I have a 55 gallon aquarium. I have 1 mature Jack Dempsey, one mature Convict, and one mature bristle nose pleco in the tank. All of the fish are around 5 years old. I have never had issues with any of them eating, the jack Dempsey being the most voracious of the bunch. He has always preferred live food, mostly night crawlers and meal worms, but would also eat frozen cubes of all sorts, but never liked pellets or flakes. I recently changed out the substrate from small pebbles to coarse sand. He was fine for the first month or so, but over the past few weeks he has refused to eat. The other fish are eating just fine. He is otherwise healthy looking and color is good. Any suggestions? I live in AZ so the temp is normally pretty warm, but we have had a bit of a cold snap lately, hoping that is the cause. I keep the house at 72 degrees. Is that too cold? Should I invest in a heater? This has never been an issue in the past. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Mature Jack Dempsey Won't Eat please help!
- Thread starter Matthew L Ferguson
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Might have ingested some sand also 72 is on the cold side I'd keep the temp between 78 -80 degrees try uping the temp and see what happens just keep in mind when changing the temperature do it gradually
I have spent a lot of time snorkeling with JDs in Mexico, and at different times of the year, especially during the rainy season, the natural water temps can drop, so I do't see low 70s as out of the ordinary. I would find too warm temps to be more abnormal, because water in the Cenotes wells up from below ground, very unlike warmer sunlit surface temps.
JDs in natural are also not predominantly carnivores, but they are omnivores getting about 50% of their food in the form of algae, and detritus. I usually feed a low protein, high spiraling pellet for omnivores.
That said the older a cichlid gets, the less it needs to eat, so feeding adults every other day may do more to stimulate appetite than daily feedings.
The video directly below was taken in the rainy season, you can see it is a bit stirred up and turbid, and the water quite cool.
Cristalino
another Cenote video, note the depth, its water temp is influenced more by the upwelling currents from below ground. These upwellings put the fish in the cenotes in almost constant 100% water changes every few minutes.
Eden2
Check out the space they have available, to me a 55 is a puddle in comparison, and may influence the activity and lack of appetite of a mature JD.
JDs in natural are also not predominantly carnivores, but they are omnivores getting about 50% of their food in the form of algae, and detritus. I usually feed a low protein, high spiraling pellet for omnivores.
That said the older a cichlid gets, the less it needs to eat, so feeding adults every other day may do more to stimulate appetite than daily feedings.
The video directly below was taken in the rainy season, you can see it is a bit stirred up and turbid, and the water quite cool.
Cristalino
another Cenote video, note the depth, its water temp is influenced more by the upwelling currents from below ground. These upwellings put the fish in the cenotes in almost constant 100% water changes every few minutes.
Eden2
Check out the space they have available, to me a 55 is a puddle in comparison, and may influence the activity and lack of appetite of a mature JD.
Awesome videos! And thanks for the tips. I do buy spirulina infused cubes from time to time and he would always eat them. Also other omnivorous cubes. I have some now and he won't touch them. I even tried smashing them and sinking them right in from of his face and he shows no interest at all. I'm getting concerned at this point. It has been at least 2 weeks and he hasn't eaten a single thing.
Is your Dempsey still having problems? I have 1 in a tank and he used to swim about and be fairly active, well for a captive fish anyway, but the last 3 weeks have been much like what Mathew reported. He sits at the bottom of the tank, usually in a corner, just breathing hard. I have cleaned the tank & maintained the proper water characteristics, 20 nitrite,>.5 nitrite, 0 chlorine/chloramine, 130 alkaline, Ph 7, 0 ammonia. Water temp is 81.1 and has been around 80 since he started having problems. His eyes may also be swollen. I thought they bulged a little normally like my tiger Oscar but it may be more. There are other fish in the tank including a convict that all seem normal and are eating normally. Sorry the temp prob is in the way. Any observations would be helpful.
