Salvini cichlid not eating

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Andradde1994

Andradde1994

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Dec 14, 2020
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São Paulo - Brasil
Hey guys... Ia have a salvini for about a month and a half... She is about 2.5" now... I think its a female beacause of the dot on each gill plate and some of you guys said so on a post i made about her a few weeks ago... So... When i got her... Along with a few other cichlids... I only had some basic flakes... And she was eating reluctantly... Got about five flakes and spit out before actually eating one... Then the same thing again... So i bought some better pellets... And she wouldnt eat not a sigle one... Even got a few but spitted out every time... But kept eating some flakes... Then i asked the guy who sold her what she was eating with him and bought the food he told me... But she didnt came even close to eating that... Today i ran out of flakes and dont know what to do... Someone told me that if need be she will eat... So just let her get hungry enough... Can i do that and kinda force her to eat? Or there is a chance for her actually die if i do this?
 
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Andradde1994 said:
Hey guys... Ia have a salvini for about a month and a half... She is about 2.5" now... I think its a female beacause of the dot on each gill plate and some of you guys said so on a post i made about her a few weeks ago... So... When i got her... Along with a few other cichlids... I only had some basic flakes... And she was eating reluctantly... Got about five flakes and spit out before actually eating one... Then the same thing again... So i bought some better pellets... And she wouldnt eat not a sigle one... Even got a few but spitted out every time... But kept eating some flakes... Then i asked the guy who sold her what she was eating with him and bought the food he told me... But she didnt came even close to eating that... Today i ran out of flakes and dont know what to do... Someone told me that if need be she will eat... So just let her get hungry enough... Can i do that and kinda force her to eat? Or there is a chance for her actually die if i do this?
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The fish will be fine for a couple of days or longer without eating. Try crushing the pellets and see if she will eat. I have a very small EBJ that wouldn't eat flakes or pellet but it was sick. Now the EBJ eats flake, pellet, and freeze dried Mysis Shrimp lol.
 
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tlindsey said:
The fish will be fine for a couple of days or longer without eating. Try crushing the pellets and see if she will eat. I have a very small EBJ that wouldn't eat flakes or pellet but it was sick. Now the EBJ eats flake, pellet, and freeze dried Mysis Shrimp lol.
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At first i was thinking she was sick too... But she doesnt appear to be... She is very active... Swims all over the aquarium... Defends her territory... Desnt show any signs or nothing like that... Just dont want to eat
 
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Andradde1994 said:
At first i was thinking she was sick too... But she doesnt appear to be... She is very active... Swims all over the aquarium... Defends her territory... Desnt show any signs or nothing like that... Just dont want to eat
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I think when she gets hungry enough she will eat.
 
Try soaking the pellets in water with a bit of fresh crushed garlic. Known to stimulate appetite, seems to work at least some of the time.
Another thought, is she could have parasites like hexamita. The biting and spitting out makes the think maybe that's the case. Have you ever seen any white stringy poop?
 
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Had similar behavior with my gt. Got some NLS hex shield and variety frozen fish food and that seems to fix things. I would say wait a few days with no attempts at feeding, maybe increase water change schedule? and then mix the hex shield in with some frozen food.
 
Thank you very much for the replies guys... Never seen any stringy poop in any of them... What i did was to get some of the food the seller told me she was eating before and soak them with a little water and the powder that was left from the flakes she ate... Then she ended up getting one or two pellets this way yesterday... Today i fed them just the pellets in the morning and she ate normally like there was never a problem... I dont know... Must have triggered something lol
 
Hi. Have you checked the quality of your water? One reason why your salvini doesn't want to eat is maybe the water has a poor quality. Or probably she's just not hungry? You can try giving her a high-quality flake food or pellet every day. Adding some blanched spinach and cucumbers will also give the extra vitamins it needs.
 
kristyjackson said:
Hi. Have you checked the quality of your water? One reason why your salvini doesn't want to eat is maybe the water has a poor quality. Or probably she's just not hungry? You can try giving her a high-quality flake food or pellet every day. Adding some blanched spinach and cucumbers will also give the extra vitamins it needs.
Click to expand...
I check parameter every other day... And everything seems ok... Ph in 7.0, zero amonia, zero nitrites, 2x 25% water changes every week... No signs of weakness or anything like that... And all the other fish are doing really well... Tbh all i can think is that she is just a picky eater... But at least today things have improved... She ate very well this morning... Ill keep an closer eye on her for a few days to see if this continues to be the case... And i tried cucumbers... Not even my plecko wants it (guess they reflect the owner that hates it ??)... But il see if they eat spinach... Thanks ?
 
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