# Is it okay to hand feed Cichlids?



## elitesrock (May 4, 2011)

My Cichlids were out the water (not really) one day so I decided to stick my hand in the tank (after washing with out soap) and I fed them flakes and they had no problem. 5 days later they started nibbling on my hand instead of the flakes and now they are biting. :chair: Is there something I can do to make them stop biting me. It doesn't hurt but I play foot ball so like I don't want them to draw blood. Should I just stop and feed them regularly?


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## girth vader (Apr 24, 2006)

You have disrupted what we call the "Hand of God" complex.... Once the fish know your hand isnt the hand of god they will peck at it. Keep your hands out for a few weeks and the fear of your hand will be back and they will stay away. Never a good idea to put your hand in anyhow, we carry a lot of micro organisms on our hands....


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## e048 (Dec 23, 2010)

the best part are the battle scars... I hand feed my fish every now and then it keeps my less social fish on their toes... or fins or whatever


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## elitesrock (May 4, 2011)

girth vader said:


> You have disrupted what we call the "Hand of God" complex.... Once the fish know your hand isnt the hand of god they will peck at it. Keep your hands out for a few weeks and the fear of your hand will be back and they will stay away. Never a good idea to put your hand in anyhow, we carry a lot of micro organisms on our hands....


Thanks, I guess I won't hand feed any more.


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## elitesrock (May 4, 2011)

e048 said:


> the best part are the battle scars... I hand feed my fish every now and then it keeps my less social fish on their toes... or fins or whatever


That made me laugh out loud...


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

are you hosin me ??? you play one of the highest pain and injury games on the planet and you are worried about a little tiny fish nibbling on your hand.....
i used to hand feed my piranha....they never bit me.....even my 13 inch oscars never bit me when i fed them..


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I'm with Loha. You need to teach those fish who's boss! If they come to near your hand, make a grab for them. Just like an ancient god, you must be feared, praised, and respected. If my cleaner shrimp starts to annoy me when I'm doing in tank maintenance, I forcibly push it away! He knows who's boss, he just doesn't care. Like me!

I'd love to see a video of this though, it would really make my day, whenever I were to see it.


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## chronoboy (Jan 17, 2011)

this is a bit off topic but yet relates to the topic too. 

last night my cat snuck into my office with me and I didn't notice and as I was on the computer I heard some noise behind, it was my cat jumping up onto the HOB filter and was reaching its paw into the water, as I'm watching I see on of the goldfish take interest and all of a sudden just bum rushed the cat and bit its paw witch in turn caused the cat to jump back and run and when it pulled its paw back it caught the light and it fell into the tank well still on, I ran over there and without thinking I reach in and grabbed it out, but to my surprise it didn't shock me and the light was still on fully submerged under water, I should of been pissed off at the cat but I couldn't stop laughing that a 2 inch gold fish scared the living crap out of my cat, plus I'm the one that got my fish used to my hand being in the tank cause Im always cleaning up torn up plant debree and all my fish besides my rams will come up and nibble on my arms. I bet my cat wont be pawing around in the tanks for awhile.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

"I reach in and grabbed it out, but to my surprise it didn't shock me and the light was still on fully submerged under water,"

This is why we use a grounded plug! LOL at the cat by the way, and I rarely use LOL. :fun:


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## msclark1964 (Jul 23, 2011)

chronoboy said:


> this is a bit off topic but yet relates to the topic too.
> 
> last night my cat snuck into my office with me and I didn't notice and as I was on the computer I heard some noise behind, it was my cat jumping up onto the HOB filter and was reaching its paw into the water, as I'm watching I see on of the goldfish take interest and all of a sudden just bum rushed the cat and bit its paw witch in turn caused the cat to jump back and run and when it pulled its paw back it caught the light and it fell into the tank well still on, I ran over there and without thinking I reach in and grabbed it out, but to my surprise it didn't shock me and the light was still on fully submerged under water, I should of been pissed off at the cat but I couldn't stop laughing that a 2 inch gold fish scared the living crap out of my cat, plus I'm the one that got my fish used to my hand being in the tank cause Im always cleaning up torn up plant debree and all my fish besides my rams will come up and nibble on my arms. I bet my cat wont be pawing around in the tanks for awhile.


This had me laughing about the cat for a long time!! My son and I joke about his cat doing this in our tanks!


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