Lima shovelnose feeding

biomechmonster · Post by **biomechmonster** » 20 Nov 2003, 23:34

I have a 6" lima shovelnose that eats nightcrawlers and red wigglers. The red wigglers are a pain to feed because they like to burrow into the gravel and my lima prefers to eat with the lights off, in the dark. Two questions:

What else can I feed my lima? It lives with a 11" oscar and two 13-15" plecos in a 75. Another reason for feeding with the lights off...the oscar will grab any worms it sees!

Do you guys find your limas easy to feed in general or a pain in the ass? I had to wean mine off live fish.

Post by **Silurus** » 21 Nov 2003, 01:37

Why don't you try Hikari's sinking carnivore pellets. I've never encountered a catfish that would say no to them....

Skyetone · Post by **Skyetone** » 24 Nov 2003, 00:58

I get frozen tiger shrimp from the store. thaw em out and take off the shells. Good eating and desease free. Then I pellet them too.

catfishcrazy · Post by **catfishcrazy** » 26 Nov 2003, 18:48

My 2 limas will eat more or less anything thrown into the tank, they get a varied diet with regular feedings of mussels; cockles; frozen fish; catfish pellets; bloodworms; earthworms; river shrimps and any tankmates which have been unfortunate to be small enough to be swallowed.

mokmu · Post by **mokmu** » 27 Nov 2003, 10:49

Same here. I have been having problems with my Limas feeding. The angelfish have been beating the limas to the fry that I've been feeding them. The Limas haven't attempted eating the flakes and pellets. It seems like they just like to hover and wait for fish to touch their barbels. I actually think that they have poor eyesight. Do the Limas scour the bottom for food? I have a lot of pl*cs at the bottom to take care of food at the bottom. What if I try floating pellets. When I had TSNs, they'd float to the top after lights out to feed on fry. Later on they learnt to eat floating pellets. Any comments or suggestions?

Btw, I'm thinking of putting my angels in the Asian Catfish set up so that the Limas can eat in peace. The thing is the Asian tank will no longer be totally Asian with the Angels. What do you guys think?

Regards,
Mike D.

Tenny · Post by **Tenny** » 21 Dec 2003, 21:28

I have a Lima, Oscar, Pleco and 3 Giant danio's (who will be eaten eventually). But anyways I was having problems with feeding my Lima at first, becuase the Oscar / Giant danio's would get any flakes / floating pellets' before the lima would get a chance. So I bought some floating / sinking pellete's they are actully for oscars (Oscar Grow by HBH) and half float half sink, well the Lima gets a few of those but still its pretty hard to get the food to him. I fed him misc meat, such as Beefheart etc, which seemed to go well with the Lima. The Lima is about 6" in lenght, and yesterday I got some Gold Fish Feeders, tossed in about 10 to the tank. So far I know the Lima has eaten at least 2-3 of them, the Oscar has had more than his share. I knew if I through in 1-2 at a time the Oscar would get them before the Lima would enough know they were in there. He will eat during the day (light on) but when its off he will climb to the surface and grab whatevers there. So normally when i'm feeding pellets / flakes I'll throw the food in, wait 15-20 seconds so the oscar / giant danio's get a little bit, then switch the light. Within seconds the Lima is at the top scraping it & everything into its mouth.

Sorry that paragraph when everywhere, but Just trying to give my experinces.

Good Luck.