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  L# Feeding Jack Dempseys
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SubscribeFeeding Jack Dempseys
RockmaninovRachs
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I know that having a really varied diet is good for fish, and I really want to make sure I do that. So... what is a good diet for a Jack Dempsey? I have two of the, and right now I use Hikari Cichlid Staple, but I may switch to Hikari Cichlid Gold to enhance color. I also have algae wafers and blood worms, but I'm not sure if these are things that Jacks would like to eat. Is there anything else I should include? I really, really, really, really, really want to feed them feeder goldfish or guppies, but everyone says they're so full of disease and I definitely don't want that. I just think it'd be cool to watch them chomp down on some live food. But if you have a suggestion of several foods I should incorporate into their diets, I would definitely appreciate it. Thanks, you guys are an invaluable resource
Post InfoPosted 08-Aug-2006 02:45Profile AIM PM Edit Report 
stuff_gnome
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male usa
Possible food items:

Blackworms
Blood Worms
Brine Shrimp
Crickets
Daphnia
Earthworms(chopped)
Fruit Flies
Ghost Shrimp
Mealworms

Now thats a varied diet, of the things on there most can be found live at any good pet store. If you insist of feed live fish breed your own. Just buy two female and one male of any guppy,platy,molly,sword tail and your set. You can also breed white clouds and danios easy enough.
Post InfoPosted 08-Aug-2006 03:14Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
RockmaninovRachs
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Wow, that's quite a list! Thanks so much - I really appreciate it.
Post InfoPosted 08-Aug-2006 23:11Profile AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
Calilasseia
 
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Juvenile Dempseys will eat Bloodworm with no prompting whatsoever. They'll devour them with gusto!

Once they get bigger, however, they'll probably prefer larger morsels. A big 8 inch specimen will be looking at anything from earthworms to half-grown Guppies. Oh, be careful if you feed earthworms, because big Cichlids absolutely adore these, and are apt to go on 'hunger strike' if you make the mistake of letting them think they can get away with this in exchange for more earthworm treats! In this respect they're like small children who need to be taught that a balanced diet does NOT mean crisps for lunch and chocolate bars for tea! If you let them, big Cichlids will train you to feed them what they want as opposed to what's good for them ... do NOT underestimate their capacity to twist their owners around their pectoral fins!

If your Dempseys are breeding, one trick from the venerable Innes book is this - track down a pond, and fish out some dragonfly larvae. Normally, dragonfly larvae are lethal to fry, but ... Dempsey fry usually have two huge battle cruisers of parents guarding them, spoiling for a fight ... and upon seeing the dragonfly larvae, the big parents will go into 'search and destroy' mode. As Innes says on page 32 of his book:

Destroying them [dragonfly larvae] gives double pleasure to parent Cichlids while tending their flocks of young.


Big Dempseys in particular will treat dragonfly larvae and other aquatic insects of like size first as fry enemies to be destroyed, then as crunchy treats to be dismantled and enjoyed. A good rule of thumb is to drop in creatures that are one-eighth the length of the fishes once the fishes are mature adults. So, a big 8 inch Demspey will dismantle a one inch long dragonfly larva with ease.

If you find yourself troubled by cockroaches, big Cichlids will destroy these too. The problem here of course is catching them, plus ensuring that the cockroaches haven't been exposed to pesticides. Some people culture them for the purpose (which isn't difficult as cockroaches will eat anything remotely edible) and big Cichlids make fairly short work of them.

If you're breeding Guppies, and need to deal with surplus fry, well ... bring on the Dempseys. They'll help you reduce the numbers to a manageable extent and allow you to deal with the problems of runts, cripples and the inevitable population explosion that Guppies create in the aquarium. Big Cichlids are just one of many solutions adopted by those Guppy breeders who breed on a large scale for sale, yet need to deal with the fallout from large-scale breeding.

Ghost Shrimp, likewise, will provide lots of food for Dempseys. Natantia species shrimps produce nauplii in the hundreds of thousands that will be prime food for baby Dempseys, while shrimps allowed to grow to near-adult size will of course become perfect for the adults. Amano Shrimps are also prime Dempsey fodder if that's the path you choose.

Your big problem with a decent sized Dempsey isn't getting the fish to eat - usually, it's restraining the fish's feeding so that it doesn't gorge and pass partially digested food out the rear end. No doubt you're already aware that they have heroic appetites, and an equally heroic capacity to foul the water, making quality filtration a must. The best way of feeding these fellows again comes courtesy of the old Innes book, and applies to any fish really, but makes nitrogen cycle management a good deal easier with heavy eaters like Dempseys - small amounts often. This more closely replicates the wild situation, where the fishes have to grab what food they can as and when it arrives. Feed your Dempseys enough to be devoured in about 3 minutes, and no more, but do it 3-5 times per day. Several modest meals instead of one big banquet per day will ease your nitrogen cycle management as the fishes will be passing fully digested waste all the time.

Oh, and when your Dempseys breed, giving them 'targets' for their parental defence instincts will strengthen the pair bond. Even creatures that are nominally harmless to the fry, such as algae eating shrimps, will be treated as enemies come breeding time, and demolished ruthlessly. A trick from the old days that works with just about any big Cichlid.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002
Post InfoPosted 14-Aug-2006 09:29Profile Homepage PM Edit Delete Report 
RockmaninovRachs
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Post InfoPosted 15-Aug-2006 03:41Profile AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
napower05
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yea do yourself a favor and don't feed them feeder fish..unless you catch them in a local creak or stream..becuase the feeders at the stores are very unhealthy and i just lost one of green texas cichlid to some kind of sickness...and i only feed them feeder fish one time and after that they both got sick and now im down one fish
Post InfoPosted 27-Aug-2006 22:28Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
Calilasseia
 
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Well, I'd add to that experience "don't feed feeder fishes straight from the store". Take them homne, quarantine them, medicate them if need be, and if possible set up a breeding colony of them so that you know their provenance from that point on. This is, of course, for those who don't have ethical problems with using other fishes as food, or for those who are keeping species that need live fishes in their diet.

Cichlids will get along fine without such additions to the diet. In fact, as I've mentioned above, if they take a liking to a particular food item (and earthworms are especially likely to trigger this behaviour) then they will try to train YOU to feed them with their favourite food items and nothing else!

Even Guapotes such as Jaguar Cichlids, which are piscivorous in the wild, will live without live fish in the diet happily, and can be fed all kinds of nutritious alternatives that they will happily wolf down with gusto. Scraped beef heart (take care with this because of the fat content - feed sparingly as a treat), earthworms, live insects (provided again you know their provenance and they haven't been pest sprayed) and shrimps will all be demolished by Guapotes in much the same manner as a trucker will demolish a large fried breakfast. Same goes for all the other Central American & South American Cichlids. Big Cichlids will become real pets if you let them, taking food from your fingers, though the speed at which they lunge at the food items will leave you checking your fingertips afterwards!

If it's meaty, CA/SA Cichlids will eat it. And they'll exhibit truly astonishing appetites once they're a large size. Keeping their propensity to wolf down gargantuan morsels at one sitting under control is going to be more of a problem than persuading them to eat!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002
Post InfoPosted 27-Aug-2006 23:04Profile Homepage PM Edit Delete Report 
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