Jaguar Not Feeding

[Juannie]

HELP!! I have a gorgeous jaguar whom I moved into a tank by itself as it was attacking and damaging my oscar. It seems quite happy in the tank and I see it playing regularly. The only problem is it is a very very fussy eater. I've tried various pellets incl Hikari Bio Gold but it won't touch them. When I occassionally feed him/her bloodworm or beef it loves it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

[LeroyBass]

Start giving him some live food, fish, grass shrimp, anything of that sort. How big is he?

[Fishguy2727]

No live food. That would be unnecessarily risking the introduction of pathogens, not to mention make it even more aggressive. How big is it? How long have you had it? Is it by itself now? How long do you let it go between feedings? They can go a while without food. With cichlids like this the best way is usually to starve them out for a while. It won't hurt them and it will usually get them hungry enough to take whatever is offered. It usually takes about a week of no food offered to get them to start to take wahtever you put in there after that point. Does it go for the Hikari Bio-Gold+ and then spit it out, or does it not even acknowledge there is food in there (as if it is waiting for something moving)?

[jman]

i forgot what affect pathogens had on fish?

[Juannie]

This is my jaguar (not the best pic sorry), it's about 20cm long. It's been in it's own tank for a couple of months now, I've had it for about 1.5yrs. I didn't realise you could "starve" them so to speak. It's eating meat at night when i feed them meat, but not going near the pellets at all. My oscar "jumps" out of the water to get his Hikari Bio Gold pellets - he loves them! But this fish doesn't even show interest. I will definitely try what you said and just let it "starve" for a few days to see how we go, I usually feed my fish small amounts twice a day - that's for my tropicals, americans and goldfish. The synspilum and oscar feed well, it's just this one that isn't. It's such a scardy cat, everytime i go near the tank it tries to hide, but when it sees the other fish in their tank (which is fairly close to it) it plays around. When I drop the meat in the tank it still hides then comes out later. It's an absolutely beautiful fish, so it's got me stumped.

[jman]

nice full color though

[Fishguy2727]

Nice odd pattern on that one. Try adding at least one PVC Pipe T-connector. It gives them something to center their territory around and a shelter to make them feel comfortable. It sounds odd, but sometimes adding places to hide can help them come out more.

Pathogens are any harmful organism. This can be things like the parasite know as ick. It can be microscopic bacteria, anything that causes disease or is itself a parasite.

[Juannie]

I'm going to sound dumb now, but what is a PVC pipe t connector? It does have a terracotta pot with some slate to hide in, but it must need more hiding placse. I also thought the markings were odd as well - I've checked out pics of other jaguars and they're totally different - maybe this one is "special" hahaha.

[Fishguy2727]

It looks like it's just holding juvenile pattern longer than normal. If you check out the pics on my photobucket I have a T-connector for a 6" PVC pipe in my jags tank.

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/reptileguy2727/

[Juannie]

Thanks for that I appreciate it, I'll go and buy one this weekend. I didn't realise that their colours changed as they got older, it'll be interesting to see how mine progresses. Your pics are awesome, at least I've got an idea of how big my jag will get.