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Pellet Training Sunfish - Spit Out Pellets

Started by Guest_bjbass_* , Jul 25 2010 08:20 AM

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11 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_bjbass_*

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Posted 25 July 2010 - 08:20 AM

So I have been trying to pellet train my pumpkinseed and my bluegill. I have been "starving" them and feeding them night crawlers during this time period. They are too the point now where they associate me with food. I will drop in Hikari Massivore Delight and Cichlid Gold sinking pellets. They will take them and then spit the out immediately.

Is this because they are hard and they think it isn't food? How do I get around this? Could I try dried crickets or something? Gel foods?

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#2 Guest_donkeyman876_*

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Posted 25 July 2010 - 03:48 PM

If you search "Pellet Training" you will find many topics. Basically you can either soak the pellets to soften them up before putting them in the tank, mix them with other live foods (Putting it inside of a worm) or just keep trying what you are doing and they will eventually have no choice but to eat it. (That's what \I had to do with my pumpkinseed) I would not recommend switching foods because pellets are quite healthy and most live foods would have to be gut-loaded and dirty the tank quite quickly. Best of luck with the training.

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#3 Guest_dsaavedra_*

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 01:32 PM

simple. give them no other options.

also, i'd use floating pellets not sinking pellets.

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#4 Guest_bjbass_*

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 05:01 PM

simple. give them no other options.

also, i'd use floating pellets not sinking pellets.

I guess I will go ahead and do that. The problem with floating pellets are that they don't come up for them and they get stuck to my two overflows. I guess I could turn my pumps off during feeding? Is there a trick to get them to come up for the pellets?

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#5 Guest_donkeyman876_*

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 06:12 PM

How bug is the tank? My pumpkinseed surfaces to say hi to the first sight of me. Don't worry they'll start eating them eventually.

Ben

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#6 Guest_bjbass_*

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 06:54 PM

How bug is the tank? My pumpkinseed surfaces to say hi to the first sight of me. Don't worry they'll start eating them eventually.

Ben

The tank is a 210. Today my bluegill started eating some trout worms out of my hand and I fed him some cichlid sticks. He kept spitting them out and the Cichlid bio gold that I fed him, but I think he is on his way. The pumpkinseed still doesn't want to come up for me.

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#7 Guest_dsaavedra_*

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Posted 26 July 2010 - 11:53 PM

they'll associate you with food and come right to the top whenever you go near the tank.

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#8 Guest_bjbass_*

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Posted 31 July 2010 - 08:30 AM

Thanks for the replies!

I finally got my bluegill to eat two cichlid sticks today as he spit out cichlid bio gold floating pellets over and over again. He took a massivore delight again and spit it out, then went back to it, spit it out, then gave up. A few minutes later he came over to it on the bottom and went for it and turned away at the last second. The pumpkinseed takes the cichlid sticks, breaks them into two or three pieces in her mouth, and then spits it out. Did this twice.

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#9 Guest_4WheelVFR_*

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Posted 01 August 2010 - 11:01 PM

You may also want to try New Life Spectrum pellets. I won't say that they are "better" than any other pellet, but I have had great luck getting natives to take these pellets. Smallmouth and Largemouth bass, longears, and shadow bass have all started taking these pellets without a problem. Took one of the smallies a couple weeks to really go after them though.

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#10 Guest_bjbass_*

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Posted 05 August 2010 - 11:27 AM

I still can't get my pumpkinseed to eat. She is smaller than the bluegill and the bluegill chases her around the tank. The bluegill will sit and sip pellets all day in the middle of the tank as I drop them in. The pumpkinseed stays down further in the water and watches him eat. She will occasionally move to the back, so I will continue to feed the bluegill so he doesn't go in the back of the tank and drop some small pellets right in front of the pumpkinseed. The pumpkinseed is right below the surface. Nothing! I got the pseed to take a cichlid stick once or twice, but she chomps them and spits them out.

Edited by bjbass, 05 August 2010 - 11:28 AM.

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#11 Guest_bjbass_*

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Posted 08 August 2010 - 07:37 PM

I still can't get my pumpkinseed to eat. She is smaller than the bluegill and the bluegill chases her around the tank. The bluegill will sit and sip pellets all day in the middle of the tank as I drop them in. The pumpkinseed stays down further in the water and watches him eat. She will occasionally move to the back, so I will continue to feed the bluegill so he doesn't go in the back of the tank and drop some small pellets right in front of the pumpkinseed. The pumpkinseed is right below the surface. Nothing! I got the pseed to take a cichlid stick once or twice, but she chomps them and spits them out.

I got my pumpkinseed to eat small salad shrimp that I feed her. I was able to finally get her to take pellets when they are sinking pellets, but she spits them out. She hasn't gone for any on the surface yet. Hopefully that will be next. The smallmouth took a cichlid stick twice now, but won't take the smaller and medium sized pellets. Hopefully it isn't a size issue. Do smallmouth need big pellets or will they still take small and medium sized?

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#12 Guest_schambers_*

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Posted 09 August 2010 - 04:34 PM

You could get some frozen bloodworms, thaw them, and soak the pellets in them. Once you get the fish eating the pellets, then you can back off the bloodworms gradually until they are just eating pellets. You can try substituting something else for the bloodworms, maybe shrimp juice would work as well.