Jack Dempsey Colors At Lfs..

[onidrase]

I'm considering getting a JD for my 75 gallon aquarium to be housed with my GT and catfishes and future rainbow fishes, (I've got some yay's and nay's on this idea, but I'd like to give it a go if I still get some yays and only a few nays.) and going to the LFS, I've seen an interesting thing about their JDs. For the most part, they're all speckled and a tannish color, this is common. However, there are always one or two that are speckled and are mostly black. I kinda like these guys, but I don't know why they're colored this way. Is it just the difference between the male and female? Which would the black be? Or is it a genetic mutation of sorts similar to the EBJDs?

Also, how do you sex JD's as juveniles? I'd like to aim for a male for once, I always end up with the girlies (I don't know what my GT is, but I'd honestly be surprised if it's a boy.)

Also, if I take this route and get both a JD and GT in the tank, would it be a bad idea to have my male convict in there as well? My female just does not like him, I kept them together for months and he spent the entire time hiding in the corner of the tank. I'm surprised he didn't die. (he's removed now. In my 37, he's actually well behaved. I've got an angelfish in there and they swim along side eachother with no issues. But I don't know how long this will last )

Overall, a stocking review would be great, this is my plan:

1 GT (already owned)
1 JD
1 Male Convict (already owned)
10 rainbow fish
1 senegal bichir (already owned)
1 featherfin squeaker (already owned)
3 raphael catfish (I have 1)
1 bristlenose pleco (already owned)

Stocking a tank like this isn't my area of expertise, be nice to me if this looks awful.

 

[balajake]

I had raphaels, they are pointless in an aquarium because you never ever see them.

 

[onidrase]

I had raphaels, they are pointless in an aquarium because you never ever see them.

Raphaels are my favorite catfish. I see them plenty. You just gotta let them get used to their surroundings. It also helps to keep them in bigger numbers.

 

[balajake]

they are pretty fish but mine hated the light and i wouldn't see them for weeks at a time.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

The only fish I would worry about is the rainbows. I personally do not keep my JDs with my GTs but that is mainly because I have breeding pairs of both. My female JD seems to be the one with the most black, as I think that they are their breeding colors. When my JDs spawned, both of them exhibited this black pattern very darkly. My female almost always seems to show it though. I find with JDs the female are always a lot smaller. My m and f are the same age, but she is half the size he is. Also, look at the spackles on their faces. Males will generally have a lot more in the upper part of their face, females with have fewer but they extend down to their chin.

 

[Verminator89]

As a general rule of thumb i'd go by whatever colour the majority of the jacks are in the LFS, slight variations maybe down to differences in brood. More often than not it just shows the more dominant of the fish in the holding tank, with paler fish usually being those weaker fish at the bottom of the pecking order. Most will almost always colour up to 'regular' colouration once settled into someones home aquarium. I say regular like that because i've seen all sorts of colours in Jacks, some nicer than others. I've seen from the green, to blue, to a pale olive/brown. I've not seen in person but knew someone on here who had a gold Jack, unfortunately she aquired him after i'd visited her. Then obviously you have the vivid electric seen in the EB variant. Its down to personal choice and luck of the draw when searching for specimens. As for selecting fish from the tanks, i've always had a way of deciding ultiumately which to take home. Aside from the obvious health checks when selecting fish i tend to avoid those hiding in the corners and/or strutting their stuff in the display tanks. Call it a hunch that i don't want too timid, or boistrous a fish. Instead, preferring the more mundane appearing fish, and allowing their personality/quality to shine through in my aquarium.

Stocking looks good to me. Not to heavily stocked, with a good variation of show, shoaling and bottom dwelling fish. Be carefull with introducing a new cichlid into an existing territory of a GT, or any other cichlid for that matter. I'm assuming your on about getting your Jack as a juvi, and i'm also going to presume your GT is somewhat mid-size to fully grown already? Either grow on your Jack first in a separate tank, or put in a divider for the time being. A must IMO is to rearrange the tank so the GT loses his/her territory before you add the Jack. As for the convict, you can try adding him. Just be sure to watch the signs and be ready to remove him if its obvious they won't get on, but in theory it shouldnt be a problem, you've just got to hope they allow it more than anything

As for sexing Jacks when they are just juvi's, good luck is all i can say. There like more fish when small, almost impossible. I bought a group of 3. I'd hoped for all females at the time, but as time went by i thought i had two males and one female. My existing male Jack picked a female, the one i thought was female out of the three and i then moved the other two 'males', as i thought, to another tank for the time being. It wasn't untill a week or two later that both of these 'males' had a batch of unfertilised eggs EACH at opposite ends of the tank. So much for thinking they were male, turned out i had indeed had 3 females as i wanted originally. Luck of the draw as i say. Best tip i can give is to go to the same shop repeatedly and observe and Jacks they have in their sale tanks, you can sort of get a feeling from observing behaviour after a while. If that makes sense....

James

 

[onidrase]

The only fish I would worry about is the rainbows. I personally do not keep my JDs with my GTs but that is mainly because I have breeding pairs of both. My female JD seems to be the one with the most black, as I think that they are their breeding colors. When my JDs spawned, both of them exhibited this black pattern very darkly. My female almost always seems to show it though. I find with JDs the female are always a lot smaller. My m and f are the same age, but she is half the size he is. Also, look at the spackles on their faces. Males will generally have a lot more in the upper part of their face, females with have fewer but they extend down to their chin.

I just had a hunch the rainbow fish would be alright due to their general large and tall size and speediness. Thought it might help cool off the aggression amongst one another, as for some reason, my FM is extremely aggressive without schooling fish. I had him in the tank with my convict and GT for a while, and he would not stop beating on them. I moved the convict and FM to the 37 gallon so the GT can cool off and heal up from all the LFS scars. Now they're both getting along fine, and it's not even all too decorated. It does, however, have a lot of black skirt tetras and red eye tetras. I kinda thought they might have some sort of effect, whether it be that they're somewhat distracting or otherwise.

 

[onidrase]

Stocking looks good to me. Not to heavily stocked, with a good variation of show, shoaling and bottom dwelling fish. Be carefull with introducing a new cichlid into an existing territory of a GT, or any other cichlid for that matter. I'm assuming your on about getting your Jack as a juvi, and i'm also going to presume your GT is somewhat mid-size to fully grown already? Either grow on your Jack first in a separate tank, or put in a divider for the time being. A must IMO is to rearrange the tank so the GT loses his/her territory before you add the Jack. As for the convict, you can try adding him. Just be sure to watch the signs and be ready to remove him if its obvious they won't get on, but in theory it shouldnt be a problem, you've just got to hope they allow it more than anything

All of them are juvis, I've had the convict for a month or two, making him the oldest going into this tank, but he's sort of malnourished right now because the female wouldn't let him have much food during the time I was attempting to pair them. I haven't even had the GT for a week now, though.

 

[onidrase]

Added the JD without even re arranging the tank, and the GT didn't even notice the new addition. Well, he might have, but he sure as hell doesn't care. Then I added the male convict, and he quickly turned into the king of the tank. He's even smaller than the rest of them

for the most part, everything gets along in the tank, but during feeding time, the rainbowfish turn into mortars, the cichlids turn into missiles, and the catfish turn into land mines. It's pretty chaotic. And there's usually an aftermath period where all the cichlids still bicker over food in the sand.

 

[Verminator89]

Yep, that sounds like a typical convict IME. Smaller than the rest but is that determined to be top dog the others usually just subdue, usually because the convict will be relentless haha. Things won't always be thay way. Glad it appears at this early stage to be working for you, long may that continue.

Also sounds like your average feeding frenzy, providing everyone is getting their fair share its all good. You may find it calms down a little after a while, still being chaotic, but a natural heirarchy will be established (to an extent).

James.

(and get some pictures up of these fish!)

 

[onidrase]

I'm gonna get some pictures up in a bit, but I'm treating with melafix, as I noticed a tiny bit of what looked like mouth rot on the rainbows (it's pretty much gone now) not to mention my GT had some pretty torn up fins when I introduced him. He was in -better- shape than the others in the tank, but none of them were in really good shape, really. I prefer to get pictures up when all my guys are healthy.

note, yeah, I took the senegal bichir out of the tank before treatment, (people say that the oily film that develops on the top during melafix treating may be bad for fish who breath from the surface) he's fine.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Congrats on your new additions!!!!Pics now!!!!

 

[onidrase]

oh, and I did kinda defied the advice to get one of the ones that look like the rest of the stock, and got one of the black ones I was asking about. He was just of the perfect size, and I'm kinda curious to see how it'll look as it grows, if it retains the dark pigment.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I dont know if the colors will be retained. This is my male.


http/www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2829311525592&set=a.2148641989279.121087.1043194832&type=3&theater

 

[onidrase]

I dont know if the colors will be retained. This is my male.


http/www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2829311525592&set=a.2148641989279.121087.1043194832&type=3&theater

ooh, shiney

if mine is a female, I'm naming it ke$ha cause of all the glittery scales