I just moved around some of my fish, and in my 40 gallon, the biggest hog was the goldfish, but he RARELY ever found the blood worms. Now, since I put the goldfish in the 29 gallon and the smaller blood parrot in the 40, the blood worms don't even hit the bottom before the parrot has gobbled them all up.

I want my senegal bichir to be the primary one eating the blood worms, since that's all I can get him to eat. I'm thinking about letting them soften up, and then putting them in a skewer. What do you think?

That will work. You could also feed at "lights out". I do this for my catfish. Off go the lights and in goes the food. Silly but it works because diurnal fish kinda go "WTH?" when the lights go out whereas nocturnals go "Hey? Wheres supper?".

Maybe you could teach your fish to be hand fed?

My parrots hand feed, haha! That's the problem. They aren't afraid of my hand in the tank. The bichir had started to take food, but he wasn't as aggressive as I had hoped. I tried feeding with the lights off, and I kept the lights on just enough to see what was going on, and I saw the parrots eating the blood worms. I guess I'll give the tweezers a try and see what happens.

You can take a turkey baster after the bloodworms soften up and spot feed him. Just take the baster and put it down to the area where he's at.

susankat, you are a miracle worker. That's an awesome idea. I didn't even think about spot feeding him. That's a lot better than waiting for them to sink. I'll give that a try and let you guys know if it works. Hopefully my wife won't use it to cook me dinner, lol! :o

:lol:

Not related to feeding, but I was looking at pictures of senegal bichir, I've never seen one, and they look really cool. Do you have a picture of him on here anywhere? If not that's fine, I'm just curious.

I haven't seen one either.

Mine died though. :(

That is one of the weirdest yet coolest fish I have ever seen. How big do they get?

That is neat looking fish.
In our 29 I feed my fish by hand at two opposite ends of the tank. GF are faster than Fancy GF, and are known not to get as much food as the faster fish get to it first. Just a thought. :D

bartier - The Senegal Bichir in the picture gets up to about a foot in length. He's one of the more active species of bichir.

I solved my feeding dillemma the other night. I decided I would try feeding them by hand and get the bichir and eel used to me. It worked like a charm! I've never seen the bichir so aggressive. He came by and yanked the bloodworm cube out of my hand and paraded it all over the tank. It was the funniest thing. Needless to say he got a great meal. I also did the same thing with the eel. He was finally able to get more than a few worms. The red parrot managed to steal a few out of my hand, but I was able to outsmart him. All-in-all, now that I can hand feed them, I feel a lot better that both my bichir and peacock eel can get enough to eat.

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll be sure to give the turkey baster a try.

I'm glad you've found a way for them to eat.

Hand-feeding is loads of fun. I feed my betta by sticking my finger in the tank, moving it around to get his attention, then I put the food on my finger and he pecks at my finger. Tons of fun!

I'm sure bigger fish like yours are even more fun to feed!

I am glad the hand feeding works! I love doing it. I can't seem to get my guppies to do it though. By the time my finger hits the water the food is already flaking off and they grab those particals. It sucks, but I do hand feed my snails shrimp pellets. It is funny!

Aren't the senegals sometimes referred to as "Dinosaur" eels? That's what they have them labled as at Petsmart and Walmart.

What kind of eel do you have?

Common name at PetsMart and Wal-Mart is the dinosaur eel. They are actually a Senegal bichir. Very cool fish if you ever get the chance to keep one. I'm becoming an eel lover myself. My peacock eel and my bichir are number one on my list. My wife is in love with the parrots. Who knows. :lol: