# firemouth not eating...



## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

Hello fishforum community!

Two weeks ago I put a couple of firemouths in my African Tank (yes, I saw the sticky). The firemouths, being bigger than my Africans, are more or less the "dominating" fish. Both of them look and act healthy except for the fact that one of them is refusing to eat.

Both of them tend to hide when I walk up to the tank, but the one that does eat will come out briefly for a few bites, and actively seek food on the bottom, especially after I leave the area. The other one shows no interest in food whatsoever. Currently I'm feeding the spectrum Cichlid sinking pellets. I've also tried bits of algae wafers. 

I guess next thing to try is live food, right? What kind of live food would I want to get? Anything else I can do? Non live food that firemouths happen to love? Should I give up and take 'em back to the store?

Any help is greatly appreciated!


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

pyrofish said:


> Should I give up and take 'em back to the store?


Is that a retorical question?
*cough cough*
:lol:


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## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

Ah, so I see...

Should I take them both back or just the one that isn't eating? 

In case you are confused as to why I waited this long to to get help...It is because I didn't know. I've been away while my mom has been feeding my fish. 

I just bought some Hikari gold medium floating cichlid pellets, thinking that the firemouths were the only ones that could fit it in their mouths...wrong! These fiesty little green spotted cichlids...can't remember what they are called now...snatch it up and cram it in their mouths.


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## Gump (Aug 2, 2006)

well if your tank is set up for african cichlids then thats probally the reason that your americans arent doing well. If i were you id take both firemouths back to the store unless you plan on setting up another tank for them.


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## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

I do have another tank setup at my disposal, but it is only a 29 gallon. Plus wouldn't aggression be a problem with only two of them in the same tank?

It's just the one firemouth that isn't eating, and he/she isn't showing any signs of stress or disease. For instance, it has its full color on its belly and looks healthy. Is it possible that this particular fish could just be constipated?

It is acting kind of slightly like an African that is holding would... It stares at the food but lets it drift by. Maybe I should set up a camera and see if it eats when I leave the room.

I know, alot of speculation in one post!

Thanks for the responses so far guys!


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