Jack Dempsy not eating

[billfish]

I'm hoping someone might be able to shed some light on this.

I have a Jack Dempsy that is 3 years old and for the past two months, yeah your reading that right, 2 months has refused to eat....anything! His behavior changed in that he just wanted to hang out at the bottom of the tank or hide behind the tank decorations, and could care less when I opened the lid to drop in food. His tank mates are all there, and doing fine.
Now I must add at this time he is back to his old self and greedily eating everything I drop in there for him, just as fast as I drop it in.
He started eating a couple of days ago, just as suddenly as he had quit eating 2 months ago.
Any ideas as to why this guy quit eating for such a long time?

Thanks for any input.......

[Ghost_knife]

fish are odd that way. maybe somthing happend and stressed him, you may never know. whats the best thing is that he's eating.

[PhillyIn06]

My guess would be he didn't like the food or something and finally got too hungry and started to eat again.

[slowlyburn]

mine is about a year or so and he is about 9inches and about 6 months ago he quit eating with the other fish and hides all the time... He still does it... We have to feed him at night.

[fish_freak]

I had a Green Texas do that when he was about 2. I thought I was certainly going to loose him but he made it then all of a sudden one day about 2 years later he just turned belly up after a week of odd behavior. I still don't know what happened by im leaning toward something genetic.

[Marinemom]

Fish behavior is that way sometimes. My guess is that something was stressing him and he just would not eat. Humans can get that way too. When I am really stressed even the thought of food can make me sick. His hunger got the best of him and now he is eating. This is really good news. Many times when a fish stops eating for such a long time that is a sign that they have given up and do not want to live anymore. I am glad that he is eating for you.

Marinemom

[billfish]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have had many JD's off and on thru the years but had never experienced this with any of them or any fish that I recall for that matter. This paticular fish has been a real favorite of mine, as I have trained him to take food from my hand and to play ball with me. By play ball I mean I take a ping pong ball and drop it in the tank and he will come to the top and hit it with his mouth, popping it up out of the tank where I catch it and toss it back. Of course this dosen't always work, as he dosen't always want to play.
I'm just glad he is eating and acting more himself.