Pellet Training Sunfish

Hi Everyone!

I recently purchased various sunfish from Brian. I fed them some bloodworms and they went crazy over them. What I wish to do is get them to eat pellets instead. I tried softening and sinking the pellets and they do come in a frenzy to taste them. They eat the pieces and spit them right back out! The pieces become smaller then get stuck inbetween the gravel, left to decompose. I am using the same pellets that some of my bluegills in the past have eaten. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them pellet trained? Thanks in advance for the responses or comments.

Hi Everyone!

I recently purchased various sunfish from Brian. I fed them some bloodworms and they went crazy over them. What I wish to do is get them to eat pellets instead. I tried softening and sinking the pellets and they do come in a frenzy to taste them. They eat the pieces and spit them right back out! The pieces become smaller then get stuck inbetween the gravel, left to decompose. I am using the same pellets that some of my bluegills in the past have eaten. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them pellet trained? Thanks in advance for the responses or comments.

I think Gerald mentioned this before and it sounds like a great idea. Soak them in with some thawing frozen bloodworms. Then soak them less and less until they are just eating the pellets with no bloodworm flavoring.

In my experience it seems very small sunfish are more reluctant to switch over to pellets than they are when they get a little larger. I just try to keep mixing in the pellets with the frozen food and they gradually begin to eat both. then just gradually feed them less frozen till they are strictly eating pellets. Usually by the time they are about 2 inches long they will eat just pellets.

Thanks for the information. I will try these suggestions.