Julidochromis not eating

[FishSoup]

Hey there guys, my Julidochromis transcriptus suddenly stopped eating about 2 days ago, and has not eaten since then.

It's a new fish, only been in my tank for about a week or so.. even when it was still eating, it would often take in the food, then spit it back out... sometimes in smaller fragments, sometimes in full pieces.

i've checked the water parameters, ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate is at 10ppm, which is quite low, right?

Anyone has any idea what might be going on, and how to get it to start eating again? Or am i giving it the wrong food? I've tried hikari micro pellets, freeze-dried bw and freeze-dried bs, all to no avail.

[Mez]

Try some live brineshrimp, or bloodworm.
Some jullies can be hard to get feeding, but once they do they eat like pigs..

[illumnae]

could it be internal bacteria/worm? try the live food like Mez mentioned, they should eat it. Observe them carefully after that and when they poop, see if the poop is white and stringy. if it is, you should begin treatment for internal parasites immediately

[trident]

how about PH, GH and KH?
Julidochromis transcriptus are high PH, GH and KH fish.

[FishSoup]

Thanks all for the suggestions.. i'll give the live food suggestion a try, it sounds very feasible thanks Mez!

Ilumnae: Very useful piece of information... I never knew that internal parasites could be diagnosed in this way


Trident: i don't know about the GH and KH only know the pH.. am using Seachem Malawi/Victoria alkali buffer, it buffers my pH to about 8.

[stormchild]

In my opinion. Julidochromis are prone to internal parasites. Very hard to cure them.

If they are still eating, there is still chance.

[FishSoup]

Thanks for the info... i have finally found a food that the juli seems to like.. she's eating it with gusto Hikari flake food!

Didn't expect her to end up eating THAT.

[trident]

fishsoup,
That's good news
Mine will take flakes too, along with NLS pellets and bloodworm.