my channa micropeltes (red snakeheads)

[Audrey]

I have two juvenile red snakeheads they eat nothing but live food mostly feeders some old tankmates as well I came home this afternoon from work to find one of them taking a nice long white stringy poo which makes me think he and possibly everyone in my tank has or will get an internal parasite should I just treat or see if it was just a white poo because there feeding was yesterday and they ate white feeders that pushing it I know but treating my tank is such a hassle any insight would be greatly appreciated thank you for reading

[FishFreaks]

ditch the feeders! their is plenty of different live foods that are much healthier and better for your fish. feeders are full of disease. do you keep your feeders in a tank for weeks gutloading them and treating them before you feed? my thai silk flowerhorn wouldnt eat anything but feeder guppies when i got him. i introduced live black worms live earthworms live meal worms live wax worms after a 5 or 6 days of no food and he switched over no prob. and then i switched him to floating/sinking pellets same way. Bottom ditch the feeders thats why your fish are sick. and i personally would treat them in a quarantine tank with a sponge filter for weeks
cheers
kevin

[Audrey]

My feeders go in a 33 gallon treated tried switching them to worms and pellets they went 2 weeks without food i switched my silver aro over my oscars don't eat feeders but my snakeys are live caught fish only thanks for the suggestion though

[-DC-]

Snake heads will eat anything and everything, if they are super hooked on live you might need too starve them a bit, but they will come around.

Most of mine have eaten everything live/frozen/pelets/tankmates, I've had a few who would prefer live and every time they were given live it would take a couple weeks of starving before they switched back too other food. but never to the point where they would losse weight, most people over feed captive animals s they will be picky because they really are not that hungry.

Now before you do this keep in mind a hungry snakehead may also target larger prey , so if they have tank mates they might turn on them before converting off live!

Also as touched on above insects make much better feeders, and in the case of snakeheads it's been reported too increase color and fin length making a nicer fish. The 2 species i've had/have are aurantimaculata and Asiatica , and i did notice better paearence when i started feeding insect heavy diet.

and the one thing every fish i own has never turned down is insects of any kind, as touched on they are a much better alternative too feeder fish. many species of insect feed are very easy too breed, and can also be "gutloaded" which simply means feeding the insects a particular diet before feeding essentially stuffing them for the fish.

[-DC-]

Oh i must have missed your comment about worms, I've had a few snake heads refuse worms, i'd suggest starting ith crickets, they will swim around on the surface, should drive any snake head INSANE, from there easy step is meal worms, also the easiest too breed as well! once they realize what a bug is they should start eating anything, june bugs, grasshoppers,raches, worms anything but i find crickets are an easy way too start