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It's been a while since I've had cichlids, so I got a pair of JD's yesterday ($20)

One is about 3-4" long, and the other is ~6" long. I'm fairly sure that the larger of the two is a male, and that the smaller is a female (though (s?)he's too young to tell for sure, I think).

I hadn't done a waterchange in my freshwater tank for about a year (the previous inhabitants (wild caught eartheaters) killed each other)... most of what was left was Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS), plants (Java Moss, crypts, aponogetons), algae, and random protist critters, etc. So I had to do a major overhaul of the tank. I tested my nitrates, and they were ~20ppm (as expected... because of my nitrate-eating/nitrogen gas-excreting anoxic bacteria). Phosphates were a little high. pH was ~6.8. So I did a ~30% waterchange, along with a complete gravel vac-ing, and a complete re-aquascape (using the same stuff... just rearranged it).

After the tank had cleared up and the temp had stabilized, I acclimated the new dempseys and moved them in. They seem to be doing fine today

I've been dosing Cycle, and will continue to do so for the next week or two. I'll also continue doing 5 gal waterchanges every day or every other day for the next few weeks to keep the mini cycle down, and to get some of the tannins out of the water.

I also need to get an algae scraper for the tank (will do tomorrow on the way home from school)...

Side note: Yes, I do know how big JD's get, and yes, I do plan to move them to a bigger tank (55 or 75 gal) in about 6 months. For the time being, I do have plenty of hiding places and caves for them so they don't have territory fights. They're very friendly toward each other anyway... they never leave each other's side.

Anyway, I'm gonna go take some pics of them and post 'em up in a bit

Lemme know if you've got any questions/comments or anything

Edit: Will take pics after I get an algae scraper for the tank

nice!

what sort of jds are they,normall,gold or blue

man these are my favourite cihlid.

My first pair of cichlids were Dempsey's....they were great!

Well done!

sounds really great, cannot wait to see pics... JD's are cool enough but I prefer/love Bolivian rams... spectacular! lol

you should be able to sex tham already as it is fairly easy to do. Basically the female will have alot of blue/green on its gill plates and the male will lack it, while the male will have a lot more blue/green throughout its body. Just to show you

The male is on top and the female is on the bottom. In this case the female had just spawned that's why she has so much black, but you can see what I'm talking about as far as colors.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

nice jds wi,your big fela (on top)looks the ols jd i had a while back...

that is huge! (thats what she said)

Woah, suddenly got a whole lot of replies all at once

The JD's are still doing good. They've settled in and have taken the back-left corner of the tank as their main hiding spot during the day (under the driftwood). I've kept up on daily waterchanges and have been dosing Cycle... I haven't checked nitrogen compound levels lately, but I'm sure they're fine.

Haven't gotten 'round to taking pictures yet. I still need to clean all of the algae off of the tank (can barely see through it). I ended up getting 7 Hillstream Loaches (of both Beaufortia and Gastromyzon genuses)for the tank as well, and they'll enjoy browsing thru the microfauna in the algae, but I'm gonna have to scrape most of it off. I'll just use a credit card or something until I actually get a real scraper for the tank (I've got two on my reef tank, but I'm not using those in a FW tank). The JD's haven't been bothering the hillstreams much (got plenty of hiding places for them... and they're flat/inconspicuous)... but I've been keeping them well-fed just in case they have an appetite for hillies...

On the topic of food, what are people feeding JD's these days? Back in the good ol' days (5 years ago or so), I used to feed mine Tetra brand Cichlid Sticks, and I've still got a few of those left, but I think I'm gonna throw 'em out... they're old. So I've been feeding them whole freeze dried krill for now, and they seem to enjoy it. I'm gonna bust out the frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms for 'em this weekend, too! But other than those for things, what else do you think JD's would like? How 'bout pieces of cocktail shrimp or other meaty stuffs? I do prefer to feed non-live foods, but I'd bet I could throw ~20 guppies in there and they'd all hide in the java moss and between rocks and provide a steady/self-sustaining food source for the JD's. Any other ideas?

Wiseives, based on both your sexing methods and mine, I do have a male and a female. I was going by the ol' dorsal red stripe thickness and pointed/rounded fin tip methods, but yours makes more sense! Both of our methods are in agreement in this particular pair, though Thanks for the tip!

I'll clean off the glass tomorrow and take some pics of them (it's the middle of the night now... they're 'asleep').

I'm also looking for some new aquascaping ideas. I've got a few different kinds of rocks (slate, small boulders, a big rock with a big three-exit hole in it, etc), mostly on the right side of the tank, and I've got a big (~20" piece of driftwood with java moss on it. I've got the remnants of a crypt wendtii and some aponogetons in the tank, too. I've got some dwarf lillies that I'd like to throw in there once the JD's get their holes dug out. I know that cichlids (especailly JD's) are known for uprooting plants and wreaking havoc, but I think they'd be fine with a few random hardy well-rooted plants (they haven't bothered what's in there so far). Any other ideas for non-floating plants that do well in low light that these guys wouldn't kill would be great!

Thanks again for all of your help/support, guys!

And Ross/abstractposer, you're gonna get yourself banned

Edit: They're the reg'l'r ol' fash'n'd JD's, Hokese.

Btw, Cavey, your JD spawning page on your ol' FP webspace was how I originally found FP... was researching for info on JD's when I got my first one all those years ago So you're to blame for all of my trouble causin' here

i used to feed mine NLS but my LFS doesn't carry it anymore so I had to switch to Hikari gold. They will definitely eat any small fish, I had a school of Danio's at one point that these guys decimitated in one day after growing up with them, didn't bother adding anything else. They also love blood worms, which I only feed as an occasional treat.

As far as plants, Java Fern and anubias(sp?) attaced to wood is the way I went and I have not had any issues. I think a well rooted Amazon will do well too, as I have done this too placing several medium sized rocks into the base of the plant to give it some protection.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

Hikari is a good brand of food for the larger cichlids like oscars and JDs. lots of good stuff in it. Dont have to worry about presoaking much on pellets any more either because they nolonger expand after getting wet. Might want to double check the pellet you decide on by just dropping it in some water and comparing the size of it to dry version. This may cause bloat if it expands to much but i dont see any issues.

Anyway i recommend Hikari pellets. Easily found, reasonably priced, and has all the right nutritions for JDs.

Hmmm. NLS is expensive stuff. I may have to go with some Hikari stuffs to mix in with the brine, bloodworms, krill, shrimp, and cichlid sticks.

I still need to scrape off the glass and take pictures.... will do eventually... bleh...

Thanks for the foodstuffs suggestions!

w00t! Finally got around to cleaning the glass (used a credit card) semi-decently... still need to go over it again with a real algae scraper...

Anyway, here's some pics I just took of 'em

The whole tank/aquascape. The JD's are off to the left.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/PoisonWaffle/DSCF1336Large.jpg

Closeup of the male.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/PoisonWaffle/DSCF1343Large.jpg

Semi-closeup of the female (that's the male's tail on the right).
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/PoisonWaffle/DSCF1344Large.jpg

The only hillstream loach that was in a decent place to take a picture of (the rest of them are behind/under rocks, etc). I think that this particular one is a male of the Gastromyzon genus... not positive on that, though.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/PoisonWaffle/DSCF1347Large.jpg

What do ya think?
What

I like the setup, albeit too small in the long run. However, I tried Jave moss with my JD's @ 1st and they just destroyed it & all it did was constantly get clogged in my intake. Hope you have better luck as I love the look of Java moss. I've never had experience with the hillstream loaches but you may wanna watch them as when the JD's start spawning, which will be soon, they may be in trouble.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

yeah im with wi,that tank is too small mate,as soon as you can a tank upgrade mite be in order,anyway,wel done on the jds...do they give your other fish any trouble

youve done a nice job of cleaning up, looks good

Btw, Cavey, your JD spawning page on your ol' FP webspace was how I originally found FP... was researching for info on JD's when I got my first one all those years ago So you're to blame for all of my trouble causin' here

Cool man!

I wish i had backed all of that info up! i lost all of the content of that page....

They haven't been destroying the java moss much, yet. They appear to be making a spawning site under the driftwood that the moss is on, and the moss would make a great place for rearing fry! They've been doing a bit of lip locking and testing eachother, too! I'm really surprised that they've started to show spawning behavior this soon! They're even coloring up really well!

Luckily, the hillstreams have taken refuge behind a pile of rocks on the opposite side of the tank... the JD's don't seem to be bothering them much, though I don't get to see much of them. And yes, I am getting a bigger tank when I move (probably this summer, maybe earlier).

Thanks, Ross. I'm still thinking about moving the scape around a little bit, though...

Cavey, you might want to look around on some web backup sites... you might be able to find your pages (you had some great info on there)...

I'll start feeding 'em some more meaty foods (I just remembered--EARTHWORMS!) to get 'em in spawnin' mode. I dunno if or how many of the fry will survive, but I'll just let nature take it's course. If they live, they live... if not, whatever. I'm just too busy with school to take on a huge project like this... I didn't expect them to breed right away

Again, thanks for the replies and help

"wish i had backed all of that info up! i lost all of the content of that page...."

Me too....



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Just one more tank........