# leopard bushfish Ctenopoma acutirostre trouble getting to ea



## bumpy23 (Oct 27, 2009)

i purchased this fish yesterday and it doesnt eat, it spits out the dried krill i sunk near him . What gives?, it seems to be using its instincts with tail in the air waiting for fish to pass by to eat but only moves around with the lights out .

any tips on getting him to eat, hes housed with like 8 colombian tetras who i hope wont get eating one day


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

This is a kind of climbing perch, not really a cichlid, though some behaviors and attitude might be comparable. Several people in the Pittburgh area have raised and spawned them using this club article here as a guideline.

http://articles.gpasi.org/ctenopoma_acutirostre.html

The bushfish has a bigger mouth than it looks, so your tetras will be eaten sooner than you think. The ones in the article ate angelfish.


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## bumpy23 (Oct 27, 2009)

the article stated culled angel fish so I am assuming angel babys, and the article also stated fish up to 1 inch long , my colombians get 2 1/2 inches long and have a shape that make them hard to swallow but we will see. I was told the climbing perch was a slow grower so that will give my fish time to grow . if not i will trade them in and purchase congo tetras


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## bumpy23 (Oct 27, 2009)

btw the board said west african species, i didnt know this forum was strictly for cichlids . hate to use two fish board just to get info about my fish


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

bumpy23 said:


> btw the board said west african species, i didnt know this forum was strictly for cichlids . hate to use two fish board just to get info about my fish


 Good point. It doesn't say West African cichlids does it, and some cichlid keepers may have an interest in geographically correct tankmates for their cichlids.


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

I've had one for nearly 2 years now. My guy is about 4" or 4.5" long, and he eats everything in site. However, when he was new, he took a few days before he began eating...and he was really shy initially, too.

Now, he's always begging - much like an anabantoid oscar. I have two cherry barbs in with him (along with some variatus platys, 3 Thysochromis ansorgii, and a clown pleco). The cherry barbs are about 1.5" long (I've had them for about 7 years now...I keep expecting them to either pass on or be eaten, but the bushfish shows no interest even though he could easily fit them in his huge mouth).

Bloodworms or ghost shrimp can stimulate appetite if need be, but I think time will solve your problems.

Eric


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## bumpy23 (Oct 27, 2009)

ok cool well i did order some dried tubifex worms, and i live two blocks from the gulf of mexico so i can get ghost shrimp but i dont wanna start live yet, i seen him going after the flakes but its on his own terms. They like to stalk their food i notice and when you are not watching.

I also got snails in my tank from some plants years ago i put 3 cups of ammonia in my tank once to kill them snails and i drained the tank the next day . do you know them snails came back after a month or so . I notice him picking at stuff when i watch him by the drift wood etc. I assume he likes small snails?


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

I only have malaysian trumpet snails, and he doesn't touch those (eve my figure 8 and dwarf puffers lefts those alone...unless I crushed them with plier for them). However, I wouldn't be surprised if he eats pond type snails.

Your guy sounds like mine. For nearly a month he seemed to eat very little, hiding and stalking food that floated down, etc. You might try sinking bottom feeder pellets (I break them up and he and the cichlids get them before they hit bottom) or those small dried shimp pellets (he loves those, too).

With time, your guy will likely be like mine...waiting nose up for the flakes (eating just a few of those - he's not as quick as the other fish) and then he vacuums up the bottom feeder pellets or shrimp pellets. I think the fact these foods sink down in front of him and he has to strike at them makes them very attractive to him.

I'm not quite sure when my guy went from shy, to semi-shy, to a food mooch and non-shy fish - the whole process may have taken 6 months or so, but he's like a pet now. He still hides at times during the day - wedges himself in plants at times, but usually comes out when he sees me. Despite his size, he's very good at hiding - there were times when I had my wife and son looking for him and I only have a 33 gallon 36" long tank!

Eric


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## jeaninel (Nov 1, 2009)

I love my Ctenopoma. He's probably my favorite fish I own. Does kind of remind me of an Oscar with his personality. Mine eats everything also, albeit with great deliberation. I have mine with Congo Tetra and Pearl gouramis. He loves the sinking shrimp pellets and cichlid pellets. He also eats flake and frozen foods. I also occasionally give him some live ghost shrimp or guppy fry (home bred) which he enjoys stalking. Like Jayhawk stated, mine was extremely shy when alone in the QT tank. But once I added him to the main tank with the other fish he became very outgoing. Give yours some time and he'll learn to eat the different types of food.


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## bumpy23 (Oct 27, 2009)

my fish is alot more active, i turned on my light timer so it comes on for 5 hours in the evening and i see him wandering more in the open and he is going after the flakes and even the pellets but spits most of the pellets out and large flakes but hes eating .

Only problem now is the snails popping up all over the glass now, wow they multiply fast .

I need a snail eating fish, i got a 100 gallon with this fish , 8 colombian tetras , and 7 juli and albino corydoras so i was thinking 2 keyhole cichlids or something that eat snails,

any suggestions???


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

Botia loaches...nothing eats snails like botias. Angelicas, skunk loaches, yo-yo loaches...all of the Botia types of loaches love snails. You've got a big tank, so you have the space to add 4 or 5 loaches which is good...they're social. Give them several caves or driftwood areas to hide in, and you'll be good.

Do research the species. For example, clown loaches grow to over 1" long and do best in groups...so 100 gallons isn't truly big enough for them.

Eric


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## bumpy23 (Oct 27, 2009)

I heard these loaches can be aggressive chasing fish all around the tank stressing them out so i need snail eaters that wont disrupt the peace i have in my tank at this moment,

???/

I heard some of these loaches are known to eat the eyes out of corydoras or their spines poke out their eyes, either way i prefer to go another route


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

Check out post on www.loaches.com . I've kept 3 skunk loaches in a 20 long with a paradisefish and white clouds with no problems at all. The key with botia loaches is numbers...and some species, such as Botia kubotai (angelicus loaches that you can find at petsmart) are just flat out peaceful.

Another loach option (although not quite as good as botia loaches who live for snails), guaranteed to be peaceful, is the good old weather loach. They do grow to about 8 or 9", but they're peaceful, friendly, and so cool looking. I've never heard of a mean weather loach, ever.

Eric


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

They most certainly were only eating angel fry, nothing bigger then .5" there mouths are not that big.

I have 4, 2 of which are 4 years old now, they other 2 bought within the last year at the same size, about 5", in a 150g with some others.

Mine eat anything, whether it be frozen food, pellets, or even flakes, but it took some serious time before they even acknowledged it was food.

try weaning them onto bloodworms or shrimp first, then try to get them onto pellets, do not go directly to pellets, likely he won't take them as most if not all are wild caughts.


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