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hey all jsut wondering what ur experiences r n have been with this large aggressive fish ive been into africans for awhile now n now im braching off into american cichlids larger ones anyway always up for a challenge n something new after alot of searchin n shopping ive decided i mite get a jack d
how fast do urs grow n what do u keep with them
ps i do no a great deal about the fish but ive never had one so im looking for experiences pros n cons thanks

The pro's of this fish are that of keeping any CA/SA cichlid. They are all pretty responsive to their owners and show bueatiful colors. The Jack Dempsey's grow to a size of about 8"-9". They are named after a legendary boxer named Jack Dempsey. They were named this because of their aggression towards fish in their territory. I would suggest getting a 55 gallon at the minimum. However, you could probably mix a few more fish in with the JD. I would suggest a Green Terror or another medium sized cichlid. I have kept oscars, Green Terrors, clown loaches, angelicus catfish, relatively any pleco, and even rainbows as dithers. It will take them about 3-4 years before they are about full size. I think you will enjoy them. As far as africans are concerned those of us that keep the new world cichlids refer to them as feeders .

I've had a Jack about a year now and he's pretty much fearless. He's about 6-7 inches and he's in with an Oscar about 9 inches. The Jack will back the Oscar down when it comes knocking on his door looking for trouble. The Jack isn't aggressive, he just doesn't take any stuff off the Oscar.

Now when it comes to live food he's an animal. Crickets, culls, mealworms, he'll shoulder the Oscar out of the way to get to them.

Jacks are great fish, lots of fun to watch and they spend alot of time watching you.

Have fun, Mike

JDs grow extreemly slow. They arnt that aggressive and their more medium sized. In the wild they are loners like male lions thats why they are very intolerant of there own kind so usually it is best to only get one

I had a jack for 10 years, was about 9 inches with a female about 6 inches. Did not put up with anything. Ours killed a 10 inch oscar. Apparently his personality was a bit aggresive. Killed a convict but after that he never killed any other fish. I noticed alot of aggresion from the male. Kept much larger fish with him after and although he was the "king of the tank" he never killed anybody else. Oh one interesting thing, he was scared to death of our pleco!!! Our pleco came out of the cave every so often (about a foot long pleco) and scared the crap out of everybody! Interesting!

thanks for the replies all n lil fishy im from southwest ont everything is feeders for our muskie n pike n garpike lol
i plan on gettin one i saw a young male n it was gorgeous ive never really been a fan of any other new world cichlids cept angels n dwarfs