need help with a jack dempsey

ok heres the story i have 2 oscars and i went to petco to buy some new filters for my tank while i was there a lady came up to fish section holding a bucket with a 8in jack dempsey she looked at the lady working there and says my 100 gallon tank broke and i have no were to keep this fish so its your problem now puts the bucket down and runs out of the store leaveing the poor little guy to rot this made me upset and i had a spare 40 gallon tank at home that i wasnt useing so i told the sales clerk at petco i would take him home. which i did but this jack dempsey will not eat and it hides the second that i come into the room. i own oscars which are like hoover vacuums and never have given me fits i have no idea how to get this poor guy to eat hes a beautiful fish and i want him to live but im not sure he will ever recover from his ordeal with his crappy owner. my problem is i dont have a clue what she was feeding him and the hikari pellets i have he ignores please can somebody give me some tips on how to save this guy. like i said hes a beautiful fish and i want him to make it. any ideas??

 

Try some flake or even frozen brine or bloodworms. If it doesnt take either of those you can go to feeder guppies. It could just take a while too, if you added it recently. Do you have a bigger tank or plan on finding it a home?

 

well id like to keep him if he comes out of shock. im planning on putting my oscars in a 100 gallon soon so i will prolly move him to the 55. i do not plan on putting any other fish with him from what i know from my oscars unless he grew up with other fish he will kill them that is if he fallows cichlid temperment

 

I have had similar problems with a few larger freshwater fish (oscars, dempsys, cichlids, etc.)

What has almost always worked for me is starting on live food. Usually I go with shrimp or guppies. Then I start working in frozen to start getting them used to frozen things. Eventually you can work in pellets and get them on what you want to feed.

The use of live prey will usually trigger their natuarl feeding instinct. Even with really bad abuse/neglect cases, this instinct will almost always overcome the habbits the fish has developed due to previous lack of care. Once that instinct kicks in, you can start working your way toward pellets or whatever.

 

sorry guys i made this before i found out there was more then one section on this forum thats whys theres 2 of them i made a second thread when i found a cichlid area my bad but on a good note he is eating

 

switch up what you are feeding him...he prob needs time to acclimate to the tank