Frequent Aquarium Questions

• I recently bought a 2" Tiger Oscar. It is alone in the tank, hides constantly, and refuses to eat. Is this normal?
  
  
• I just bought a baby silver arowana 4 days ago. I'm trying to feed him the Hikari floating stick food. He hasn't eaten anything. What can I do?
  
  
• How often should you feed a lionfish?
  
  
• Are those vacation feeding blocks any good for goldfish or would you recommend an automatic dispenser?
  
  
• What does it mean when my fish swallows his food and then spits it out?
  
  
• What do I need to feed my mandarin goby?
  
  
• My tetras will not eat the food that sinks down to the gravel. Is this normal?
  
  
• Is it true that you can feed fry strained egg yolk?
  
  
• I feed my cichlids bloodworms and cichlid pellets. They will not accept brine shrimp and whiteworms. Why is this?
  
  
• Do I need to break up frozen krill to feed it to my stingray? It just takes the food and spits it right out.
  
  

• I recently bought a 2" Tiger Oscar. It is alone in the tank, hides constantly, and refuses to eat. Is this normal?
  
  Yes. Juvenile fish, especially when kept alone, will take some time to acclimate to the aquarium and start feeding.
  
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• I just bought a baby silver arowana 4 days ago. I'm trying to feed him the Hikari floating stick food. He hasn't eaten anything. What can I do?
  
  This is typical of a small arowana. If he doesn't take small pieces of the sticks, try different types of frozen food. I've known them to go 10 days and more before eating.
  
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• How often should you feed a lionfish?
  
  First of all, I would refrain from feeding live feeders. Lionfish can be fed as little as once a week to satiation. If you chose to feed more often, feed sparingly.
  
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• Are those vacation feeding blocks any good for goldfish or would you recommend an automatic dispenser?
  
  The automatic feeders are far superior.
  
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• What does it mean when my fish swallows his food and then spits it out?
  
  Your fish is might not be hungry which shouldn't concern you if it's just recent. Try performing a water change and see if his appetite comes back.
  
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• What do I need to feed my mandarin goby?
  
  Dragonettes in general are difficult to feed in captivity due to their natural diet not including prepared foods. This fish is most succesfully kept by experienced reef keepers whose tanks include macro fauna (plant life that encourages their natural live food to propagate).
  
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• My tetras will not eat the food that sinks down to the gravel. Is this normal?
  
  It is possible for tetras to eat food off the gravel. My suggestion is to not let it get this far. If food is reaching the bottom, you are feeding too much too quickly.
  
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• Is it true that you can feed fry strained egg yolk?
  
  Yes.
  
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• I feed my cichlids bloodworms and cichlid pellets. They will not accept brine shrimp and whiteworms. Why is this?
  
  Fish are like people. Some people love spinach, others don't. If you are worried about nutrition, you could soak their food in a liquid vitamin supplement.
  
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• Do I need to break up frozen krill to feed it to my stingray? It just takes the food and spits it right out.
  
  Stingrays are notorious for not readily accepting frozen food in captivity. A healthy stingray will easily eat a whole piece of krill, so breaking up the krill is not necessary. To induce feeding, you could try feeding live ghost shrimp or some other live crustacean.
  
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