I fed him pellets? it's not that hard to convert them to doing that, if they don't like pellets try a bit of fish from the market, or chopped shrimp or scallops. Tigrinus most certainly do not require feeders.
Interests: African catfishes and oddballs, Madagascar cichlids; stoner doom and heavy rock; old school choppers and riding them, fantasy novels, travelling and diving in the tropics and all things nature.
are we talking Merodontotus or Pseudoplatystoma here??
I've never seen any Merodontotus that small, here.
Actually I never saw ANY Merodontotus here, only once a single fish in Germany.
costed a fortune.....
Someone must be breeding them if they come in at 3" or so!
Interests: African catfishes and oddballs, Madagascar cichlids; stoner doom and heavy rock; old school choppers and riding them, fantasy novels, travelling and diving in the tropics and all things nature.
Dont feed the Tigrinus feeders...if it wont take tiny peices of shrimp try feeding black worms. They cant resist black worms. 5 tigs! How much did that cost you, if you dont mind me asking?
just went to off the lights in my house and fish tank for half an hour, went back to check my tigrinus, all their stomach are bloated, i discover something tigrinus does eat when theres lighting only when the food is infront of them. As for live feeders my tigrinus manage to eat them when the lights went off, this is because the live feeders settles down at the botom of the tank most of them at night and the tigrinuses will move around and just gobble them up. Personally i think tigrinus does feed when there lights but for their nature they are bad hunters and doesnt really like strong lightings so u dont really see them catching live feeders when theres strong lighting.
Feeders are a bad idea. As has been said before, tigrinus will take worms and shrimp. Feeding feeders only introduces possible sources of disease into the tank, something I wouldn't do after spending that much money on those fish!
They don't need live food period. You can supplement a regular diet of pellets and dry/frozen food with live inverts if you like, but they should be given sparingly and not as a staple. Keep in mind pimelodid's stomaches in the wild are usually empty, so you do not need to feed everyday. Once the fish get larger, feeding once or twice a week should be enough.
I'm not sure that they aren't being bred, I was just pointing out that they're being collected at very small sizes, and the 4-5 inch b. juruense I got from that link was really just at 4 inch, so he's not selling things smaller than they are.
As to feeding... I feed the tank with the tigrinus in it every day, mine, at about 14 inches, does not eat every day though. he'll eat pellets, shrimp, scallops, worms, whatever, but he decides not to many nights... that rather surprised me, as it's not just that he won't eat one food, or that he's bullied, he does tend to gorge when he eats though.