Feeding My Telescope

[Noreun]

Hoover, my black moor gets about 3 Hikari Lionhead pellets a day. He is still fairly young and it's concerning that he is only eating this much.

It's become increasingly difficult to feed him too.

When I first began hand feeding him, he'd get around 4 or 5 pellets per feeding time because he'd be at the surface hand fed whilst the others where at the bottom waiting for more pellets.

But now, the other fish are on to it. During feeding time, they all go up to the surface wanting to be fed. It's like they know that Hoover is my first priority. Even when I distract them with food in the other side of the tank, as soon as they see Hoover move, they move too. His reaction time is a little slow, so even when my fingers are right in front of his face, the sneakier fish will push past him and quickly grab it off me.

When Hoover does get a pellet, he'll swim to the bottom to finish chewing it. And for the life of me I can't get him to come back up once he goes down. I've tried increasing multiple feedings a day (again, baiting my other fish to go someplace else when Hoover gets fed) but I feel that I'd be overfeeding all my other fish even though I've made it small portions.

I've also tried feeding only Hoover, but once he gets his pellet, he'd swim away only to get rammed and chased around the tank by the others.

Any tips?

[blackteles]

I've trained all of my telescopes to feed at the bottom. I just keep an eye on all of them while they feed to make sure that no one gets left out.

[Noreun]

Thanks for the quick reply

How did you get them all to bottom feed?

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

I am separating my moor and celestial from the 'normal eyed' fish because they just don't get their share of food My moor is even trained to hand feed now but it is such a stress! THe celestial only eats from the bottom but no food arrives to the bottom because the big fish snatch everything

[blackteles]

Thanks for the quick reply

How did you get them all to bottom feed?

Hi Noreun,

I use Omega One sinking pellets as one food source, any sinking pellets will do. These sink quite quickly to the bottom where the telescopes can easily find them. Also feed them in the same place and your GF will become accustomed to feed there. It only takes a few days for them to become trained on finding foods at the bottom. Just make sure that your teles gets his necessary share. Hope that helps!

[number20121]

A What breed are the other fish? Are they a lot faster than him? You could get a breeder net and carefully scoop him in there at feeding time so he can eat by himself.

[Noreun]

Hi Noreun,

I use Omega One sinking pellets as one food source, any sinking pellets will do. These sink quite quickly to the bottom where the telescopes can easily find them. Also feed them in the same place and your GF will become accustomed to feed there. It only takes a few days for them to become trained on finding foods at the bottom. Just make sure that your teles gets his necessary share. Hope that helps!

Thanks!

I've got a mixture of fancies, a common and a shubunkin. They're all a lot faster then him. I think I might separate him and my oranda in the spare 20gal I've got in the garage- at least until they can compete with the guys in the main tank.