Meet Monty

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
tpeters

tpeters

Exodon
MFK Member
Sep 5, 2011
46
0
21
San Marcos, CA
Hey guys,
I picked up a baby jag a couple weeks ago and just had a couple questions. I got him from my LFS and he was about an inch and a half MAYBE 2 inches. He is already growing steadily and is already up to about 2.5 pushing 3 inches. He is on a diet consisting primarily of new life spectrum cichlid pellets but also gets tilapia, quarantined guppies, ghost shrimp, krill and occasionally beef heart. Was curious how much these little guys should be eating. I try to keep it at 1 meal per day consisting of one of the previously mentioned foods or sometimes a combo of a couple foods. Even with this feeding schedule he is constantly hungry. Every time I walk into the room he goes straight to the top expecting food. Just wanted to know if it is bad to feed him say twice a day, once in the morning between 10-12 and then once in the evening between 7-10. Right now he is in my 37 gallon being used as a quarantine grow out tank and will be going into our 240 once he gets a bit of size on him, say 5-6 inches. I have heard mixed reviews as far as keeping them with other fish but we do have a 12-13 in male oscar and a 5-6 inch unsexed dempsey. Is it true that cichlid community tanks tend to do better when all the fish are male? If we get him in there and there seem to be problems I will remove the jag from the 240 and look into rehoming, just hoping it all works out. Just curious on your guys thoughts.

Here is a picture of the little guy right after I got him home. He has since grown a little but I will try to get some update pics in a couple weeks when his growth is a little more noticeable.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Your doing fine with the feeding, if you think this guy can eat more then feed him more often. Grow him out faster that way.
 
Just wanted to check. I don't feed him too much at any one given time. Just sometimes I feed him in the AM and I'll get home from work he looks like he's digested and is looking for food. Wanted to make sure it was ok to give him some pellets at that time.
 
It really isn't necessary to feed all those extra foods if you're feeding him NLS pellets. Those pellets alone are enough nutrition for him. With juvi cichlids, I tend to feed 3 times a day at spaced out time frames. (1 at 8AM, 1 at 4PM and 1 at 8PM) The tilapia and all the other frozen/live foods you're feeding him aren't necessary and the nutrition in them doesn't even come close to the nutrients found in a quality pellet like NLS. Remember, water changes and good food will allow for maximum growth and a large tank.

Keeping all male cichlids will prevent them from pairing up and potentially killing all their tank mates, but even then male cichlids have also been reported to pair up with other males so lol. However, keeping all male cichlids does not mean there will not be any trouble. It depends on the individual fish themselves if they want to get along with their tank mates.
 
Water said:
It really isn't necessary to feed all those extra foods if you're feeding him NLS pellets. Those pellets alone are enough nutrition for him. With juvi cichlids, I tend to feed 3 times a day at spaced out time frames. (1 at 8AM, 1 at 4PM and 1 at 8PM) The tilapia and all the other frozen/live foods you're feeding him aren't necessary and the nutrition in them doesn't even come close to the nutrients found in a quality pellet like NLS. Remember, water changes and good food will allow for maximum growth and a large tank.

Keeping all male cichlids will prevent them from pairing up and potentially killing all their tank mates, but even then male cichlids have also been reported to pair up with other males so lol. However, keeping all male cichlids does not mean there will not be any trouble. It depends on the individual fish themselves if they want to get along with their tank mates.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I know the pellets are sufficient, I just try to switch it up once in a while to keep him interested. The other foods mentioned are what we usually are feeding to the fish in the 240 so I want him to continue to see those items as food.

Thanks for clarifying about the all male question. I hope all goes well when he does go in, just plan on keeping a close eye on everyone to see how it goes. Does it make any difference if he going to be the younger fish going in? I feel if the larger fish have already claimed their territory it may help calm him down a bit and keep him in his place. I don't know if there is any validity to that thought, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
tpeters said:
Thanks for the info. I know the pellets are sufficient, I just try to switch it up once in a while to keep him interested. The other foods mentioned are what we usually are feeding to the fish in the 240 so I want him to continue to see those items as food.

Thanks for clarifying about the all male question. I hope all goes well when he does go in, just plan on keeping a close eye on everyone to see how it goes. Does it make any difference if he going to be the younger fish going in? I feel if the larger fish have already claimed their territory it may help calm him down a bit and keep him in his place. I don't know if there is any validity to that thought, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Again, it all depends on your fish. However, I do not expect a 12-13" Oscar to be very welcoming to a 6" jag. Cichlids will defend their territory, and will even kill intruders. You do have a large tank though, hopefully theres lots of places your Jag can hide under. Once your Jag gets bigger than the Oscar, the tables may turned. Hopefully your Oscar and Jag will be able to get along.
 
Right now we have 3 pieces of malaysian driftwood each about 24 inches arranged around the tank, and a couple small pieces of root wood. We plan on doing some rock work soon to create a few more hiding places so hopefully that should help. Do you think adding a few dithers, something like a few congo tetras would be beneficial?
 
Start growing out some silver dollars if you can't find ones that are too large to fit in your O's mouth. When I had a large Oscar tank they made for a great schooling target fish. Hopefully since the Jag will be introduced into the Oscar's territory the Jag will be able to put up with a little bullying. If the Jag ever realizes that he could beat the snot out of the Oscar, then your Oscar could be in trouble. Be ready with a tank divider if they get aggressive toward eachother.
I understand the varied diet, but as mentioned your staple food is sufficient. A snack every now and then will keep them interested. I would also agree that 2-3 times a day for food is a good option. When i was growing out my O's and JD's i would follow a 3 time a day schedule (7am, 4pm, 9pm) feed schedule when i worked, and on days i was off I would up it to 4 times a day. That didn't include a snack of a krill or live cricket or something like that that i would toss in occasionally. I think the food increased the interaction with the fish and made them more personable. Hand feeding an Oscar is fun. Just keep up with the water changes. I typically do a 25-50% change on Sundays and Thursdays.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom