Jack Dempsey refusing to eat and acting shy

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Went through a similar phase with my red texas.tried just about every pellet and flake food, the owner at my lfs handed me a pack of frozen mysis shrimp, said he would eat them, I thawed out one cube, he went crazy for them.after a few days of eating mysis, he started eating other foods again, in the words of the lfs owner"it will give his appetite a jump start"and it did just that

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Tried new flake and pellet brand, got nothing out of him. Fed bloodworms for the first time in a year yesterday and today, he didn't really actively seek them out until they hit the bottom and then he ate what landed close by.

Going to buy the frozen mysis and try those out, the JD's really freaking me out. So far all I know is that it looks great, water params are fine, but that it has no appetite and is extra skittish and shy. Aside from the bloodworms and any snacks it could've had at night (unlikely) the JD hasn't eaten for over 2-3 weeks now. Coloration is still great, only weird thing is that the top of the head looks reddish which I either never noticed before or is new. Thoughts?
 
Looks like a nice fish you have there. What is the water change schedule like? What about parameters?


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Bigger cichlids can be divas. Try doing a big water change & upping your temp to 82F.

Any stringy white poop or anything?
 
No stringy white poop, will up the water temp but how gradually should I do it?

I typically do a water change from 33%-50% once a week, haven't tested parameters waiting for my new test kit to get shipped here. Params "should" be relatively ok because the other fish are fine and the tank has good filtration for the bioload in there right now.
 
And thank you for the compliments, I really lucked out on him/her. Looked pretty average when I bought em at 1" and then grew into a real beauty.
 
Man that's one beautiful jd. I am currently growing out mine right now in a 120 with a midas/red texas, jaguar and a datnoid. My jd is the king of the and is only 2in atm. His blue is showing more and more by the month. Hopefully he'll look like yours. You got a beauty there. Gl

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Still no luck, been doing lots of water changes, tried upping the temps a little bit, nothing so far. JD's been sulking on the bottom of the tank all day today, but his coloring looks great. Also tried beefheart and shrimp pellets today but had no luck yet again.


Any idea what could be wrong?
 
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