JD still spitting out and reeating food

Yoemen

In Boogeyman's closet
Nov 2, 2005
765
0
0
Galveston
My Jack Dempsey is still eating and spitting out and eating his food. He has been doing this the entire 2.5 weeks I have had him. I have fed him freeze dried shrimp, medium sized hikari gold cichlid pellets, cichlid sticks, and even tried flakes. Hit continuously eats and spits them out until they are basically gone. He doesn't appear to chew them, just tries to swallow them whole.

I have heard this might be internal parasites, but he shows none of the other signs. He is active, doesn't rub up against things, his belly isn't bloated, he definitely appears hungry, nothing trailing from his anus, no symptoms of HITH either.
 
How old is he? Has he ever done this before?

He may just not be able to chew it very well. I have more than one cichlid that does the same with large foods, they do just fine :)
 
hmm

no clue how old he is, I have had him for 2.5 weeks and his is 5 inches or so.
 
i'd try starving him or a few days maybe he'll eat it then...i highly doubt its the cause of parasites. i just got 2 jd's and they're spitting out food. i've starved them for 3 days...i'll let you know how it works tomorrow :)
 
My JD did this for the first week. Now, he eats anything that I drop in the tank. I've had him for about a month.
 
I agree with not feeding him for a couple days... that's how I used to handle picky eaters, or new fish that were still stressed, but I haven't run into that issue in a long time.

I'd also try other types of food. Some individuals just don't like certain types of food...

HTH
 
remember how i had that really shy JD last week, well he' becoming more outgoing by the day. doesn't let a single piece of food hit the ground and eats everything!
 
I had an angel that used to do that. It was because the food that I was feeding was too big. Break it up and he would eat it no problem. Have you tried breaking the food into smaller pieces?
 
hmm

well he is 5 inches or so. He is in with a 2 inch Texas Cichlid I am holding onto for a friend of mine. The Texas goes up and devours whatever I put in. The JD isn't really shy anymore unless my dog charges the fish tank. He just doesn't seem to be very interested in the food. He will sometimes look like he is yawning. I see him sometimes picking at the anacharis and moneywort. He is very active in the tank, he just doesn't eat, at least not when I am watching. I have tried freeze dried krill, spirunella pellets that akapaul suggested to me, sinking shrimp pellets, algae wafers, predator wafers, hikari gold pellets(which the Texas devours), cichlid sticks, and oscar bites.
 
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