Jag diet

[Chet]

My Jag will not readily accept pellets. She will occassionally eat the scraps from them that the pleco leaves, but she has no desire to consume them as a staple source of food. I have starved her and offered nothing but pellets for the last week and a half, and she still does not want to eat them. Is this a serious problem? Should I continue to force only pellets upon her, or should I offer good live and frozen foods and give up on the pellets? I want her to be healthy, but if she is not going to every fully accepts the pellets, then I would like to get back to feeding her other foods as soon as possible. Thanks for your input.

[Rudy]

Chet.

Try frozen minnows. You can buy them from bait store. Also I used to go down and buy cheap frozen shrimp with the heads on and all. Still do for my red devil. She will pick up pellets here and there, but as she grew she would have died before eating them as a staple.

[Chet]

I feed her frozen brine shrimp, freeze dried krill, sundried baby shrimp, earthworms, mealworms, beefheart, and her favorite, gut-loaded crickets. I'm just worried that without a staple of pellets she won't be as healthy long-term. I would prefer to feed her frozen and live food, but I want her to be healthy as well as happy.

[Rudy]

If you are worried about staple diet and she will eat beefheart try this

Here is your staple diet. Forget the pellets Jags are stubborn.
Ingredients:

*500 grams (1 pound) beefheart
*350-500 grams (3/4-1 pound) chicken livers
*1 can of shelled green peas
*1 small packet of frozen spinach(150-200g)
*200 grams (1/2 pound) of prawns (I like to peel and head them otherwise they pass the shells and they end up sitting on the bottom of your tank)
*1 cup of fish food pellets crushed (soak this in some warm water to soften, they blends smoother if soft)
*1 packet of unflavored gelatine to bind


Method:

.....Its really quite simple, everything except the gelatine needs to be either minced or put in the food processors and made into a mince-like consistency. I recommend that you do each of the meaty ingredient in the food processor seperately and then combine all in a large mixing bowl. Its okay to blend all the veggies together. Once everything is blended up, combine it all in a bowl. Add the crushed fish food. Disolve the gelatine in a little water(as little as possible) then also add. Mix thoroughly. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the mix evenly on the trays at around 1/4" (5mm) thickness. Place two layers of baking paper over the mix and keep repeating until the tray is full. Allow to set up in the refrigerator, when firm score with the back of a knife into equal serving size portions. Freeze. Once frozen break portions up and store in a container in the freezer.

You can add or not add whatever you like but avoid corn; it is indigestable to fish and causes problems.

Any other ideas on this recipe would be good.
Recipe by Tony Snell


I chop it coursely as I cannot stand feeding large fish a fine paste

[Chet]

Sounds good...and yes, Jags are stubborn.

Thanks again for the help Rudy. I'll whip up something later this week. One day when my wife works late. She hates the smell of beefheart.

[balton777]

Originally posted by Rudy
If you are worried about staple diet and she will eat beefheart try this

Here is your staple diet. Forget the pellets Jags are stubborn.
Ingredients:

*500 grams (1 pound) beefheart
*350-500 grams (3/4-1 pound) chicken livers
*1 can of shelled green peas
*1 small packet of frozen spinach(150-200g)
*200 grams (1/2 pound) of prawns (I like to peel and head them otherwise they pass the shells and they end up sitting on the bottom of your tank)
*1 cup of fish food pellets crushed (soak this in some warm water to soften, they blends smoother if soft)
*1 packet of unflavored gelatine to bind


Method:

.....Its really quite simple, everything except the gelatine needs to be either minced or put in the food processors and made into a mince-like consistency. I recommend that you do each of the meaty ingredient in the food processor seperately and then combine all in a large mixing bowl. Its okay to blend all the veggies together. Once everything is blended up, combine it all in a bowl. Add the crushed fish food. Disolve the gelatine in a little water(as little as possible) then also add. Mix thoroughly. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the mix evenly on the trays at around 1/4" (5mm) thickness. Place two layers of baking paper over the mix and keep repeating until the tray is full. Allow to set up in the refrigerator, when firm score with the back of a knife into equal serving size portions. Freeze. Once frozen break portions up and store in a container in the freezer.

You can add or not add whatever you like but avoid corn; it is indigestable to fish and causes problems.

Any other ideas on this recipe would be good.
Recipe by Tony Snell


I chop it coursely as I cannot stand feeding large fish a fine paste

I found this recipe looking at Jaguar info and am wondering if shrimp and beefheart etc should be cooked or raw. I'm guessing raw.

[cichgirl]

I knew I hadn't seen Chet in a while.... :D

All prepared meat should be raw.

[balton777]

thanks cichgirl... much obliged.