Jack Dempsey , Pleco in 75Gallon Suitable tank mat

[leongreenway]

Hello,

My friend has a 75Gallon Tank with a Jack Dempsey and a large Pleco. Up until this Tuesday he had an Oscar.

The problem is the Oscar used to start on the JD but always lost. In the end he lost an eye, got all messed up.

My friend tried to quarantine him but it was too late.

He is gutted but wants another fish.

What do you recomend, preferably another Cichlid or good looking robust fish / fishes.

Any advice would be cool.

Leon

 

[freddyk]

People don't really don't take into account that cichlids hate each other. When we mix these enemies only two things can happen - either they fight until one gets shredded, or they're forced into a grudging truce. The older a fish is in an established tank, the less likely a truce will be accepted when we add a new type.
How big is the current JD?

Unfortunately the JD is a very aggressive fish, and any tankmates that tend to do well with them should really be kept with other cichlids only in very large tanks. He has a couple of options though.

-he can get a few different types of cichids and force a truce by overstocking the tank, and creating a fish-store style setup. When the fish are overwhelmed with competition they really are left with no choice but to deal with it. This is the most popular method among beginners for keeping new worlds, and one I don't waste my time with.

-he can get a few more JD's if you can find them at a similar size, and then let a pair form between the current one and one of the new additions (after which the rest are removed). A dividor can be handy for this too. Pairs are the 'proper' way to keep these types of cichlids.

-he can keep the JD on his own, that way no cichlids need to suffer the stress of threat, and fill the tank with large robust non-cichlids, which tend to go ignored. A group of silver dollars, for example - and/or some medium-large sized catfish.