Neon Tetra's VERY picky eaters?

[ippielb]

I have 3 neon tetra's left, and being in my 25 gallon tank, i would feed my angel, and the little pieces would float around the tank, and the neons would bite at them, but immediately spit the food back out. Then after a couple days, they wouldn't even go after the food, so i would give my angel a treat of blood worms, and one or two would float down, and they would bite at those too, i couldn't tell if they are it, or just spat it back out. But they haven't been eating hardly anything, and they've been getting really skinny, so i took them out of my 25 gallon and put them in a 1 gallon, to try and bring them back up to health. What am i doing wrong? They just don't like to eat?

I have three different types of foods, and they do the same thing with every kind. Bite at it, put it in their mouth, and then spit it back out. The pieces are good size, they fit in their mouth, they could easily eat it, but they just want to spit it back out.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks

[Cliff]

You might want to look into using some garlic. I’ve heard it can encourage fish to eat. You could try soaking some food in garlic juice to see what happens

[ippielb]

I'll try that, thanks. The fish are active still, they aren't having any symptoms of being sick, or parasites or anything. They act normal, but just aren't eating.

[Ashley]

try some algae wafers, mine go crazy for them!

[ippielb]

I'll try a little piece of one and see how it goes.

[Lady Hobbs]

I crushed the flakes up in my fingers. They have very small mouths and will spit out what doesn't fit.

[ippielb]

Same here, they're small enough to be eaten, they just spit them back out no matter the size. They just let the flakes go by, like its not even there.

[HeatherH]

I agree with Hobbs-I feed mine freeze dried bloodworms and flakes that are powdered (I grind it to a powder form) in my fingers. They have actually doubled in size and have gotten fatter since I got them a month ago. That trick really works.

And the algae wafers drive them nutty. They love those things.

[ippielb]

Mine didn't even acknowledge the algae wafer, and they still barely eat any flakes... They're skinny, but active, i dont want them to push up daiseys.

[Lab_Rat]

Try feeding them microworms. My small fish go nuts for them. My tetras also like micropellets. You can add garlic to the water to entice the fish to eat too.

[Excellence]

Yes, their mouths are small. Bloodworms are just too big for them. It's also a rich sort of food, they may not go for it all the time. It's more angels' and loaches' preference.

By rights they should be eating crushed up flakes. Maybe the can is old? Fish are fussy -- they often won't go for "stale" food.

Have you tried brine shrimp? The frozen cubes slowly break apart and float all over. The shrimp are small and soft to eat.