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Thanks to Kevin, I am keeping four Long-Ear Sunfish.

One of them (the smallest) has figured out he can eat flake and shrimp pellets. The other three just taste and spit. They all took cleaned nightcrawlers at first, but now, just the one eats them. Some, but not all, eat live Daphnia (thank you Denny and Michael), and some, but not all, eat frozen bloodworms.

I'm doing large WC's every few days to keep the uneaten food under control.

Any tips for weaning these guys onto commercially prepared food?

Thanks!

Patience, of course...and I would offer as much of a variety as possible. Have you tried the fruit flies? That may work, too. I really don't have a lot of experience here because I've never had a lot of trouble getting anything to eat. I am sure others will have much better advice.

My first recommendation would be to mix the prepared foods with the live foods. That way they are in 'eat' mode and will eat anything that goes in their mouth. Secondly, mix up the types of prepared foods you use. My longears prefer pellets over flake, so you may want to try that.

If all else fails, and yes I know I will get yelled at for this, but don't feed them anything for a week. Hunger is a wonderful motivator. If your choices are don't eat or eat something less appetizing the choice becomes easier and easier with time.

Kevin

Most fish actually do quite well if you skip feeding a couple days here and there. A week won't harm an otherwise healthy fish.

Sundance, do you have a progress report on your food problems?

Kevin

Yes. It's a mixed bag.

The largest that wasn't eating went carpet surfing, so...

and the smallest ended up passing.

The good news is that the remaining two are taking Bloodworms. I haven't been able to get them to take shrimp pellets like the Bluegill takes, but I've got a Crawfish in the tank to clean up what they don't eat.

Thanks for checking in!