Jack Dempsey not eating

[GoreWhore]

Hey everyone. I've tried everything I can think of to try and get my Jack Dempsey to eat, but nothing's worked. I was hoping someone here can help me with some new ideas to try or something.

He's about 4-5 years old, somewhere between 8-10", and in a 49g tank, all alone. He doesn't agree with any other fish, never has. I've tested his pH, it's fine. I tested the ammonia, it's fine. I just did a partial water change a few days ago. I've tried different kinds of food. I haven't tried frozen food or live food yet. Frozen food isn't so easy to come by, and I'm trying to not feed him live food. He hasn't eaten anything in probably 2-3 months. I do have a live plant in his tank, hoping he'll eat that.
He seems pretty aggressive. When I leave his light on, he jumps out of the water, and sometimes hits the light. He wasn't like that before..

That's all I can think of right now, I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have to help solve this mystery.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[SinisterKisses]

Is he emaciated?

If he really hadn't eaten in two-three months, he'd be dead. Unless he's grossly emaciated, he's clearly eating something.

 

[TMony]

It's so hard to say, these guys can be finicky eaters. It can be caused by several things. Could be due to water conditions.
How often are you doing the water changes? How much are you changing each time?

 

[GoreWhore]

Well, he's not eating any of the food I've given him, and there's no other fish in the aquarium to eat. I did put a plant in there like I said, hoping he'd eat that, but that wasn't that long ago. I'd say three weeks at the most. If he's eating something else, I really don't know what it is.
He does look like he's getting kinda skinny lately though, but his color is good and everything.

I was thinking it could be the water conditions. He's done this before, if I let the pH get out of wack, he wouldn't eat. But, as soon as I fixed it, he would be fine again. I forgot to mention, that I moved the first of Dec. So, before then, in Nov, I did a few partial water changes, but it didn't make a difference. Then I did I half water change, it still didn't make a difference. Then, at the end of Nov/ first of Dec I moved him. I cleaned out his entire tank and everything in it. I made sure the pH levels of both tanks (the one he was in temp. and his normal one) were the same and I put him back in his regular tank. So, the water was mostly clean. I did about a 1/3 water change the other day. He's been in that tank for about a month, so I changed it.

But, before I live "in town", and I had the city's water system. So, it was cleaned and chlorinated and junk, now I'm living in a place that has well water. The pH difference is a lot. Could that be what's doing it? If that was the case though, I would think he'd adjust by now.