# Blood parrot stop eating his pellet food!



## OceanS (Jun 29, 2016)

Hi everyone 

I have a Blood Parrot Fish for almost 2 years now, he is the only fish in the tank as he is too aggressive and territorial to have a mate. During a recent event (more than 2 weeks ago) when the heater in the tank broke down, the water temperature drops (winter here), he stopped eating. I bought a new heater as soon as I found out the other one broke, but his appetite for his usual pellet food didn't come back. It's been more than 2 weeks, and he will only occasionally eat 1 or 2 pellets amongst all the pellets I dropped in the tank. But he really loves the Spirulina flakes and bloodworms. So I guess he became picky once he got a taste of the more yummy stuff and now prefers them over the pellets. I want him to get back to eating his Hikari pellets as the flake and bloodworms along won't contain enough nutrients.

I've been feeding him Hikari Cichlid Bio Gold+ medium size pellets since I got him and never had an issue. I recently bought Hikari Blood Red Parrot+ pellets in mini size to see if he likes them instead. The first time I dropped in there he seems quite interested, but then after the first 2-3 pellets he decides to stop eating that aswell. He still gets really excited when I go and reach out the cupboard for his food, but then once he realize it's not the spirulina flakes or bloodworms, he just swims away. For the past week I was feeding him the flakes or bloodworms as he wasn't eating the pellets and I don't want him to get sick or starve, but then I realize this will make him dislike the pellets more. So I decide to just put the pellets in the tank everyday, if he doesn't eat it in 5 minutes I'll take them out and try again the next day. So far it's been 3 days and he only ate I think 1 mini Hikari pellets. This is a fight that I'm slowly losing, so any idea and suggestion will be appreciated! :fish:

Edit: all water parameters are good, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, nitrate ~20-30ppm, ph7


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## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

I like the 'New Life Spectrum' pellets with garlic. They like the garlic version. :thumb:


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## OceanS (Jun 29, 2016)

Does the New Life Spectrum have color enhancing property? Do you think I can just soak his usual pellet in Garlic Guard instead? I'm a bit worried he might like it too much that when I stop adding garlic he will stop eating again. Can Garlic Guard be use for a long period of time?


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## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

NLS contains mostly krill and this is a natural color enhancer. The garlic version is for regular use. The garlic promotes appetite and helps prevent infections. It's a complete food and many people use only NLS pellets for their fish.


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## OceanS (Jun 29, 2016)

Will the NLS Freshwater Flakes With Garlic be ok for blood parrot Cichlid? As he seem to like flakes better than pellets now for some reason.

http://marinefishdirect.com.au/new-life-spectrum-freshwater-flakes-with-garlic-90g.html


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## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

It could foul the tank if you give it the amount of food that a Blood Parrot eats, because so much of flakes goes to waste. 
Do the pellets you have float or sink? NLS pellets sink, but i feed some by hand with my fingers. When i switched from sinking pellets to floating my Severums got confused for a while where to look, and again when i switched back to sinking.
One of my Severums would only eat from my fingers and reject the ones on the bottom until it was sure i was not coming back to hand feed him more. :lol: 
They can't resist NLS with garlic unless they are sick.


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