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ok......if i was lucky enough to get a breeding pair.. i would have to get rid of the other 2.. but is the 60 gal big enough for two mature dempsey's???

well I'll have to start thinking.......cause the problem is i have 6 jack's right now and I only have 2 weeks to bring them back... so after that I don't know where i'll bring the other jacks....and i'll just be giving them away and not getting my money back. They're still pretty young. Maybe i can just take a chance and take two that seem to be close in the next week and see if it eventually works out?

or do I forget about the money and focus on the fish's well being ?


Last edited by bratty_girl29 at 17-Jan-2006 18:32

.. the one thing that still boggles me is that they'll be digging to spawn at this young age??? they're maybe 2" long now...

ok, I've never spawned dempseys, however most medium to large growing CA cichlids reach sexual maturity at around 1/3 to 1/2 of their adult size. so, if you consider that a JD can grow to 9-10" (on average) then I'd expect spawning behavior to be around 3-4".

ok good... it's just that i do go to school so i want to make sure there's a hint hehe... I really hope they do it before the end of two weeks bc that's the only grace period I have to bring them back hehe..

and the nipped fin thing i'm happy about.... i want them to look their best lol... I just hope i have at least one female in there

right now, I can barely see any of them..they're all hiding together... the one thing that still boggles me is that they'll be digging to spawn at this young age??? they're maybe 2" long now...

thanx for the help and advice

yes the nipped fins will heal...that is until a pair does in fact form and then they will probably start picking and nipping at the others and fins will get torn up again.

I guess it could be possible that a pair may have formed but I really doubt it. once you see them moving gravel around to dig a spawning pit and aggressively defending that pit, then you know you have a pair.

oh...and another thing. I've noticed that 3 of them have pieces from their fins missing from other nippy fish...will this heal and come back to normal?

Ok.. I got 5 more Jacks, so now i have 6. They've been in the tank about 2 or 3 hours..and I see that two of them are staying pretty close to each other,,,,,and also chase a third one.... could they have already paired up? so soon?

and if possible, any other hints that might make it easier in knowing that yes, I do have a female and a male..

thank you..... i'll go get 3 or 5 other little jacks and return them as soon as a mated pair comes out of it. but one "dumb" question... what happens if there are males and females and none of them pair off?? lol can this happen? or is it basically guaranteed that they'll pair off? hehe

i agree that size tank is fine for a pair.

2 males would destroy each other in that size tank but a selected pair would more then likely be very healthy is such a tank. keeping in mind with cichlids there allways seems to be that 10% chance of terror of a fish. more often then not though it should work.

matter of fact i would perfer to see ya get a pair. it will give both fish another fish to intereact with they wont try to kill.

like i said in the previous post though now is the time to do such a thing. get a few other JDs (4-6) and hope theres a femal ein the mix. doing it while they are juvies greatly improves the odds of a pair happening. unfortently as adults they become so territorial they attach 1st and ask questions later so it becomes alot harder to form a pair with adults.

(This is all read information NOT 1st hand experience as ive never kept JDs)

Hope this helps.

Sin

yes you would have to get rid of the other 2, and imo a 60 gallon would be fine for a mated pair of dempseys.

Hey all.. Well Monday afternoon I bought my first Jack Dempsey, as you may have read in two other threads.. anyway.. I'm just a little curious to know if how he's reacting is normal....

He still hasn't gotten his dark colour back. He was black in the tank when we scooped him and since then he's still pale.. I know it may take a couple days.just how many??? I noticed when I went into my bedroom and when i turn my lamp on he hides and goes pale...when just moments before turning the light on in the bedroom, i saw that he was getting a little darker on the upper side.. and as soon as he sees me moving about he hides immediately..... he'll eventually come to the tank and greet me right??

any advice and/or recommendations are greatly appreciated..

As for the color... is your pH ok? (most)South American cichlids require acidic conditions. A pH of 6.5 to 7.0 is ok. If your pH is higher, get yourself some Seachem Acid buffer.

demspeys are central american and most likely will come from slightly to moderately alkaline water. a ph of 7.2 to 8.0 would be better than acidic water, imo, for a dempsey.

as for the color, I'm guessing you bought this guy from a tank of dempseys right. he was darker because he was one of the more dominant fish in the tank. now that he's in your tank alone, he has no reason to be dominant and will not show his darker colors because there's no need to. the best chance you have to get him to darken up is to add another cichlid in the tank so he needs to show that he's in charge. imo, the best thing you could do would be to buy about 3-4 more small dempseys and let a pair form. if you have a breeding pair then the male will darken up and color up to impress the female. also, while in breeding mode, cichlids in general become more colorful. there are a few exceptions to this but the jack dempsey is not one of them. if you don't want a breeding pair of dempseys then you could go with a female convict or 2, though there's still a chance here that the 2 could form a breeding pair and have mutt babies. if fry is what you're worried about then add something like a raphael catfish and make sure there are hiding places where only the raphael can get to. when the lights go out the cat should eat most or even all of the fry.

other possibilities would be subdued lighting and/or floating plants, darker substrate, even more hiding places and/or a dark background. any of these may help but again IMO the best option is another fish for him to be dominant over.

ya the oscar I won't do.. I just returned two of them after realizing what a bad idea it was to keep them in my tank. Thing is, my 60 gal. is 12x24x48... so they only have a foot to turn around..and some get 14 to 16" so I didn't want to subject them to that.

I don't know what a jewel cichlid is, I am new to cichlids in general...but I'll look them up..... I'll also look up the congo tetras... I do have a pleco in there and I don't want to have to upgrade to a bigger tank bc of the fish... so again, reassurances about those ideas or any others that will permit the jack to live in there and the other fish to be able to escape the jack once he gets territorial!

thanks for the ideas !!!

With a 60g tank, why not add a half dozen Congo Tetras? They work wonderfully with my Blue Jack, and since they get larger then most Tetras, they can stay with him unless he gets violent.

I wouldn't recomend an oscar unless you wanna upgrade the tank after a few months coz the oscar and the jack will grow a little to big. From experiance introducing an oscar with a jack can cause problems (i tried to introduce a jack to an oscar) and my oscar just hassled him constantly. My oscar was slightly bigger which probably didn't help but im prity sure it would be the same if the jack was a little bigger he would try and bully the oscar.

and them tigar barbs aint really a good idea either regardless of there size. my oscar when he was just a ickle baby (1.5" tried to take on a couple of tiger barbs the same size as him. and again it will be the same with the jack!

remember just coz it wont fit in his mouth dont mean he wont try and have a nibble!

why dont you try a juwel chichlid?? they are pritty cool

I'd put in an Oscar in there. Buy a similar sized Oscar if possible. Try not to get an Oscar smaller than the Jack. Oh...and watch that Oscar grow like crazy!!! They eat tons of food and are really messy. A good filtration is needed.

As for the color... is your pH ok? (most)South American cichlids require acidic conditions. A pH of 6.5 to 7.0 is ok. If your pH is higher, get yourself some Seachem Acid buffer. They are the only brand that I know that don't add silly products like aloes and stuff like that in their buffers.

Good luck.

CC

Actually I have 5 plastic 24" plants, one big piece of driftwood and piled flat slate rocks around...so he does have hiding places hehe.. and there is a common Pleco in there....who he seems to like to chase around.

I was told that bc jacks are so territorial and agressive, other fish in the tank aren't such a good idea.... but I do have an *temporary* overstocked 20gal with some long skirt tetras and some tiger barbs.... I was thinking of maybe puting the barbs in there while the jack is still a juvi.... but he will eventually kill them if i don't take them out in time so i wonder if it's worth it..?

He's alone with the pleco in the 60 gal... any good ideas on a compatible fish ?

its normal, especially for cichlids like Jacks and Oscars. I would definitly have some place for him to hide, and yeah like Old Timer said, adding new fish can help him relax a little. Just make sure the fish you add are compatible with the Oscar.

He's just settling in at the moment and should come around in a day or two. The lights coming on, especially if the room and tank is dark before doing so is startling him.

Is there any kind of structure in the tank? By this I mean rock work or driftwood that he can use for concealment. If not then you may want to consider adding some to give your fish some sense of security or hiding places.

Are there any other fish in the tank with him? If not you may want to consider adding some others which will probably help in him feeling more secure.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain