When I got confuzonas 10 days ago, I was concerned that some may refuse to eat -- this is a recurrent problem with hillstreams and from what I heard particularly common with Confuzonas. Expecting trouble ahead, I decided to be proactive and prepared the tank accordingly. (I never had a non-eating or any Confuzona myself, but I did have a non-eating Gastro, which got progressively weaker and died in a few weeks...this was the scenario i was trying to avoid.)
The base ideas were (1) that Confuzonas, like some other lizards, have a snapping reflex: they will grab food that is thrown into their faces; and (2) that once the fish starts eating, it will continue doing so -- like if a block in the digestive system has been removed. Both ideas got confirmed experimentally.
In preparation, I set up a 10g q-tank so that the current will force the food float close to the ground in a particular area of the tank.
I gave the fish three days to figure out eating on their own; after 3 days I had 3 eating and 3 non-eating. The non-eating animals were sitting on the tank walls paying no attention to the food being given. They looked like candidates for starving, Confuzonas are unable to grab food while hanging to the glass.
For the next four days the morning feeding was done as follows: put large amount of frozen brine shrimp into the tank and chase the non-eating fish into the designated area, chase it back if it escapes. Once in designated area, with pieces of shrimp floating into its face, it would snap on them.
This worked out beautifully. #4 fish took only one chase; #5 was eating on the 3rd day, and the last one on the 4th.
It took only one *successful* forced feeding per fish. For every one of them, eating a little frozen shrimp one time guaranteed that they will continue eating on their own and within a couple of days, they all started eating other food
Most of them now go into feeding frenzy on *any* food; they would run around the tank trying to find food, and they now even dig a little and suck on filter intake trying to find small food fragments. For all fish, even those who started eating themselves, frozen shrimp was the "opening food".
Incidentally, here is what they eat now (in approximate order of pref.):
Frozen Brine Shrimp
Frozen Bloodworms, White Mosquito Larvae, Tubifex worms.
Small flakes
Algae Wafers, Mixed Veggie Wafers, Carnivour Sinking Pellets
The only food that is rejected so far is large flakes, they scare them (?!)....
Any other food that is worth trying on them?
With the smaller foods, a lot more tends to float past them and sends them into a feeding frenzy.
