Introducing New Fish To My 55 Gallon Tank...

[[email protected]]

Just today my convict passed away, leaving my 55 gal tank with only a single 6.5" Jack Dempsey in it. I'd like to add another fish or two, but am hesitant due to my JD having a history of aggression (he's killed every fish I've added other than the recently passed convict).

My question is do you think it would be wise or possible to introduce new fish, and if so what would be the best way to do so and what would be the best breeds to introduce? Would I be better off leaving it as a one fish tank?

 

[onidrase]

If your JD kills everything, it might be best to just leave him in his own tank.

Fish that might work are larger catfish like synodontis species, raphaels, or pictus. You might be able to get away with larger schooling fish like rainbowfish and giant danios, but it really depends. Cichlids pick their tank mates, not us.

The safest way to introduce a new fish is to take the JD out, put it in a bucket or something for about an hour while you totally rearrange the tank. Then put it back in the tank with the new tank inhabitants. That way, it may think it's been introduced into a new part of the river, and will take the new fish as scenery rather than intruders.

Just make sure that whatever you get, it won't appear to be food to your JD. They'll need to be pretty large as far as new tank mates from a pet shop go. If you have another tank around, you may want to grow out the new fish a bit so they aren't so edible.

 

[[email protected]]

Would a Midas or Texas be out of the question(I love nuchal humps)? I've always felt that keeping one of those with my JD would require a much larger tank (and be very risky). Is that correct?

 

[onidrase]

Would a Midas or Texas be out of the question(I love nuchal humps)? I've always felt that keeping one of those with my JD would require a much larger tank (and be very risky). Is that correct?

You're correct that they'd require a bigger tank. Not only for territory issues, but for keeping them in general.

Your JD is already pretty well grown, chances are he is not going to get along with another cichlid in his aquarium. Most of the time you need to introduce aggressive cichlids to each other when they're juveniles, or else they'll fight and fight. I'm guessing you had the convict and JD together when they were young. That makes a huge difference, and is probably why they got along and the JD wouldn't get along with anything else.

 

[[email protected]]

Would a Midas or Texas be out of the question(I love nuchal humps)? I've always felt that keeping one of those with my JD would require a much larger tank (and be very risky). Is that correct?

You're correct that they'd require a bigger tank. Not only for territory issues, but for keeping them in general.

Your JD is already pretty well grown, chances are he is not going to get along with another cichlid in his aquarium. Most of the time you need to introduce aggressive cichlids to each other when they're juveniles, or else they'll fight and fight. I'm guessing you had the convict and JD together when they were young. That makes a huge difference, and is probably why they got along and the JD wouldn't get along with anything else.

Alright. Thanks for the help. Looks like I'll just keep it a one fish tank for now.