Pajama Cardinal won't take my homemade food.

[cab395]

Hi all. I recently made my first batch of homemade food and I must say, I'll probably never go back. I will probably tweak my formula a bit, but I used squid, scallops, perch, shrimp, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, blanched carrots and broccoli, nori, some garlic, and probably some other things I'm forgetting. My fish go CRAZY for it. Well, all but one.

After feeding, the fish that eat it have HUGE bellies because they can't get enough, which makes sense. My YWG swims to the top to fight other fish for a taste, which is a first. My pajama cardinal will only mouth the food, but lately he doesn't even look at it. He does eat mysis shrimp, however. Since there is mysis in my homemade food, and my homemade food is way more nutritious, I don't feed straight mysis anymore. He hasn't eaten in the 5 days I have been feeding this food.

Any advice on getting him to eat the new stuff? I'd hate to have to go back to a more expensive less nutritious option for the sake of one picky fish.

[julie180]

No way to force a fish to eat. Time

[cab395]

This is the first time I've had to deal with a fish that won't eat. I'm assuming he'll eat before he starves to death, right?

[nrbelk]

When I've made homemade food myself, my cardinals that I had at the time (bangaii) would only eat it if there was no trace of any vegetable content. Including nori. They would rush to a piece of meat, pause, then go away. But when I made a second batch, this time without nori or other vegetables, they ate it as soon as they say it with no hesitation.

[cab395]

I just noticed on live aquaria that they are listed as carnivores! Maybe that's the real problem here? He senses plant matter in the food and doesn't want it? How picky can you get?

[cab395]

Wait, so are the Royal Gramma and YWG (listed as Carnivores). They have no issue with the food. This darn Cardinal... boring and stubborn!