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HI,

When I bought this fish, they told me it was a Jack Dempsey. I got him at about 1 1/5 inches and he killed 3 harlequins on the first day I got him home. Another 2 disappeared during the next two weeks. He is about 3 inches now and I havent had him for over a month.

Who do you think he is? Also, can you help me tell if he is a male or a female?

His name's Curious George BTW, but if he is a she, I might have to rename him

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/clownygirl/Jack%20Dempsey/JDsleeping.jpg

Doesnt look like any JD ive ever seen.


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ive got 3 jds at the moment and none of them look anything like that,it looks like a hybrid of some sort,i would be going back to the store taking him with you and saying that it was sold to you as a miss labeled fish,ask for a store credit or something,thats probly half your problem,ALL the hybrids ive ever kept have been nasty.for some reason they always get both of the bad tempers.but wait for some more info,someone like jason rs mite be able to tell you what it isim not 100% sure

What do you think he looks like then? I bought it from a friend and obviously can't give him back. Also paid a good sum for him. I posted his pic on another website and everybody there also didnt think he was a jack

I also have 3 JD's around 2" but none look like yours in the body pattern. It definetly has some JD but the black stipes remind me more of a convict. I wouldn't say you have to get rid of her/him(I'm leaning towards female), just don't give it the opportunity to breed. If you need to house with other's then you might want to get rid of it. No surprise on killing the harlequins, even if it was a true JD it probably would've done that.

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Thats a female JD thats seems stressed , One of my offspring from a prevous bredding pair i have looks the same.

That photo looks strange ... the reason? The fish has greenish iridescent spangles on it, as if it should have Dempsey parentage, but the head morphology is wrong. The head of an adult Dempsey doesn't slope the way this fish does, a Demspey has a different facial topography ...

The facial topography of this fish, on the other hand, bears more resemblance to a Parachromis species - one of the big fish eating Guapotes.

To make matters even more interesting, the body stripes on this fish bear a resemblance to those I've seen on old photographs of the fish that used to be labeled Cichlasoma facetum (e.g., the old Innes book) - a fish now labelled Australoheros facetus in The Cichlid Room (it's a native of Argentina) and known for a long time as the Chanchito (this was actually the first Cichlid domesticated in the hobby, the first specimens being kept way back in 1884!).

Definitely an odd fish that one.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

yeah i aggree,the head is the wrong shapeim looking at my jds now,i can see a bit of jd in there somewhere,but im still stumpedchances are you mite never know for sure what he is,but who cares he still looks pretty coolif he gives you no probs then great,if you are super keen to find out what he is for sure,maybe you could start asking the guy you got him from(if you still no who its is)then he mite be able to give you the answergood luck

Ok, the fish is definitely stressed with me clicking it in full flash in the middle of the night and what's missing on the photo is it's dark lateral line. I am checking out the other fish you mentioned David to find out if mine looks anything like it. On the other hand, I do believe its a female, though dont know of what species.

has it got any teeth,

Not yet. Is there a chance he might be male, coz I think he's female and I named him George

I have heard suggestions now from
several others where I posted this fish for
Clowny on another forum,
that it is a hybrid.
People are suggesting either
JD x Texas Cichlid
or JD x Green terror.
One person suggested Green terror x Convict.


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i thought it was a hybridi would of said jd cross texas, but it was the stripes that were throwing me offso i would say yes, it has a very good chance of being jd cross convictand thats where the dark stripes come from,when you got him/her what did it look like, has it changed much since it was brought homeand do you keep him/her with any other fish.

ps.thats half the problem with hybrids,they can look like a fullblood jd,convict,etc,then you bring him home being sold as a jd or whateva then boom they change once they settle in and then when its to late you find out that its a hybrid.

A few more pics of her that I took while she was not as stressed, not very clear shots but different angle:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/clownygirl/Jack%20Dempsey/DSCF2373.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/clownygirl/Jack%20Dempsey/DSCF2372.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/clownygirl/Jack%20Dempsey/DSCF2371.jpg

in those pics you can see heaps of jd in her,she is a nice looking fish toodoes she bother any other fish that you have in with her.

Nope, she tags along with my 5 inch female black angel who treats her like a younger sister, schools with the clowns and sleeps with the kuhlies, though 5 harlequins did die immediately after I got her. On the other hand, 7 had died before I got her, so I suspect it's my angel who did it.

She is surprisingly docile for a JD and doesnt even bother my littlest loaches, some striatas, a clown, skunks and kuhlies

treasure her thenyou are so lucky,my jds are just nutsto have her mixed with those fish and not give them any trouble is greatespecally if she has convict or texas in her somewhere.

Thanks, but that's not the tank she was originally meant for. I hope some of the JD aggression comes into her pretty soon because at around 5 inches she needs to go into my cichlid tank. Hell, if she becomes one of the clowns by then, I guess she will have to just stay in the loach tank and sleep with the kuhlies

you will probly find that while she stays in that tank with those fish,that her temper will never grow,no need to,i mean theres no real territorial fish in therewhen you do decide to move her,i think she will be ok,then her agression mite come out,what other chilids are in the tank you had in mind for her to go into.

Right now there is a male convict, a female jewel, a female salvini and 3 other salvinis that I dont know the gender of. I got the 3 extra salvinis hoping the female would mate with one of them, but I guess it's going to be a girls only tank. As my luck would have it, the JDs a girl as well.

For company I have two striped raphael catfish in this tank as well.