I recently got a small jack dempsey (about 2” or so) and so far he seems to be doing great. I have him in a 55 with 10 giant danios and that’s it. He’s still pretty shy though but I’m sure he’ll get more confident as he grows. My only issue is getting him to eat, I got the omega 1 small sinking pellets and he just looks at them and shows no interest. I feed the danios some regular flake food and he shows no interest in that either. I give him beef heart and he seems to eat that once it settles on the bottom because after a while it’ll be gone and he’ll have a fat belly. The only thing he’ll eat with any eagerness is blackworms. I don’t want to spoil him with fresh and frozen foods until I know he’s established on prepared foods. Should I be feeding him a different type of prepared food or just keep trying the omega until he takes it?
Young Jack Dempsey Questions
- Thread starter Legendteller
- Start date
You are right to not want to spoil it with the fresh and frozen food. It can be hard to break them of only wanting that. I would suggest feeding the tank with only a good flake for a while. My fish always liked the Omega one flakes. Let him get a little hungry and I bet he will start going for the flakes.
I have a JD who was a lot of the same. Wouldn't eat pellet food for over a year. He subsisted only on my weekly treats of earthworms or bloodworms and occasionally my tetras and rainbowfish.
I got to the point where i was going to trade him to a lfs out of frustration, but the day before i was going to take him he started chowing down on the pellets. He eats well now but still eats my tetras like a punk.
If i were you id try to starve him a little more. I think my biggest problem was i would always get him a treat at least once every few days which reinforced his pickiness.
I got to the point where i was going to trade him to a lfs out of frustration, but the day before i was going to take him he started chowing down on the pellets. He eats well now but still eats my tetras like a punk.
If i were you id try to starve him a little more. I think my biggest problem was i would always get him a treat at least once every few days which reinforced his pickiness.
Yeah once I finish off these blackworms I’m going to feed them nothing but the prepared foods. I just got some of spectrum thera A sinking pellets and all the other fish love them. I haven’t seen him notice them yet but I’m fairly sure he gets whatever sinks off of the bottom of the tank because I see him picking at stuff off in the gravel and I can’t think of what else it would be. Once I see him regularly eating pellet/flake foods I’ll start giving him the good stuff again.
My pair of JDs eat like pigs. I feed omega one floating pellets and shrimp pellets, freeze dried blood worms, new life spectrum cichlid formula, and new life spectrum floating pellets.