New To MFK, JD Food Question

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V

VTHokie

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 23, 2010
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Virginia
Just wanted to introduce myself to the community. I just revamped my 55gal and got a beastly male JD. This is my first JD and wanted to see what everyone was feeding theirs. I use to keep Oscars (was single and had a lot more room for my old 135gal), so going from experience i'll be rotating the diet. Right now I'm feeding a regular diet of Hikari Gold in the morning, Hikari Bio-Gold at night, and snacks of freeze dried Krill. I also have frozen Beef Heart, Frozen Blood Worms, and Massivore which I rotate in to keep a good variety. Is there any need for an algea based food? I have two plecos, both 5 years old and under 5 inches (The only pleco's I've had that didn't grow into monsters) that i feed algae waffers to mostly at night, but I did notice the JD was interested when I dropped one in there during the day but it was too large for him to swallow (at least for now).
Also, I have tons of earth worms in my yard, but I'm wondering if the lawn fertilizer will do any harm to my fish. Haven't tried to feed them to the JD yet because of this concern. More posts and pictures to come. Thanks!
 
I try to get mine to eat his greens, he used to like them better. He used to like sweet peas (peel off the skin), and if he is hungry enough he'll eat algae wafers. If the wafers are to big for yours try breaking them into smaller pieces, this works well for my convict. I have noticed the more they eat the meatier foods they start to avoid their greens, can't say too much I'm the same way!
 
Exactly. I think he's in the curious stage about food since he just came from the LFS where i'm sure they only feed a staple product with no variation. He tries to eat everything that hits the surface of the tank. He loves the freeze dried krill and tears them up like he's trying to kill them. The only thing he hasn't been crazy for was the freeze dried tubiflex worms. The wafers aren't too bad for him once they've softened up, but i'll try breaking them too.
 
I use to hand feed my oscars raw jumbo shrimp. I hope the JD doesn't get that large, but it was always a neat party trick to hold the huge shrimp over the tank and see the O's come out of the water to grab them.
 
As you have a male, be ready for an 8" to 12" fish. Should take him longer to get there than it would an Oscar, but as you probably know the O wouldn't stop at 12. Most people up here seem to get rid of them before they hit that size, I got mine with the intention of getting him big and old.
 
Yeh, moved here from VA a couple years ago, so far it's not too bad. I had one O that got up to 16 inches and he was mean as hell.
 
You seem to have a pretty good grasp on your JDs diet. As far as earthworms go I wouldn't use them if your yard is fertilized. If you have a flowerbed or something you can dig them up from that would be better but still risky. You can always go to the bait shop and pick up some nightcrawlers they seem to be bigger and more nutritious.

Greens are defiantly good for them. My female loves peas, (skinned, I have tried feeding with skins but she just eats the inside and leaves the skins on the bottom of her tank) Asparagus, and Lima beans.

Once in a while like maybe once a month feed him some fresh seafood. Like if you get some salmon cut him off a little strip. Shrimp, clams, mussels, and scallops are also good treats.

Enjoy your JD they are great fish. I could talk about JDs all day long and never get bored!
 
Yeh, I think i'll build a worm box to keep and raise worms in the garage for food. I think i'll also just start tossing veggies in there to see what he likes.
The one other concern is the large Anubias i have planted in the aquarium. I know cichlids like to dig, but this thing is well rooted and roots are under large rocks to anchor it. I've also read that JD's will eat plants, do you think the anubias will make it? It's been in that tank for 6 years and has gotten really big and provides a lot of cover.
 
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