big ole trimac won't eat

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darthodo

darthodo

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2006
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Georgia
My old trimac male quit eating this weekend. Haven't seen him eat in 3 days. He must be eating something cuz the food on the bottom disappears. Otherwise he acts great. He is banging the glass trying to bite me and swimming around following me. I wonder if this is a phase or is he compacted. Doesn't look bloated. Have you all seen a fish do this before?
 
Did you recently change his tank setup or change anything else?

Three weeks ago I took my Argentea out of my 125 and put him in a 75. He had a good appetite in the 125. Since I put him in the 75, he has hardly eaten. He acts healthy and comes to the glass when I approach, but he hasn't really wanted to eat. Today is the first time I have gotten him to eat 2 meals.

Cichlids can be moody and sulk if you change their situation.
 
Thanks for the input.

shamrock;3161002; said:
How much and how often do you feed him?
What do you feed him?
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He gets a few Dainichi pellets once a day.

Angler;3161011; said:
Did you recently change his tank setup or change anything else?

Cichlids can be moody and sulk if you change their situation.
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I haven't changed anything, but I agree that he is very moody.

dogofwar;3161056; said:
Let him fast for a couple or three days...then see if he eats.

If you suspect he's stopped up, give him some epsom salt. Natural laxative...
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Yeah. I've been planning on doing that. I've used epsom salts on fish before with good results, but I'm all out. I'll pick some up today as it is quite inexpensive.

I think he may be eating when I'm not in the room. After I posted this last night I went back and looked in his tank and most of the food I had put in there last night was gone. He seems preoccupied with hurting me when I'm in the room with him and he may be ignoring food when I'm around. If this is true though, it is a change for him.
 
I notice that some of my cichlids will go on a hunger strike when they are larger. My Trimac once refused to eat for close to 2 weeks! Thought he would die but eventually started eating again.
 
It could also mean that when young your Trimac would beg for food and now that he is large he focuses more on killing your hand than eating, so prefers to eat when you are not around.
 
shamrock;3162500; said:
It could also mean that when young your Trimac would beg for food and now that he is large he focuses more on killing your hand than eating, so prefers to eat when you are not around.
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I'm thinking that too.
 
I put some pellets in his tank this afternoon. He ignored them. I hide behind something and watched him. He eventually started picking some of them off the bottom. I changed to a little larger pellet this evening, only putting a very few pellets in there, and he ate them on the way down. He is okay, just persnickity.
 
I have a few cichlids who don't eat when I initially put the food in the water, but when I check later it's all gone.
 
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