They Still Aren't Eating =p

[jakezori]

I just got 2 beautiful fish 1 1/2 weeks ago and they haven't eaten anything yet. They swim around happily when I'm not visable and then they get nervous as soon as I come into the room (I think it's because of my silver dollars who are VERY skiddish). The previous owner said they were eating fine... "I fed the pike and jag pellets bloodworms flakes and plankton" ...

I am trying to get them to eat any variety of pellets/flakes. Kens cichlid flakes, Hikari Gold, sinking carnivore pellets, sinking shrimp pellets, some other cichlid pellets... They just won't eat anything. One reason may be that the silver dollars devour all of the food in the tank before it gets to them, but even the food that the silver dollars miss they don't even look at. First things first, the silver dollars gotta go... Anyway, after that what can I do. Why aren't they eating?

If they don't eat by wed. I will try to feed them some shrimp from my local grocery store.


90 gallon

Stock:

8" Jag

7" pike

4" green terror

4, 5" silver dollars

5" pleco

 

[HrHagel]

Don't be too worried mate, it's pretty normal that newly introduced fish won't eat, and shift the balance and flow of things in the tank.

When i got my female midas she wouldn't eat for almost 2 months, and now she's starting to eat, and looks perfectly healthy still and acts completely normal.

I think you should try starving for 3 days and then add the flakes to the water before throwing pellets in there, since flakes typically will have a very strong smell.

Good luck

 

[fishguts]

tank is overstocked. when my 14 inch jag got sick i put it in my 75 until he got better but he made that 75 look tiny and your 90 is the same size but taller. if the jag and gt get along and you want to keep them in there then id loose some of the other fish like the pike. as far as eating a few days is normal but 10 or 11 days seems a little long to me. maybe they are stressed.

 

[jakezori]

Although I appreciate your post fishguts, what you said doesn't really help me at all. For one, I am well aware of the jaguar's max size and will deal with him accordingly, but for now he will be fine in my 90. As for the rest of the post... I know they should be eating and they are stressed. I'm asking what I can do.

 

[fishguts]

Although I appreciate your post fishguts, what you said doesn't really help me at all. For one, I am well aware of the jaguar's max size and will deal with him accordingly, but for now he will be fine in my 90. As for the rest of the post... I know they should be eating and they are stressed. I'm asking what I can do.

im glad you know about the size and upgrading and such as alot of new members on here do not so thats good. as long as you water quality are at the correct levels and the fish are disease free and healthy then the only thing i can think of that would be stressing them out would be the other tankmates. i dont know what else you can do to get them to eat as you are trying different foods and they just are not taking them yet. just because i never had healthy fish go that long without eating doesnt mean its not normal. tankmate stress or just keep on doing what your doing and hopefully they will eat soon. i dont know what else could be causing them not to eat. best of luck

 

[jakezori]

thanks =) thats the conclusion I have come to so far as well. I am going to have to give my sd's to my LFS

 

[dent20]

When I moved my festae to a new tank it took him more than a week to start eating again. As long as they don't look sick, they'll eat eventually.

 

[HrHagel]

thanks =) thats the conclusion I have come to so far as well. I am going to have to give my sd's to my LFS

The only thing removing the sd's would do, would be in the wrong direction in my experience.
It's alot easyer to get alot of fish to eat, than to get only a couple to eat.

Usually a chain reaction occurs, when one fish start to bite and take the food, the rest will follow in a race of who gets the most.
Ofcourse it's not like this in all cases, but i'm gonna go on a limb and say it's like this in most.

If there isn't any bullying and harrasing going on in the tank that you are aware of, then i think you should simply wait it out and let the new arrival acclimate.
Sometimes for a fish to acclimate and feel comfortable in an already established tanks takes more than just minutes/days.
-And it will be highly unlikely your fish will take any serious damage from not eating in a while. trust me on this one.

 

[jakezori]

glad to hear it although I still think I am going to move the silver dollars as they are really skiddish and freak the other fish out... they eat like no other and after a week the other fish havnt even thought about doing so

 

[TrikkyMakk]

I just got 2 beautiful fish 1 1/2 weeks ago and they haven't eaten anything yet. They swim around happily when I'm not visable and then they get nervous as soon as I come into the room (I think it's because of my silver dollars who are VERY skiddish). The previous owner said they were eating fine... "I fed the pike and jag pellets bloodworms flakes and plankton" ...

I am trying to get them to eat any variety of pellets/flakes. Kens cichlid flakes, Hikari Gold, sinking carnivore pellets, sinking shrimp pellets, some other cichlid pellets... They just won't eat anything. One reason may be that the silver dollars devour all of the food in the tank before it gets to them, but even the food that the silver dollars miss they don't even look at. First things first, the silver dollars gotta go... Anyway, after that what can I do. Why aren't they eating?

If they don't eat by wed. I will try to feed them some shrimp from my local grocery store.


90 gallon

Stock:

8" Jag

7" pike

4" green terror

4, 5" silver dollars

5" pleco

While silver dollars will eat pretty much anything, they should primarily be eating veggie type fish food. I have 10 silver dollars and they are the fish in my tank that get targeted to eat first when feeding time comes around.
I feed them veggie food (similar to http://www.tetra-fish.com/sites/tetrafish/catalog/productdetail.aspx?id=1276&cid=3393).

I slowly feed them all they will eat in 5 minutes, a little at a time. Once they slow down attacking the food it then time to feed the rest of the fish (which in my case means dropping some shrimp pellets for my Corydoras).

Finally, on the other side of the tank I feed my Hikari pellets to my main cichlids.

The trick is to fill up the SDs first.

Also, one more tip, turn out the lights in the room and stand away from the tank once you are done feeding so you might observe them without them noticing you. You can then monitor who is eating and such.