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hence the reason for the dither fish they distract the aggressive fish from one anouther

The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an bacon and egg breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

my jack seems too grow pretty slow he is about an inch bigger than i got him about three months ago my oscars were 1/3 his size now they r even and bigger

Thanks for all the help! Can you believe the initial Dempsey jumped out of the tank! Yesterday morning we couldn't find it anywhere. We stirred up the gravel thinking that he buried himself. Flipped over rocks...etc... Then we waited all day and he still never showed. I started to eye the pink convict suspiciously and tried to imagine how such a little fish could have eaten the other. Well my husband finally found him under the armoire. He must have jumped out to his death. The lid was closed the only place he could have jumped from was the space where the filter and heater is! I can only imagine that when we turn out the lights and went to bed he must have been so disoriented to have gathered up enough momentum to fly out of the tank.

My husband quickly consoled himself by buying another Jack Dempsey yesterday evening. This one is displaying much darker colors then the first one. It's pretty.

I am so tempted to add my small school of tiger barbs from the 29 gallon. I have not been able to have any fish with them since they systematically killed all my tetras.

Given the right space, nutrition and water, a JD grows very fast. Though as Sin said, not exactly Oscar fast, but they will get there.

I'm under the impression that blue acaras are fairly peaceful, so if you MUST add something (I still think you shouldnt add anything), cichlid wise, a firemouth is a fish you could find almost anywhere, who may go well with that set up.

Also, I'm not sure about the chromides. They need pretty extreme water parameters to do well-- I've heard of people keeping these with brackish fish.

Last edited by smantzer at 09-Feb-2005 12:15

Hey SiameseCat I bet this thread has confused you a bit a lot of differant opinions on how you should stock your tank. best of luck to you on what ever you decide

joe


The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an bacon and egg breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

leave it alone...i would really liek to see the JD alone in the 55g myself but to each his own. Another thing..JD donts grow insanely slow, i forget who said that but they are wrong. they grow fast, not as fast as an oscar but dang close.

as i said you could do 4-5 americans i would recomend for the begginer:
blue acara
red forest jewel(not american)
port acara
orange chromide
many of the geophagus genus would be suitable
chocolate cichlid
fire mouth
aureum cichlid
these are all mid sized americans they get aggressive but not overly. you could probly put 4-5 of those mentioned above. but remember only one of the same fish unless you are trying to get a pair. i also dont think it is best for begginers to get more than one of the same fish as if they dont pair up the weaker of the 2 will be picked on and usually die or have to be relocated.
i advise you to stay away form the following familys
viejas
paratheraps
nandopsis
some cichlasomas
amphilophus
Parachromis
Paraneetroplus

you could put 4-5 medium sized mildly aggressive central or south americans in there. also JDs grow extreemly slow and are not that aggressive. i think it would be a rare occurence that a JD would eat sumthing as large as a tiger barb. most big aggressive cichlids kill others for teritorial reasons not for food. but i have had fish that kill others almost seeminglt for fun. so id say tryal and error and whatever works go with it.

if some day that they start to clash I may have to move one to anouther tank or maybe trade it in to the lfs for some new stock until then I will enjoy the happy community that I created.

We do that as well Joe and we've come up with some strange things that has worked like 6 tiger barbs as dither fish in a tank full of various cichlids.
Cichlids are funny creatures and personalities vary from one to another so advising on getting another cichlid is a touch and go thing, it may work but it may not?
I'd be tempted with something like a blue acara, they can look after themselves and don't really get that big?

A Jack Dempsey and a pink convict ( female- orange belly). They are small like 2 inches each. And yes I know they will eventually have to move to a bigger tank. My husband picked them. They look content. They have rocks and plants but have not used any hiding spaces. Honestly they look so small swimming in the 55 gallon. They are still small. Could we add anything else?

Monos? My goodness... well, regardless, if it's working, go ahead, and it isn't my place to critique your tanks anyway..

Back on subject...

SiameseCat: The "kissing" behavior is certainly not love. It's an aggression thing-- I've had fish rip lips off each other in such battles (It was quite worrisome). Seeing as they're aggressive fish, you'll see this a lot, but if they havent locked lips an dhavnet seriously injured each other, dont worry.

Last edited by smantzer at 08-Feb-2005 22:46

I post on my own experiences and only tell what has worked for me, my 75 gallon tank has a 8 inch Jack a 5 inch male convict 3 3 inch silver dollars 1 kribensa 2 plecos 2 3 inch monos I do a 25% water change every two weeks, I have no torn or tatered fins just very happy fish that all get along well together, if some day that they start to clash I may have to move one to anouther tank or maybe trade it in to the lfs for some new stock until then I will enjoy the happy community that I created.

joe

The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an bacon and egg breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

Yes, but the catch is, however long it takes a fish to grow, it -will- get there eventually. So personally, I say nix the silver dollars idea.

And as for the tiger barbs: Yes, tiger barbs are fast. But JDs grow fast, and convicts are nasty. No matter how fast they are, they are little, non-cichlids, defenseless, and the cichlids is a -predator-. It will act out its part against anything that can fit in its mouth.

I don't know much about these fish and SA/CA cichlids, but what about syndonotis eupterus, if you must have something? I have one in my african cichlid community, and it's surprising what a bully it can be. No one picks on this catfish, even if it is a cutey.

Last edited by smantzer at 08-Feb-2005 22:13

I know that is what books say but the time it takes for the silver dollars to get to large for the tank is a long time as well as the jack to get big enough to eat the barbs that are faster than him/her:88)

The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an bacon and egg breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

I'd advise against Silver Dollars (a 4' tank just doesn't allow them the schooling room they need, and it's going to have more than enough bioload once the JD's an adult) and Tiger barbs (both your existing fish are likely to be serious dangers to them). And if you go with a plec, don't pick a common; it'll just outgrow the tank.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

you could put a small school of silver dollars in there and some tigar barbs and a pleco

The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an bacon and egg breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

How can I tell they are getting along? The Jack Dempsey pursues the Pink Convict at times and looks like he is trying to get face to face with her like he wants to kiss her. I read Cichlids "lock jaws" . Is that what he is doing? Or is it love? He hasn't hurt her or anything.

Last edited by SiameseCat at 08-Feb-2005 15:23

Resist the urge to add anything. They will grow quickly