Madagascar Rainbows Won't Eat
Dear Friend
<Good morning to you my friend>
I have an urgent question - I have recently bought some Madagascar Rainbows - they looked well at the store but since then they have little interest in what I am feeding them. I read that they would take flakes. After they did not, I tried dried bloodworms and later frozen bloodworms. These do not seem to interest them. Three of them just died, no doubt by starvation.
<You might try feeding them small live foods. Small fishes (if you’re sure they’re disease free) or live worms such as bloodworms. Sometimes even small earthworms will entice finicky eaters.>
Kindly help. Thank You. Faris
<You're welcome! Ronni>

Bloodworms for Rainbows  8/25/06
Hello,
<<Hi, April. Glad to have you back! Tom here again.>>
I need some expert advice that I have not been able to get at the pet store and haven't found searching the internet.  Can you help?
<<You know I'll try.>>
Here it is: I have 7 threadfin Rainbowfish (Iriatherina werneri).  Three males and 4 females.  
<<Very nice choice, April.>>
I had planned on getting more, but the LFS was "closing them out".
The males were added first and hid and shook for 4 days before coming out.
The females were just added 5 days ago and you should have seen the males change.  They were parading around the females and even changing colors.  
Very pretty and impressive.
<<Boys are definitely show-offs regardless of the species. :)>>
Okay, the question.  I bought frozen bloodworms as this is what they were getting at the store along with flakes.  The package has separated cubes to defrost and feed.  The problem is this is way too much.  I just today put a few in the tank and they seemed to like them.  
I read that this species has small throats and food has to be small.  Do I need to cut the worms smaller (yuck)?  
<<The worms will be soft enough for the fish to chew what they can of them. I wouldn't be concerned about this aspect.>>
How long can I keep the rest of the defrosted worms in the fridge?  
<<Personally, April, I wouldn't store these for more than a few days at most.>>
I did plan to feed the bloodworms once a week.  
<<A couple of times a week won't hurt at all. They're a good supplemental food source.>>
With people food I don't keep in the fridge longer than 4 days.  So I wonder if I should give a few more in 4 days then toss the rest?
<<Wasteful as it seems, this strikes me as the best course of action, April.>>  
I also thought it a good idea to feed the worms the day prior to or the day of cleaning/water change to get rid of the uneaten worms.
<<An excellent plan in my opinion.>>   
I read about the foods that Rainbowfish like in general, but due the threadfins smaller size, do you know of better food choices?
<<Not better but you might consider frozen brine shrimp, as well. Small enough, I should say, and also a good supplement. The downside is that it brings us right back to the "problem" with over-supply. One thought would be to see if it's possible to snap one of the cubes in half with a sharp knife, preferably without shooting a chunk of frozen bloodworms through the kitchen window. :) The future alternative would be to go with the freeze-dried variety, the smallest container you can find. Freeze-dried foods lose none of their original nutritional value and would eliminate the waste. As for purchasing small containers of food, I recommend this because the food goes stale after a time.
I don't hold on to any of mine for more than three months before pitching it out and buying new stuff for my guys.>>
P.S.  I want to thank you again for your previous help when I lost the first fish to ICH.  I waited, tested and researched before purchasing these threadfin Rainbowfish.  I really was ready to just give up with the whole aquarium deal.  But thanks to your help and encouragement, I have a nice healthy tank with beautiful fish.  I couldn't have done it without you.
<<If I were having a bad day up until now, that's over with, April. I can't think
of a nicer compliment and I pass that on for all of us here at WWM. Thank you.>>  
Tom, I changed my mind about the "blue Rainbowfish" (8/6/06) since they didn't know or want to know what the scientific name was.  Got me worrying about how big they would really get and how healthy they were.
<<Well done. Actually, it's, legitimately, Melanotaenia praecox. Provided there's been no "tampering", these would have been a good acquisition but, between you and me, I like the Threadfins better. My best to you and the whole "crew", April. Tom>>