# Galaxy Rasbora; How to get them to eat? And Frozen food question.



## CaffeinatedCake (Jun 19, 2008)

Well I got a trio of lovely Galaxy Rasbora/CPD on Saturday, and I know most fish take a while to get settled in before they eat.

But I'm starting to worry. I've never had fish take this long before they eat before .

THey're in a 5g by themselves, moderately planted, but extremely shy. They venture out from time to time, sometimes for 2 minutes, other times for 10 minutes.

But they won't accept any of the food I give them.

Crushed up flakes, Freeze dried blood worms, crushed freeze dried brine shrimp.

So I'm thinking about going over to petco when my boyfriend get's home from work and pick up some frozen blood worms, since I have lots of other fish that would enjoy the left overs from the thawed cubes, since I know you can't re-freeze the cube or it goes bad.

Would I be able to leave the blood worms in their tank for a bit to see if they'd eat it off the ground? How long could I leave the worms in there before haveing to take them out?

Also, should I chop the pieces up, or just let them go in whole? I figure if I leave them whole, they might resemble something they're used to?

I have no idea if they're wild caught or tank raised, I actually forgot to ask, they were so busy it slipped my mind, lol.

I'm just nervous for the little things. They don't look too thin, I'm sure they're munching on micro organisms in the moss and ferm, but.. Still..

Any ideas on how I could get these guys to eat?

Should I use a different type of frozen food?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I bet frozen daphnia or brine shrimp would go over better than dried and freeze dried stuff, and frozen bloodworms aren't something I'd feed first off after fish have been on a long fast, it might constipate them (plus they're awfully big for a small fish like CPDs...)

I get frozen food from my local Petsmart.


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## CaffeinatedCake (Jun 19, 2008)

Thanks  I'll grab some of them then.

Hopefully they'll actually come out and eat it. I see the male out a lot by himself, so I think he's getting braver/more comfortable. Hopefully they'll eat tonight.

Should I cut up the food into tiny bits ?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

If you've got bloodworms, then yes, I'd chop them.

Don't feed a lot. They've probably been making do with infusoria that's already in your tank, but if they've actually not eaten in a while a big rich meal like bloodworms can really be rough on their digestive systems.


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## Mcjudge (Sep 4, 2009)

I use the cyclop-eeze freezerbar it works great! I get good coverage all my fish eat it and it doesn't cloud up the water. Just dip it in the water for 5-10 seconds until there is enough food in the water and put it back in the freezer. Here is the website, http://www.freezerbar.com/.


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

You can go to a dollar store and get a cheap cheese grater for like, well, a dollar, and I people sometimes grate the cube of boodworms. This can be done for other frozen foods as well.


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## EdwardN (Nov 7, 2008)

How about hatching some brine shrimp and feeding fresh, live nauplii?


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## aposterprises (Sep 19, 2009)

I had a hard time getting mine to eat also. I finally ordered a culture of Walterworms. They absolutely LOVE them. After they got use to eating the worms I started sneaking very finely crushed flake in when I fed with the worms... now they greedily take both. They will even eat flakes from the surface.


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## Ebichua (May 13, 2008)

How old are your CPDs? The CPDs that I was able to import in came in and accepted all sorts of food readily. Although their main diet right now is frozen bloodworms, since it's easier for me to feed them this way. I don't need to grate anything for em, but it wouldn't hurt I suppose. 

Live food will almost always work if they don't take frozen or prepared stuff. But eventually, you need to ween them off of it. Unless you don't mind the extra hassle of live food.


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## pinkertd (Jun 17, 2007)

They are extremely shy fish. Drop some sinking food in and walk away where they can't see you. They'll come out. I fed mine shaved frozen bloodworms often. It's easily shaved into tiny bits with a sharp knife while it is frozen.


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## funkyfish (Mar 16, 2009)

CPD feel more comfortable in groups of 5 or more in my experience. I never had a problem feeding my CPDs or their fry. I feed mine viriety of food, but the first food I got for them was New Life Spectrum Fish Food for small fish and what I did is soak it for like 5 minutes in a small measuring cup, they ate it readily without any issues. Frozen blood worms I shave with a razor blade, frozen brine shrimp I defrost and feed a few at the time with my tweezers.


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## VisionQuest28 (Apr 18, 2007)

funkyfish said:


> CPD feel more comfortable in groups of 5 or more in my experience. I never had a problem feeding my CPDs or their fry. I feed mine viriety of food, but the first food I got for them was New Life Spectrum Fish Food for small fish and what I did is soak it for like 5 minutes in a small measuring cup, they ate it readily without any issues. Frozen blood worms I shave with a razor blade, frozen brine shrimp I defrost and feed a few at the time with my tweezers.



I think that is probably your main issue...they are just super shy and uncomfortable being only 3. I would either try to get a few more or maybe try adding some other small fish that arent too shy. When they are in a larger group or maybe when they see other fish out swimming they will feel more comfortable.

My CPD's (i actually got them from Ebichua) eat anything and everything... flakes, pellets, frozen, decapped BSE, golden pearls, veggie sticks... like i said, pretty much everything.

I have a group of 7 in a 37g with other fish...zebra danios, rasboras, neons, and guppies. The CPD's arent in the least bit shy. They do spend more time swimming around and in and behind the plants and such than the other fish do, but they dont "hide" per say.


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## Amazon (Oct 7, 2009)

FWIW, mine like the Hikari Micro Pellets. That's the first food I actually saw them eat. I'm sure they were picking off food prior to that since they weren't skinny. But now I see them grab these pellets happily.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

Hikari Micro pellets work for me, too, but both the CPD's & the EDR's REALLY like VisionQuest28's (Shannon) "Golden Pearls". I feed the fry the Hikari First Bites.

Tommy


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