Chiclid acting funny

[curtis20]

Hi. Well im worried about my fish. I have small chiclid and to my knowledge it is about 3 or 4 months old. We had left him for 4 days alone with no food and when we came back i fed him and i never seen him eat and since then i have not seen him swimming or eating. he has a little castle that he can swim through at the bottom, its just like a very small passage way. anyways he stayins in that passage way and it looks like he is sucking the sides. he has being doing this for 4 days now?

[Bettachris]

did u feed him alot b4 you left? it could be he is tring to eat any algae that might have grown in their. i would change alittle water, and leave the light on for awhile as he might be scared.

[curtis20]

Yes i did feed him alot of flakes before i left. I will change some water thx

[Bettachris]

from now on, i would get him weekend feeder blocks as since he is a small cichlid, he doesn't have as much body fat like some of the larger cichlids.

with cichlids, just to inform you, flakes aren't the best choice, as most cichlids would benefit from pellets rather than flakes, as flakes dont usually have enough cichlid requirements. flakes are really good in community set-ups where the fishes tend to be more omivorius than carniuvours like cichlids.

[curtis20]

Weekend feeder blocks? and is the algea bad for him? thx

[Bettachris]

weekend feeder blocks are usually white pyrimads, that contain food in the middle, which it is later time released so while you are out for a week or 3 days on vaction etc... the fishes will have something to eat.

algae isn't bad, but it isn't something that they would ness. eat.

[curtis20]

Thank you for all the info. I cleaned out the tank very well and he doesnt suck on anything anymore but he refuses to hate flakes. he is almost acting as snobby as my old betta lol. I have some frozen brine shrimp(i think its called) its a brown frozen square i keep in the freezer and give to him for a treat every now and then. He eats that just fine with no problem. I have some Wardley Goldfish pellets. do you think i could feed my chiclid those? Thank you

[Bettachris]

i would stay away from that, as goldfish have different needs than cichlids, and goldfish food tend to have more krill, and algae in it than high protien like fish meal.

it wont kill him, but it doesn't exactly fill his needs.

[curtis20]

Ok sounds good. i didnt feed him it untill i heard from you so i guess untill tommorow i will give him a little brine shrimp tonight because he hasnt eaten today. thank you.

[Bettachris]

you might also try getting frozen bloodworms, it is like the shrimp and it should provide him with the stuff he needs.