My Texas Cichlid Stopped Eating, Suggestions?

[steven530]

I have a large tank that I had a Texas Cichlid in with various other cichlids. He was always a docile one that fed well and got along great with everyone then overnight he got very aggressive and started being extremely territorial and shredding it's tankmates. So I moved him to a smaller tank by himself and now he's stopped eating. It's been over a week and he won't eat and it's starting to show. He was on a diet of some Wardley's Shrimp pellets, mostly TetraCichlid Cichlid sticks, and frozen brine shrimp and beef heart every now and then. Now he won't touch any of it, any suggestions on what will get his appetite going before I lose him?

 

[england]

was the new tank set up first?
he might be angry youve moved him.......my jaguar took three weeks to eat
try getting some feeder shrimps<live>from lfs
then try this with good quality pellets, cichlids do get fussy as they grow, my oscars used to eat anything and now only it hilraki where as my jag only eats bottom feeder pellets

 

[steven530]

Yes, the new tank had been set-up for a while. That's good to hear he might just be mad at me for a bit and that something might not be wrong. I've been stressing crazy about it. Thanks for the advice, I'll try the live food.

 

[england]

dont take my advice as gospel please
as iam only a weeee novice myself, had cichlids now for 2years but this is my exsperience
hope everything goes ok for you......if i find out anything new i will let you know

anyhow so what fish do you have and tank size?
iam always intrestred

 

[steven530]

dont take my advice as gospel please
as iam only a weeee novice myself, had cichlids now for 2years but this is my exsperience
hope everything goes ok for you......if i find out anything new i will let you know

anyhow so what fish do you have and tank size?
iam always intrestred

yeah but any reassurance is good.
i have a 50 gallon tank.
in it i have a itty bitty Albino Tiger Oscar, a Pacu (which I didn't how big would get would I got stuck with it but Im finding out lol), 2 small jack dempseys, 2 smaller unknown cichlids, a rope fish, and 8" a common pleco.

 

[england]

well that tank sounds a wee bit small for that stock.....
pacus deff got to go unless your going to upgrade to a 300 plus gallon tank,get rid quick while its still small as big fish are diff to rehome,,,

but as goes the min reccomendation for a oscar alone is 55g long tank and id have to say bigger, mines grown from 0.5inch to a wopping 11inch in a year,,
so i would have to say mate upgrade to a nice size tank 5ft/2ft/2ft ==== 6ft/2ft/2ft =======7ft/2ft/2ft

try them for rehoming your fish,,,,or they may know someone

<a href="http/www.monsterfishrescue.com/" target="_blank">http/www.monsterfishrescue.com/</a>

 

[Colin_T]

Your Texas matured. He became territorial when puberty hit.
Most big cichlids will sulk when moved from their home into another tank, especially if the new tank is smaller. Don't bother putting pellet food in for a few days and try him on live fish or shrimp. Depending on where you live you could collect gambusia or glass shrimp from a local stream. Some shops sell them as well. If not a couple of small goldfish or livebearers, mollies, swordtails, etc can be used. If you don't like the idea of feeding live foods get some raw river prawn, shell it and use a needle and thread to push a piece of cotton thru the prawn. Tie a single knot in the end of the string so the prawn doesn't fall straight off and lower the prawn into the tank. Hold the other end of the string and jiggle the prawn about in the tank. The knot should hold the prawn on and if the fish grabs it the prawn should come away quite easily. Remove any food not eaten and monitor water quality.
Fish can live for months without food so a few days without eating isn't a problem.

 

[steven530]

Your Texas matured. He became territorial when puberty hit.
Most big cichlids will sulk when moved from their home into another tank, especially if the new tank is smaller. Don't bother putting pellet food in for a few days and try him on live fish or shrimp. Depending on where you live you could collect gambusia or glass shrimp from a local stream. Some shops sell them as well. If not a couple of small goldfish or livebearers, mollies, swordtails, etc can be used. If you don't like the idea of feeding live foods get some raw river prawn, shell it and use a needle and thread to push a piece of cotton thru the prawn. Tie a single knot in the end of the string so the prawn doesn't fall straight off and lower the prawn into the tank. Hold the other end of the string and jiggle the prawn about in the tank. The knot should hold the prawn on and if the fish grabs it the prawn should come away quite easily. Remove any food not eaten and monitor water quality.
Fish can live for months without food so a few days without eating isn't a problem.

that could def. be a good reason. he did get huge all the sudden and more colorful. then a few weeks later is when this happened. this is my first big tank so im pretty new to it all. i live in a big city with no where to catch anything myself around. But but would Ghost shrimp be suitable you think? If that doesn't work than I could do that prawn idea. He's not big at all (3"-4") so dunno about feeder fish. Maybe some minnows could do. thanks so much for the help. I really appreciate it. He's one of my favorite fish.

 

[Colin_T]

Ghost shrimp and glass shrimp are the same thing so they would be great to try. Also minnows if you can get them. But give him a couple of days and see how he acts. You might not need to offer him any live food.

 

[shroob]

dont take my advice as gospel please
as iam only a weeee novice myself, had cichlids now for 2years but this is my exsperience
hope everything goes ok for you......if i find out anything new i will let you know

anyhow so what fish do you have and tank size?
iam always intrestred

yeah but any reassurance is good.
i have a 50 gallon tank.
in it i have a itty bitty Albino Tiger Oscar, a Pacu (which I didn't how big would get would I got stuck with it but Im finding out lol), 2 small jack dempseys, 2 smaller unknown cichlids, a rope fish, and 8" a common pleco.

For 50 gallons that tank is massively overstocked, sorry to put it bluntly like that but you need to rehome most of the fish there. The oscar, the pacu, the reedfish, the unkown cichlids (better to be safe than sorry) and plec. You could possibly keep the 2 JD's depending on the dimensions of the tank.

This will be better for all fish concerned in the long run.