What to feed young Jack Dempsey?

[dontgetbit]

I recently purchased my first Jack Dempsey and am setting up a 55 gal for it. For now it is in the 20 gal tank in my office. When I purchased the JD I picked up some Hikari Gold Pellets, I think they are the mini size. I have seen him eat the pellets once but it took him a while to notice them floating up top.

Is this a good food to start a JD on? Or should I use something different?

 

[pelleeklund]

Cichlid pellets are cool. I like to supplement them with a few other options like freeze dried krill, plankton, or mysis shrimp in the interest of providing a balanced variety of nutrition.

 

[ohhsweetness]

+1 and blood worms

 

[Drunken]

I feed my pair hikari and omega one products as a staple (all my fish do)... as treats and for variation i feed anything they will eat such as bloodworms, hearts, insects and shrimp from my rcs tank.

Edit:

When i have fry they`ll get baby brine shrimp or deshelled eggs of bbs for a week or two, then when they are big enough to eat (crushed) flakes I`ll start feeding them a quality flake food. When they get even bigger, hikari/omega one

 

[BooshWacka]

I feed my pair hikari and omega one products as a staple (all my fish do)... as treats and for variation i feed anything they will eat such as bloodworms, hearts, insects and shrimp from my rcs tank.

Edit:

When i have fry they`ll get baby brine shrimp or deshelled eggs of bbs for a week or two, then when they are big enough to eat (crushed) flakes I`ll start feeding them a quality flake food. When they get even bigger, hikari/omega one

i feed 50% hikari--- 30% omega one ---20% Spectrum

my opinion after experimenting with all three

FOR ME:

Hikari helped my fish grow healthy and have well maintained diet

Omega One made them Fat

Spectrum really helped the colors of the fish come out


i use this combo for my 2 JDs Pair-1 Texas-1 Firemouth

 

[Ctrl_Alt_Dlt]

I apologize if I read your post incorrectly, but I am under the assumption that you have one JD in a 55 gallon. If so, being alone in a 55 gallon may be the problem for his shyness in eating. JD's are skittish fish and sometimes, dithers may help them become more social or more out going in the tank.

Hikari should be perfect! JD's also eat live fish, night crawlers and mealworms too, but make sure you clean the live food well first before feeding to avoid any problems.

 

[fishluvr]

I had a couple of jd's several years back and i fed them nothing but beef heart and gold fish. and spectrum for their colors.....they loved it......hated to give them away when i moved.....i have a dovii now and they have way more personality than the jd's

 

[knicks791]

My small EBJD is on blended shirmp and this aqueon cichlid stick since the hikari gold mini pellets are too big.

 

[pelleeklund]

I forgot that my JD also loves to eat live crayfish. For some reason it's the only live food he eats, but he does it with gusto.

 

[dontgetbit]

I apologize if I read your post incorrectly, but I am under the assumption that you have one JD in a 55 gallon. If so, being alone in a 55 gallon may be the problem for his shyness in eating. JD's are skittish fish and sometimes, dithers may help them become more social or more out going in the tank.

Hikari should be perfect! JD's also eat live fish, night crawlers and mealworms too, but make sure you clean the live food well first before feeding to avoid any problems.

No he is currently in a 20 gal in my office with a Giant Danio, small Bichir, and a Pleco. (Yes, all of these fish are growing and will be moved to larger tanks as needed.) I plan to add some Tiger Barbs to the 55 before introducing the JD.