Jaguar Cichlid Not eating

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Charl Vos

Feeder Fish
Jun 16, 2021
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0
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Hallo guys,
I have a female jaguar cichlid, parachromis managuensis, and she has not been able to eat lately. She is very eager to eat and is hungry but whenever she takes food in, she almost immediately spits it out. Her gills bulge out as she is spitting, similar to what they do after digging and some sand is still in their mouths. She cannot swallow her food. She has lost a lot of weight and is very skinny.

I will sedate here with clove oil and have a look of what is going on. Maby she will need surgery.

It is worth noting that about a year ago she ate a silver dollar which got stuck in her mouth and i had to manually cut the dead silver dollar up into pieces to remove it.

Please give advice, i love her and do not want to lose her.
 
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Reactions: SilverArowanaBoi, tlindsey and Midwater
Hey Charl,

Were there any changes to her diet / does she ever get feeder fish?

I have raised quite a few large predatory fish and have encountered some which will go through extreme picky phases especially when trying to transition off of live food. Once while transitioning a Vampire Tetra off of live food, I had one which was readily accepting frozen shrimp on a daily basis for several weeks in a row and randomly changed its mind. It went on a hunger strike for nearly two weeks in which I was attempting to feed every day and it would either snub completely or would grab the shrimp, chew on it for a second, and then spit it out (similar to how you are describing). This went on until randomly one day it decided to start eating the shrimp again - still have the fish now and has even fully transitioned onto pellet form of food and is happy and healthy!

It is possible that the attempted predation of the Silver Dollar might have kicked back on her natural instinct to hunt live food.
When I have had predatory fish go through these phases like this - I have found that you can take a strand of very light/clear fishing leader (8 to 10lb test) and tie a loop around the tail section of a dethawed shrimp and use it to essentially “fish” for your fish by making the shrimp seem alive. It may take a bit of patience, but you can generally get predatory fish to accept food this way. I would suggest trying with smaller shrimp/pieces of shrimp if she keeps spitting them out.

Sorry for the book - hopefully this might help!!
 
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Reactions: SilverArowanaBoi
Now sounds like it isn't doing the greatest. You mentioned an incident with a SD. I know live isn't great but if it helps it eat why not try live food. Maybe earthworms?

I'd throw caution about using clove oil, just be careful as it might outright take it if it's weak. If something is further down than it's mouth then unfortunately not much you'd be able to do.
 
I would consider treating it with epsom salt. Shouldn’t hurt it and could help with any intestinal parasites. I think spitting out food could be a symptom of that.
 
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