Feeding my Jag

fish_freak

Retired Mod
Feb 15, 2002
1,677
1
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Great Barrington, MA
I purchased a new Jag on saturday and he has yet to eat. Ive tried flake pellets frozen brine shrimp and cut up trout worm. He will try all of it and takes intrest in it but after he eats a piece of whatever is in there he spits it back out. The **** LFS was giving the tank baby guppy's and Im not ready to go that route yet. Im not that concerned yet as its only been a few days and I figure when he gets hungry enough he will eat but any idea's that you might have to entice him would be appreciated. Tank is 90 gal in my sig. Water parameters normal.
 
dont worry your jack is just spoiled on guppies, just like a little kid that will only eat candy. Just keep starving him and he will eventually start eating. your jack will not starve himself to death. JUst dont feed him for a couple more days and then try it again if it doesnt work repeat the process. the only time it gets serious is when he hasnt eatin for two or more weeks. But im pretty sure he will come to after the first week maybe the first week and a half at most. im sure of it.
 
as the others have said, it may be a simple case of 'new environment' and if you give him some time, he'll get to the business of eating.

be aware though that generally speaking, "feeder fish" are almost always maintained at your LFS in very overcrowded tanks with poor water quality. they're not fed a nutritious diet, almost always harbour numerous pathogens and parasites and are thus in very poor condition. if you feed these to your healthy fish at home, your fish will contract one or more of these pathogens and parasites. moreover, since these feeders are not fed very well, they contain very little nutritional value for your fish.

i mention this because generally, a fish that won't eat is not a healthy fish and taking in food followed by spitting it back out 'can' be a sign of intestinal parasites. while i would not worry just yet, i would watch your fish carefully for signs of disease .. try and catch any problem as early as you can.

while fish 'can' probably go for two weeks without eating, it's generally not a good idea to starve them this long since it can weaken their immune system and set them up for problems down the road.

the best food for cichlid is a varied diet consisting of various quality pellets manufactured by such as Hikari, OSI and others. freeze dried krill, earthworms obtained from your garden (never from an area treated with pesticides or fertilizers), crickets, grubs and other "live" foods that you find yourself are also good.
 
Well I dont want to starve everyone in the tank so at this point im still going to be feeding the tank. Liv2padl I was kind of concerned about parasites as well but hes not eating and spiting a lot of food he will generaly try one piece of something new that I put in after he see's everyone else eating it but then spits it back out so my fingers are crossed that he won't have internal parasites. As far as feeders go I never use them for the reason's you mentioned. This only LFS around that has a decent cichlid selection and they feed all the more predatory cichlids with feeders I think in hopes that you will go back and keep buying them. As it is this place is a half hour drive or I would go some where else. For whatever reason connecticut seems to lack in LFS these days.
 
I can not get my Jag to take pellets or flakes he will only take live food or frozen foods if its not meaty enough he really doesent care about it. soon enough he will hog everything and it will be a struggle to get food to the others. I cut up earth worms and drop 5 in at once for my gt jd serevum and jag the jag will snag 3 before the others get any.
 
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