# Jack Dempsey not eating!?!?!?



## <3JackDempsey<3

okay, i have a 9 inch jack dempsey in a 55 gallon tank with 4 convict cichlids... (one is 6 inches, and the rest range between 3 and 4 inches.) recently, my jack dempsey stopped eating after i moved her to another tank because my Algae eater died.... i did a complete water change and added aquarium salt today to see if it was a problem with ammonium in the water. Still, she's not eating anything. 

i feed her Hikari Gold Cichlid Staple and she used to pick up the shrimp pellets I'd feed to the Convict Cichlids since they enjoy being bottom feeders. She used to eat the floating pellets but now all she does is come up to the top, look at it, and swim away... she seems excited when she looks at it.

do you think it's time i start feeding her feeder fish?? can somebody help me with this?? I tried moving her to another tank but she ended up floating on her side till i moved her back into the 55 gallon tank. I'm becoming worried. please help :/


----------



## petlovingfreak

What are the other parameters of the water, other than the AMMONIA? what other changes have you made lately if any?


----------



## Superfly724

It could just be in shock from the moving. Fish tend to lose their appetite during tank changes and things like that. Give it a week or so. If it still isn't eating, then you may have a real problem.


----------



## emc7

Hopefully, its just stress. But watch for signs of internal parasites (weird white, clear, narrow or wiggling poo, sunken belly). Looking at food, but not eating it, is one of the signs. Floating on her side after a move is bad. Is the amount of salt in the two tanks different? Moving a fish to a tank with different water can hurt a fish.

I wouldn't try feeders as they bring in disease, but you could try live brine shrimp.


----------



## Peeps

We need your water parameters,

ammonia
nitrite and
nitrate

Fish don't like to be moved or disrupted that way so it could be from the move, he could be scared.


----------



## <3JackDempsey<3

emc7 said:


> Hopefully, its just stress. But watch for signs of internal parasites (weird white, clear, narrow or wiggling poo, sunken belly). Looking at food, but not eating it, is one of the signs. Floating on her side after a move is bad. Is the amount of salt in the two tanks different? Moving a fish to a tank with different water can hurt a fish.
> 
> I wouldn't try feeders as they bring in disease, but you could try live brine shrimp.


okay well there are signs of an Ich parasite in teh tank and i just added the salt after a week of having her back in the 55 gallon tank.. :/ so it wasn't the salt amounts. but the fish i had in the other aquarium are now showing signs of velvet. so hopefully i didn't give my Jack Velvet because that means my convicts are infected as well. 

Live Brine shrimp sounds great! i've never even thought of that.  thank you for the idea! ^_^


----------

