Feeding experience

Sorted by achieved success so far:

1. Shrimp By far the best choice. The archers just get totally crazy with shrimp. The attempt of sticking tiny pieces to the glass to have the fishes spit was a great success, at least with two of them. The Shy as usual has no idea of how to catch his own food, so he stays lower and grabs the leftovers. If any...

2. Bloodworms Same kind of reaction to this delicacy: frenzily going at it.

3. Multifit natural food for water turtles is a mix of tiny dried shrimp and crustaceans. So far the only readily accepted dry food. They go for it, but not with particular enthusiasm... I counted on this for my one-week Xmas vacation, but I'll surely have to find something more suitable. It makes them shit white! :-)

4. Tetra Cichlid Sticks Hardly seen as food. These sticks are just too big. It helps breaking them in small pieces, but still they won't be eaten for hours. When the fishes realize that nothing else is coming, and the sticks are eventually soft enough, then they are tasted and eventually enjoyed.

5. Hikari Cichlid Gold strongly recommended by others having the same fishes. Totally ignored so far. But again, I should give them probably a second chance, and keep them in the water for a few hours.

In another category stand crickets. I tried to buy them as small as possible, they're max 1 cm, and yet big enough for my juvenile T. Microlepis. A big success in terms of spitting behaviour, when I manage to introduce one in the tank and have it grab and stay among the aerial leaves: then the hunt is open, and it's better than going to cinema! As soon as I can I'll post some videos. I still have to figure out an easy way to introduce the critters and have them reach the leaves, since that the tank is covered.
The backside is, these creatures smell quite a bit, they do need some care (I managed to loose already 3-4 out of 20 in two days, not sure what's missing...), and frankly handling them is not far from having a little cockroach between your fingers, so all in all not the most pleasant feeling I ever had. Geez, I'm getting old....