Food Sticks - Earthworm

Don't be fooled into thinking a fish food is good just because fish readily eat it. Children prefer candy over broccoli, but it doesn't mean that candy is better for them. A taste preference can easily be acquired through hunger. Getting them to prefer foods that are also very good for them, is the trick. Even though it's not always needed, our way of getting them to develop a taste for a new food, works. It is described below.

Fish won't eat their new food? When switching to a new fish food, we highly recommend getting the fish very hungry. Often times, fish become accustomed to a particular fish food and will not eat another, no matter how good it is for them. When introducing a new food, we usually don't feed the fish for 24-48 hours, depending on the size of the fish, and then offer only one bite per fish (key to success). Remove food after 1 minute if uneaten. Do this every few hours. It may take several days, especially for larger fish that have become accustomed to other fish foods. Don't worry, fish can easily and safely go much longer than this without food. Allowing the food to sit uneaten in the tank for even a couple hours can turn them off to the food permanently. If you don't give in, this method works every time.

Using this technique, you can quickly get most fish to eat a new food like ravenous piranha without much effort. In fact, we have to be careful feeding, because they often jump out of the tank in their feeding frenzy. Watch some of our fish feeding in the below video. Keep in mind, they were first introduced to these fish foods using this technique.