament so no other fish noticed it... after about 15 minutes she finally decided to eat it (imagine trying to feed her when all other fish will snap up the food in 10 seconds),

then, in addition I added some live earth worms to the tank which she eagerly gobbled up - first time in months she has done that.

It looks like she is getting ready to breed again, so maybe she only eats prior to breeding??


----------



## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I've never heard of that happening regarding breeding, but it is possible that the male knew she was getting ready and was harrassing her to the point she was hiding out and sulking.

Glad she is eating now! I would still keep a close eye on her.


----------



## Tejay (Jan 22, 2013)

So she will viciously eat earth worms (and feeder fish if I put them in the tank) but nothing else.
In addition the other fish (including the green terror male) are quite quick to snatch up pellets so she doesn't have all day to look at them.
What are you meant to do in this situation??


----------



## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

i would drop food on side of tank opposite of where female is for other fish. while they are busy with that i would throw a little on side with female, because she will be alone iver there to eat it. i had same prob and this is how i fixed it


----------



## Tejay (Jan 22, 2013)

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately the strategy doesn't really work with my tank as I have venustus fish in the tank and they are to zippy and quick to eat - the female doesn't stand a chance unless she barges in like her male counterpart.
In saying that, when feeding her earth worms (which she will go for straight away) I have been throwing other bits of food in as well - I notice now when I feed the fish normally she will come out and try and challenge the other fish (probably looking for earth worms).
This an improvement at least...


----------



## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

yeah thats a step in right direction, just be careful with earthworm. if u are digging them up and throwing them in u could run risk of introducing parasites


----------



## Tejay (Jan 22, 2013)

Well as a resolution to this thread, I now have my female Green Terror eating pellets.

For about 2 months now, I have been hand feeding her about 5 worms a day.
However when feeding her the worms I made sure there were pellets around the worm, so when she 'inhaled' the worm she would have to eat a pellet as well.

Most times she would just eat the worm and spit the pellet out.

It seems she has now come to associate the pellets with worms.
She will be the last to eat in the tank, but will regrettably eat a few when the others are done.

So maybe a strategy other people might want to try as well if they have the problem.


----------

