Hey all. I have a calico ranchu and a panda telescope. When I feed the panda has a very hard time. I have had food fall on him/her and it just looking around. I know I have been over feeding but am worried about the Panda not getting enough to eat. The ranchu is a little better. I soak flakes and pellets. Also have bio-gold that goes right down and the other day I gave them peas.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Hi,
I have a telescope in a tank with a fantail and an oranda. My telescope is very slow finding the food also (eyesight problem typical to telescopes). The fantail is a real pig and will really stuff herself fast.

This is what I do--I drop in a few pellets by the fantail--she is up at the top instantly--even though they are sinking pellets, she gets them before they hit the bottom--while she is distracted doing that, I drop some more that fall down where the telescope is. The oranda is fairly calm and finds enough pellets with out a problem.

So my method is to drop food in stages--it doesn't take long . I enjoy watching them eat so I stand there and make sure that Pearl (the telescope) gets enough. Sometimes she is frantically looking everywhere for food and I love it when she finally finds it. I have a bare bottom tank so I can see what I have dropped in and exactly what they have eaten.

Some people take their slow eaters out and feed them in a bucket of tank water. I think that would be too traumatic. But it works for some.

edit: A better suggestion is to train your panda to be fed by hand. It take a bit of patience at first but it is fun and satisfying to do.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. The ranchu isn't a pig, just doesn't find the food too quickly either.

How do you train them to hand feed?

If you're going to hand feed, don't do it anywhere near the surface. They can get used to it, and they might start begging at the surface all the time when you're around instead of swimming around.

Yeah, two of my fish do this, when I'm too close to the tank, they will hover around the surface waiting for food. I don't hand feed them, I just drop the food from the top. I guess they figure close to hand that drops food is better.

Ya my fish do that, i could never keep the cover open with out a
puddle of water on the floor...Im trying to get them use to being feed
under the water so they stop splashing water every where

blb-My Black moors don't seem to have problems,but like people have
said the best way is to hand feed them.At first it's hard but they should understand
after awhile...

Yes i have the same problem with my black moor not able to getting enough food so im currently hand feeding her and its working great! just have some patient first it'll be intimated but then eventually it'll open up. Its the best feeling in the world when it grabs food out of your fingers!

Thanks everyone. The telescope panda is starting to watch me and is getting a lot more of the food. They both wait at the bottom because I soak the flakes and pellets and have other food that sinks. I worry about stomach problems with feeding at the top. I have reduced the amount and they are finding and getting it all.