A New Jack Dempsey At Work

[jollysue]

Well the poor Oscar at work finally was unable to overcome all the poor care she was given. She was a trooper for about five or more years.

So the 50 usg now has a 3" Jack Dempsey and a 3.5" common Plec. They threw a 2.5" convict in for a weekend. He totally punked the Jack D. So the supervisor took him out. I had suggested that it might not make a good mix. The Jack's colors went dark, he lost his home, and backed into a corner at the top of the tank. The Plec of course is fine.

Now the debate of what fish to try next has begun.

Can I get some input/suggestions? He is a lovely boy and deserves a nice home. Eventually the common Plec will go back to the lps and be traded for another, but what are good tank mates for the Jack? A spouse would be best, imo, but no one knows the gender of this one.

The tank has 2 large lace rocks (6" lengths maby) and a small smooth gravel substrate.

 

[ox5477]

well 50 is about the min for a single adult jd so a pair is prob not good idea as I would say you want atleast 75G for a single pair with no tank mates. I have giant danios in with my jd and plec and all seems to be doing well. you can try adding another con at some point as they should be fine but maybe add some more decor to divide the tank up more so they can both swim around without running into eachother too much

 

[jollysue]

Well the thing is, that they only so-so listen to me at work. They ARE going to add more fish. If they listened to me, they would have not put the convict in. As a matter of fact the oscar would have had a bigger tank and not have died. If you can believe, they had a 12" pimwe frontosa and the 12" oscar in the 50 usg until the front started stressing and rolling on his side.

So the question is, what can I try to get them to chose to make the tank look busy without over stocking it terribly for a bit or getting a fish killed outright?

 

[ox5477]

well try a school of 6 to 8 giant danios. this will add a "busy" look to the tank without overcrowding things. Theres not too many cichlids I would recomend... either another con with hopefully a better attitude or a firemouth

 

[vancouver]

They need places to establish as their own territory. If there aren't ''cave-like'' areas for them to claim as their own, 1 fish will try to take over the whole tank.

If they don't want to add hiding places, adding new fish will just result in more fighting.

 

[jollysue]

Thanks, guys.

There is one cave like structure that the JD likes. The lace rocks are, btw, more like a foot length x 6" deep x 8"wide or more--very large. When the convict was in, he took the cave and the rest of the tank too. haha. I will pass along the info. This is a teen boys group home. The water is very hard, iron rich, heavily chlorated because of heavy ground contamination by farm animals and three group homes. They are using a cheap dechlore, but the water is often not the same temp as the tank during water changes. They have finally stopped using the bottled water since Oscar died during a water change. The filter is inadequate for a heavily stocked tank, and the boys throw wild things (like toads and crawdads) in when no one is watching. In all it is not a healthy environment and only sturdy fish will survive.

The boys are here because they are unruly and some are gangsters in the making, so they don't listen or believe what they are told. Many are abusers of anything and everything, having been abused by many themselves.

I told one the other day to throw some cucumber or zucchini in for the plec once in a while. I found I had started WWIII, because he had cared for the Plec for a few months and had never feed him anything but what was left over from the convict, so I must be wrong. Mind you this common Plec of 3 inches or more was in a 10 usg with a family of breeding convicts. The water rarely changed and and half empty from evaporation.

I will talk to the supervisor who has taken over the tank project and bought the JD. Perhaps with some more decore he can try the con again.

What should he know about the danios?

 

[ox5477]

the danios are very peaceful and need to be in groups. alone they will not stop moving and may die from stress. Normally they are very active and as long as they are bigger than the jds mouth they will have no probs


good luck with the water parameter issues and hope that everything works out for any fish the people buy

 

[jollysue]

Yeah I am a little iffy about the danios because of the care issues. I'm wondering if some synos or some type of catfish or loaches wouldn't work. I assume the issue is territory and swim space not necessarily stock level. I mean I suppose the jd likes to have a territory of around 50 usg or more, but will not mind sharing with some non competing species.

And looking again I have still under stated the size of the rocks. They probably displace around 7 usg together.

 

[Budde]

I used to have Jack Dempseies but they died. I wish I could get them again but I can't due to the tank mates I now have.



Josh

 

[ox5477]

Yeah I am a little iffy about the danios because of the care issues. I'm wondering if some synos or some type of catfish or loaches wouldn't work. I assume the issue is territory and swim space not necessarily stock level. I mean I suppose the jd likes to have a territory of around 50 usg or more, but will not mind sharing with some non competing species.

And looking again I have still under stated the size of the rocks. They probably displace around 7 usg together.

care is not an issue wioth danios. as long as the tank is 100% cycled and you keep up on water changes, they are a very low maintanance species... I haven't had trouble since the day I bought them.

For catfish, Im not really knowledgable about many species but you def need a small species as the jd fills up the 50G you have already but it needs to be big enough too to not become food. try asking in the catfish section about this, they should have loads of info for you

 

[scrappy]

I kept my pair of JD's in a tank with Synodontis Eupterus (commonly named Featherfin Catfish). They grow to a fairly decent size. I then moved my Syno into a tank with my Flowerhorn and Blue Lobster and he got on well there also. Ive now got corys in with my JD's and they are also tolerated very well.

In my experience most small/medium cats seem to be well tolerated by medium sized cichlids like the JD.

 

[jollysue]

I wouldn't keep any of my Cories with any Cichlids other than apistos, but I was thinking about Synos. Only thing is that the ones that are moderately priced get too big for the 50 usg and a JD.

I have suggested the danios, and the supervisor hopes to look into what is available this weekend. I am printing out the profiles for him from the forum and perhaps some picts of some of the nice tanks. For now there is the Common Plec and some danios would look nice. Actually I worry about the Plec, because there is not much leftovers for him. I need to research his needs.

 

[GhostDogg]

Actually I worry about the Plec, because there is not much leftovers for him. I need to research his needs.

I had a similar prob with my plec.

Try some zucchini.
They luv it & most fish tend to leave it alone.
Algae wafer are also something you might want to try.
Also try feeding it @ night/light out.

Feed the JD and others on 1 side and place the plec food on the other side.

I'm thinking of Giant Danio as well but I fear my JD's won't be able to eat.
Danio(regular) are pretty quick swimmers and will pretty much snatch anything they can catch.
I've never seen giant danio in action but I assume they'd act the same @ feeding time.

 

[8inary]

I have a total of 3 JDs, including an electric blue one. I have almost a 1000ltr tank with many caves. I tend to use what is called TMC rock, very similar to fuji rock for marine tanks, albeit this stuff is artificial and hand painted, looks good though. I have a convict with the JDs they seemingly get along fine. I have many other cichlids and oddballs as per my signature. I will try to post a youtube video of the tank showing Mr JD.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcC6bF_L0T4