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For 3 weeks I've had 2 beautiful Bolivians, and 4 beautiful German Blues.

They always take in, and then spit right back out every flake or pellet food I've given them. Since they are all still alive, I know they must be swallowing "a little something" of what they spit back out. BUT, it bothers me.

I've tried Tetra Cichlid flakes...and Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets (among other general balanced diet flakes), algae pellets...and they always take some in, then spit it back out again.

They are in a tank with other fish that gobble everything I give them.
BUT, the Ram's still spit everything out after tasting it.

I can't afford frozen or live brine shrimp or bloodworms very often, but use them when I have them, about once a month.

What The Heck Kind of flake or pellet/dry food will the Rams keep it...and like?

Help please?

Over here, a pack of frozen brine shrimp is about £2.50.
The Cichlid pellets are about the same, maybe more.
Just get some frozen food..even bloodworm.

But I can't really afford to feed the whole tank of fish with frozen food Every Day...

My Bolivians are the worst at spitting food back out.

Are there NO dried flakes or food that they truly like to eat??

I'm new at having Rams. but really love having them.

Help Please...on a brand of Alternate dried flake or food they'll eat!

to be honest mate, it's probably nothing to do with the brand of dried food.
my bet is that they have been raised on frozen foods, so that's what they'll take.
try starving them for a few days then offer the hikari pellets, although really the colours of your fish will certainly be increased by the live/frozenfood.
Ask them what they were feeding them in the LFS. My bet will be frozen.

My dry food suggestion =====> freeze dried blood worms. A screw top container will be displayed at the lfs alongside other shelf foods.

Soak their portion in a small amt of tank water in a little container. When you spoon this into the tank the worms will float down in a rough approximation of brine's movement. With that method they can feed from the mid region.

Good luck

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

They always take in, and then spit right back out every flake or pellet food I've given them. Since they are all still alive, I know they must be swallowing "a little something" of what they spit back out. BUT, it bothers me.

It should not bother you. That's how rams eat. They have teeth in their throat, and by taking the food in and spitting it out, they shred the food into small pieces that are convenient for them to eat.

They are very messy eaters .

My Bolivian Rams eat every thing I put into the tank including the Algae pellets. Sooner or later they will eat, I personally would not worry at all.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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dont worry yourself to much mate,thats normall,as said above they are messy,just keep doing what you are,id say they will come around,are the pellets to big for them? maybe try smaller sized pellets,for my smaller fellas i use tetra colour bits,they are cheep and a good SMALL,SOFT pellet,that is easly eatinplus it does wonders for thers colour too

OK Guys,
Thanks for the info.
(I'll check into how much the freeze dried bloodworms costs)

I appreciate All your help, Guys!
I had NO idea about the "teeth" being inside their throats, and spitting out helps them to shred food being normal.
That helps me understand.

Thanks!

my oscar use to play catch with himself the same way. think almost all cichlids do this when the food is to large to swallow whole. i wouldnt go with a smaller pellet rather just presoak them for like 30 seconds to soften them up. they will prolly still do it but they will get more off their first bite leaving less for the other fish to snag when they spit.

I had NO idea about the "teeth" being inside their throats

Actually, this is what differenciates a chiclid from all other fish. As well, within cichlids, this is the only true 100% definite way to possitively scientifically identify wild cichlids. Each genus of cichlid, as well as most species within each genus, has their "throat" teeth different. Actually these throat teeth are considered a second jaw with teeth on them.

Captive fish second set of jaws, always look very similar, as their second set of jaws and teeth have addapted to processed foods and aquarium life. For this reason, according to ichthyologists, cative raised cichlids can never "truely" be identified.

According to most all cichlid specialized ichthyologists, the only true form of identifying wild cichlids, is by disecting them, and examining their second set of jaws in their throats.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I just got a pair of young rams last week, they're doing what yours are doing with the flakes. Doing to dig out some frozen bloodworms and mysis shrimp later and try it out



The Amazon Nut...