Picky fish or parasite?

I have 2 irian red rainbows, 2 bosemani rainbows, and 2 turqoise rainbows a lot of them are picky eaters! I feed my fish hikari brine shrimp, formula 2 spirulina garlic flakes, new life spectrum, tetra min crisps, and aquadine but i noticed that my fish are getting picky with the food. One of my Bosemanis will hack away at the formula 2 flakes while the other will not even go near it but will devour new life spectrum. My 2 irian reds which are barely a week old will spit out EVERYTHING except for live brine shrimp. I am the most worried about them because i do no always have live brine shrimp on hand. Should i be worried? And what should i do to fix it?? Please help!!!

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Permalink Reply by Royce Canlas on December 2, 2011 at 6:23pm

I meant to say i have only had the irian reds for about a week, not that theyre literally only a week old lol

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on December 2, 2011 at 6:54pm

when i got my rainbow..the NLS pellet was still too small for their mouth. They would just nipple at it to get food in. As the are growing, it got easier but they love bloodworm and brine shrimp due to the fact that it's soft and easy to digest and fit inside their mouth.

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Permalink Reply by Royce Canlas on December 2, 2011 at 8:31pm

Does that apply to the freeze dried brine shrimp as well? Because my 2 new irian reds will spit out the freeze dried but eat the live brine shrimp

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on December 4, 2011 at 3:51pm

freeze dried take a while to get wet because they are dry. I use frozen so as it melt..it gets soft right away.

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Permalink Reply by Paul V. Rotondi on December 8, 2011 at 2:42pm

Have you tried live worms (Blackworms, Tubifex, whiteworms), in addition to the live brine shrimp? They're easy for the fish to recognize as food and usually eat them voraciously. They're also easy to culture and raise at home so you always have a continuous supply of them for your finicky fish.

I just started a small blackworm culture to supplement my brine shrimp production...it should help me with my plans to breed Angelfish in the near future. You should be able to get blackworm cultures online, too...