# Celestial Pearl Danio's eating problems



## FewestKitten896 (Dec 13, 2013)

I bought 6 CPD's about 3 weeks ago, wanted to buy more but short on cash. Anyways, at the time I got them, I only had New Life Spectrum Small Fish pellets which they did seem to take it right away, for about 3-4 days. However after that, the would spit it out. So I went and bought some flake food, went ok for 1-2 days and then same thing, they would just spit it out. Recently a LFS got in Repashy, would this be worth a try? I don't know if they are eating other things floating that I can't see and are just not hungry or they just don't dig the food I got. I have also thought about frozen baby brine shrimp but the repashy just seems like a better deal.

Current inhabitants include 5 gold white clouds, 1 oto and maybe 5 ghost shrimp (hard to find these things).


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

Try frozen daphnia or live grindal worms.


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## TekWarren (Oct 6, 2013)

Hrm, mine love NLS. Do you know if yours are wild caught or tank bred? I've also fed mine Hikari micro pellets and crushed flake. If wild caught, you may be looking at live foods but you can try freeze tried stuff also...never hurts to have a variety on hand.

Edit: If they eat one thing for a day or two, find a couple things they will eat and switch back and fourth until they are used to those types of foods and then slowly work your way to feeding whatever staple to you plan to fed more often.


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## SBPyro (Dec 15, 2009)

From my experience, NLS can still be too big for them to eat (inhale, spit out, repeat til it is out of their sightline). I tend to crush it between my fingers when feeding it to my CPDs.
I do mix up their diet a little (frozen Daphnia, blackworms, BorneoWild Staple S, NLS).


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## FewestKitten896 (Dec 13, 2013)

I am not really sure if they are wild or not. Guess I probably should have asked. Anyways, with the food that I have, I have tried to alternate the food but with how picky they seem to be, I am wondering if they are wild. Well not really sure what I am going to do, will think about the frozen food but have any of you tried this Repashy Super Foods?


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## TraceyW (Apr 3, 2012)

I've tried the Repashy gel foods but nothing special with them. One thing you might try which is what I do for my betta fry when I'm trying to get them to move to flake foods, feed a little flake at the same time you feed some frozen/live foods. That way they end up accidentally eating some and deciding eventually that it's an ok food by itself.


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## FewestKitten896 (Dec 13, 2013)

TraceyW said:


> I've tried the Repashy gel foods but nothing special with them. One thing you might try which is what I do for my betta fry when I'm trying to get them to move to flake foods, feed a little flake at the same time you feed some frozen/live foods. That way they end up accidentally eating some and deciding eventually that it's an ok food by itself.


Yeah I might have to give this a try. I will stop by the store and get some frozen foods today and give that a try. I was just curious if the texture of the pellet/flake was a little bit weird for them. I guess I should have asked the LFS what they were feeding them at the time I got them so I could ween them off that to the food that I have.


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## TekWarren (Oct 6, 2013)

SBPyro said:


> From my experience, NLS can still be too big for them to eat (inhale, spit out, repeat til it is out of their sightline). I tend to crush it between my fingers when feeding it to my CPDs.
> I do mix up their diet a little (frozen Daphnia, blackworms, BorneoWild Staple S, NLS).


I think there is enough variance in the grain sizes and how they break up that NLS is fine size wise. I've not had any issues with feeding the small fish size as a staple. I think the Hikari micro pellets are a bit smaller than the NLS. I fed mine hikari while in quarantine and then a mixed "home made" food with crushed flake for a while before switching over to NLS a few weeks ago.

OP: Might be worth calling the shop you bought them from. Could also be they just need time to adjust. If they spitting the food out, they are at least interested in eating which is good sign.


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## Vesh (Jan 16, 2010)

Hikari First Bites and frozen baby brine shrimps work good for my CPDs.


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## prighello (Aug 19, 2007)

I got mine to eat Omega One veggie micro pellets once they ran out of water cyclops to eat.


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## FewestKitten896 (Dec 13, 2013)

Well over lunch I picked up some frozen baby brine shrimp. They seemed to take to that pretty well. It was funny though, I turned off my filter/powerhead while I put it in and they were a little confused by it, so I turned on my powerhead and it was like madness, who could grab the most. Seems like they liked to chase the food for some reason.

I have one CPD however that must be pretty shy, he comes out every once in a while but mainly stays by the heater and sponge filter. They haven't displayed their full color yet though, their fins are starting to color up but still pretty dull on the edges for the males.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

How's your feeding issues going? I got 10 CPDs a month ago and I am uncertain what they are actually eating since I have rarely seen them feed. I noticed that they forage a lot, but I have to sit very still for quite some time before they are brave enough to come out of hiding and look for food on the rocks, plants and driftwood.

Mine are extremely shy and swim for cover anytime anyone comes near the tank. So I am pretty sure they were wild caught.

Any advice you may have would be much appreciated.


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## Oceangirl (Feb 5, 2013)

Do you have them with a dither fish? I have 'junk' guppies with them I received as fry so not pure bred or worth a lot. The fry would gobble the food and teach the CPDS to gobble with them. I keep a few smaller guppies (about 1 month). My CPDS are about an inch now, I fattened them on Decapped brine shrimp eggs, Crushed Tetra Granules. They like the red and orange color, Do crush the food till you figure out what size they like. Mine are Picky about size, and will flat out ignore it if too big.


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

likewise. I have to crush up flake food for them to take it


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## bmo (Jun 11, 2014)

i have some kens premium fish flake, along with bloodworms i crush between my fingers and feed my CPD's they seem to enjoy both.


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## Krispyplants (Apr 15, 2014)

The answer to weaving them off frozen food to dry food is to crush it :icon_mrgr Though frozen/live foods contain more protein and is essential for spawing.


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## FewestKitten896 (Dec 13, 2013)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> How's your feeding issues going? I got 10 CPDs a month ago and I am uncertain what they are actually eating since I have rarely seen them feed. I noticed that they forage a lot, but I have to sit very still for quite some time before they are brave enough to come out of hiding and look for food on the rocks, plants and driftwood.
> 
> Mine are extremely shy and swim for cover anytime anyone comes near the tank. So I am pretty sure they were wild caught.
> 
> Any advice you may have would be much appreciated.


I was only able to obtain 6 from the get go but unfortunately none of them made it very long. The first one I lost was due to dropsy. The rest of them just seemed to get skinnier and skinnier and then would wake up and one less one would be there. The last few seemed like they were going to be fine. They would come up with the neons and white clouds and eat as I dropped in the NLS small pellets. I would also try to crush the pellets and mix them in with crush flake. Was almost a powder consistancy and they looked healthy. Then it seemed like one and at a time they would just stop eating and unfortunately die from starvation (unless they had some internal parasite as I did not treat them or use a QT). I also tried frozen baby brine shrimp and I think frozen daphnia. They didn't seem to be interested in any of it. I heard from some people that grindal worms work pretty well.


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

Sadly there really is a problem with CPD stock these days. They were/are being overbred and you will find batches that are weak and die quickly


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## DayOlder (Jul 12, 2014)

I believe your quote " Seems like they liked to chase the food for some reason." is correct. Mine will neither feed from the top or the bottom. They will only eat mid tank but they will eat flake if I can get it to fall to mid tank which is very hard without over feeding because my Rasboras attack the food before it has a chance to fall.


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## Oceangirl (Feb 5, 2013)

I am breeding some myself and they take a lot of care a patience from the store. I highly suggest those Decapped brine shrimp, and to have a well cycled Quarantine tank. Since they are so shy a BUNCH of fake or live plants is critical too. 

I have Dwarf Emerald rasboras right now and they are SHY! Much shyer than my Celestials, I suggest a smaller fish such as guppy fry in Q tank and a place they can hide from everything. Once they realize you mean no harm they will come out of hiding.


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## FewestKitten896 (Dec 13, 2013)

I might have to try them again sometime after I get situated in my new home. Might have to go with a reputable breeder. I believe it was the lfs first time getting them so not much information was seemed known.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

So in desperation to feed my CPDs and try and get SOME food in them, I ended up seriously overfeeding my tank. So with a bunch of water changes, all is well again. I decided to not feed for a day, then did a small feed, then had another day off.
I decided to give frozen food another try. I have brine shrimp which I cut up, blood worms and pellet food, but non of them interested the CPDs too much. So I picked up some baby brine shrimp and thawed half a cube in tank water. I dropped the tank flow and dropped them in. The CPDs went bananas for them. They are already eating more, becoming less shy and looking really healthy.

It really seams like size is the issue when it comes to food for CPDs, and chopping up food does not convince them that it's tiny food. They really like the small critter size of the BBS, and because of their size they stay suspended in the mid water for a while which gives the fish plenty of time to eat their fill.


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## etk300ex (May 1, 2013)

My CPD experience summary

I had a dozen in a 15g for a few months, they were very shy, they would eat frozen brine shrimp only and I had to pour it in very slowly to entice them out.

I recently combined 2 tanks into a 50B, put them in with a few red wag platy's and a couple zebra danio's. I figured I'd probably never see them again. They instantly became braver, they are out and about all day long, and they will take food right out of the others mouths, any food too.


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## Katey (Mar 17, 2013)

When I first got mine, I soaked their food with some garlic, and they seemed to eat a little better, until they adjusted!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Katey said:


> When I first got mine, I soaked their food with some garlic, and they seemed to eat a little better, until they adjusted!


Garlic? I have never heard of anyone doing this. What's the reasoning?
Sounds interesting :icon_ques


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## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

Anyone tried Cyclop-Eeze? It's tiny critters that have a smell that makes most fish go nuts.


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## Katey (Mar 17, 2013)

Garlic attracts fish to food for some reason. They like it!


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## ErtyJr (Jun 21, 2014)

Just figured I would add in what my cpd ' s eat. I feed them hikari micro pellets, I bought dainichi color fx baby size and crushed it with a mortar and pestle which they LOVE and fight for it. They also like repashy meat pie. And I feed them frozen cyclop-eeze.

My cpd ' s are odd. They school with my silver hatchets and nowadays they will eat anything. I have seen them trying to eat pellets sized for my apistogramma cacatuoides male they just swim around with a huge pellet in their mouth trying to get it down untill they give up.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Dither fish*

I got a dozen pygmy Cories the other day and these brave little fish have completely changed the social behaviours of all the other animals. 

The CPDs try to school with the Cories which is very fun to watch. They can't quite keep up with the Cories and find themselves stranded, alone and swimming at the surface. For a few seconds they hang about then suddenly remember that they are shy, swim of cover and then get distracted by the Cories again. 

CPDs will now come out and not swim for the hills if I come into the room. Which makes it much easier to feed them.

The Cories really have made all the other fish much braver. They are also a pleasure to watch. Such a lovely little fish :fish:


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## Oceangirl (Feb 5, 2013)

CORIES! CORIES! I love cories.


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