I had a similar experience with my Mono. After recently getting him onto pellets he decided one day to stop eating the pellets alltogether. I tried starving him for a while with no luck and he began to look very skinny. So what i ended up having to do was start feeding him market shrimp and tilapia fillet. But i stick pellets into the fillets so that he still gets some of the nutrition of pellets. Just something to keep im mind for future reference to keep from losing another cichla. Good luck.