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I picked up a managuense cichlid a little more then 3 weeks ago for free, he's almost a foot long. Anyway, saturday he was sitting at the bottom of the tank where he dug a pit behind a rock. He would swim around every once in a while and would not eat. He has not done this sense I got him so i dont know if something is wrong or what. He is in a 125 gallon tank all alone (removed other fish before introducing him to home) with a big piece of holey rock as the center piece and 3 other decent sized rocks for him to hide behind incase he gets spooked. Low lighting. I have two emperor 280 filters and an aquaclear 500 for filtration. Tank has been runing for about 6 months now so it is fully cycled. PH is 7.5, no ammonia or nitrite, nitrate is 35ppm (getting lower and lower after each water change sense i removed the canister filter for some reason) and the alkilinity is pretty low (might be the prob?). I did a 25 % water change last week as i do every week and topped off the water yesterday (dont want to do a water change yet until i get some info on this situation) He ate one gold fish today and put no effort into eating anymore, tried but gave up quickly. He is still not being active as when i first had him. I was feeding him 4 goldfish a day and like with all my fish, dont feed them once a week. Is my feeding the problem? too many, too little? This is my first large fish and i dont take advice from the local pet store (as i lost fish years ago from their advice when i first got into this hobby) so i am not sure if i am caring for him correctly as far as feeding goes. I tried to get him off feeders, but after 10 days of starvation (and not accepting $30 worth of various prepared foods) I started him on feeders again. A week went by and saturday is when he started acting funny. Sorry this is so long but thought i would be as detailed as possible for accurate advice. Thanks for any replies -jonny

Originally posted by jonnyk33184
I picked up a managuense cichlid a little more then 3 weeks ago for free, he's almost a foot long. Anyway, saturday he was sitting at the bottom of the tank where he dug a pit behind a rock. He would swim around every once in a while and would not eat. He has not done this sense I got him so i dont know if something is wrong or what. He is in a 125 gallon tank all alone (removed other fish before introducing him to home) with a big piece of holey rock as the center piece and 3 other decent sized rocks for him to hide behind incase he gets spooked. Low lighting. I have two emperor 280 filters and an aquaclear 500 for filtration. Tank has been runing for about 6 months now so it is fully cycled. PH is 7.5, no ammonia or nitrite, nitrate is 35ppm (getting lower and lower after each water change sense i removed the canister filter for some reason) and the alkilinity is pretty low (might be the prob?). I did a 25 % water change last week as i do every week and topped off the water yesterday (dont want to do a water change yet until i get some info on this situation) He ate one gold fish today and put no effort into eating anymore, tried but gave up quickly. He is still not being active as when i first had him. I was feeding him 4 goldfish a day and like with all my fish, dont feed them once a week. Is my feeding the problem? too many, too little? This is my first large fish and i dont take advice from the local pet store (as i lost fish years ago from their advice when i first got into this hobby) so i am not sure if i am caring for him correctly as far as feeding goes. I tried to get him off feeders, but after 10 days of starvation (and not accepting $30 worth of various prepared foods) I started him on feeders again. A week went by and saturday is when he started acting funny. Sorry this is so long but thought i would be as detailed as possible for accurate advice. Thanks for any replies -jonny

Tony (worldcichlids dot com, one of our administrators) makes a good point at his website when talking about these large Nicaraguan lake Cichlids, and that is they oftentimes extend their "territory", or their awareness, out into the room and not just the tank. I've read that a few of these species (Wolf, Jaguar, Red Devil) will actually attempt to attack people and pets that are in the room with the aquarium. I currently have a juvi (5 to 6 inch) Red Devil that already does that. Your new Jag may simply need a little time to get used to his new surroundings -- not just the aquarium, but the entire room. If there's a lot of activity in the room, i.e. people walking by, noises like stereos and slamming doors, a TV, etc., especially something that may have started or changed on Saturday, it may take a while for him to become himself. If you think that it may be activity in the room scaring him, you may want to block his view somehow by placing furniture in such a way that accomplishes that. Meanwhile, keep an eye on his gills, fins and stability. If the gills are reddening, the fins looking "shredded", and/or his orientation in the water becoming difficult, then you may need to medicate the aquarium with a general med.

I think at a foot in length, he's probably at least 5 years old. That opens the possibility that in his previous home(s) he may have been in a situation where he needed to hide and he's simply used to living like that. He may have had larger, aggressive tankmates, or some other situation where he felt the need to hide, and over time that helped shape a personality.

Anyway, I'm thinking that he just needs a little time to get used to his surroundings. Just one opinion --

--Mark:cool:

thank you for the reply. After reading your post i noticed i missed a couple things. He is in a bedroom where there is little noise/traffic (a motorcycle may drive by a few times a day). Because of that, very few people see him other then me, and if i go up to the tank he will swim to me and look at me so he does not seem to be afraid of much. At the pet store he was in with a smaller jag and 4 or 5 large pacus but the jags seemed to defend themselves easily. I read many, many stories of jags attempting to attack their owners or vacume tubes but mine seems very mild and does not show aggression so maybe he had tank mates at one time and is now lonely? For the good news, he ate 6 gold fish yesterday, which still brings up the question about his diet. Should i feed him raw fish or beef heart from the grocery store to mix things up a bit? anyway, i thought fish like this grew approx. 1in per month and reached a large size rather fast? got to go now -jonny

I don't have any direct experience with Jags, but goldfish are really not great as a staple. There are various long-term strategies that work for weaning most fish off feeders. Try freeze-dried krill, for example, or frozen silversides. Then try out some of the Hikari food sticks (with the Arowana on the package). You can alternate goldfish in there as well, until he really accepts the substitutes. Then try moving to pellets. Some fish like certain pellets and not others, but once they start accepting pellets of any kind you can usually get them to eat the ones you have. Takes some patience, but it's well worth it. Mealworms are also good as a treat every now & then, as are earthworms and other crawlies. IMO you'd really be doing him a favor to get him to accept the prepared foods. Better nutrition overall.

yes i agree with you 100 % about the feeders. I feed them cichlid flakes (buy 25 at a time and put them in a seperate tank) to try to put some nutrition in them. I tried the frozen krill, krill in a can, two diff. pellets (not the kind you mentioned, i'll try those). I have seen the silversides (i think, they were silver ) in the freezer at the pet store, one guy told me they may be too salty (not true?) but i'll pick them up if they are better then gold fish and give it a try. Everything I have tried to feed him so far, he would chew, then spit it out his mouth/gills even after 10 days of starvation (soaked the pellets, also fed to him as is). Someone in an aol chat room told me to feed him beef heart and raw fish from the grocery store but I am not sure about that. How long should i go without feeding him (feeders) until he accepts prepared foods? Dont want to kill him, and dont want him to think ill give him gold fish every 4 or 5 days just to keep him alive. Got to hit the sack now, thank you for the advice, appreciate it. -jonny

If he's taking the pellets -- even if he seems like he's spitting them out through his gills -- he should be OK. A lot of the big cichlids eat that way. My Oscars make the tank look like its raining food, but they're definitely swallowing plenty as well.

Originally posted by jonnyk33184
. . . anyway, i thought fish like this grew approx. 1in per month and reached a large size rather fast?. . . .

Not in my experience. I've seen claims, especially lately, in forums and on the internet that Oscars can grow an inch a month, but it's never happened in my personal experience. The one Jag I kept was a slow grower, he grew in size from an inch to 2+inches in about 4 months while I was babysitting him for a local LFS. The one-inch-per-month thing may be absolutely true, but it's never happened in one of my tanks, even with species famed for quick growth. I think the fastest grower I ever had was a Pacu that may have grown a half inch per month --

--Mark:cool:

ok maybe he was taking the pellets then. He seemed to spit an awful lot out though. There is a display tank at my work with two large oscars and they dont spit their pellets out, so I take it every fish has his own way of doing things. It's just weird he doesn't do the same with the gold fish (other then the scales). It is interesting having a large fish but alot different then having a tank full of 5in cichlids Thanks for the replies guys -jonny

Originally posted by jonnyk33184
ok maybe he was taking the pellets then. He seemed to spit an awful lot out though. There is a display tank at my work with two large oscars and they dont spit their pellets out, so I take it every fish has his own way of doing things. It's just weird he doesn't do the same with the gold fish (other then the scales). It is interesting having a large fish but alot different then having a tank full of 5in cichlids Thanks for the replies guys -jonny

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My Jag has a mixed diet of feeders and pellets. Initially the big guy spit a lot of the pellets out. but i trained him that no more pellets are coming if he spit it out. I feed the pellets one at a time. Sometimes a couple at a time. When I'm sure that he's taken the pellets in, I put in the next one.