Jack Dempsey

[ripil]

is anyone keeping these fish? i have kept tropical fish like guppies, rams, gouramis, mollies, tetras before. i've kinda fell in love with the electric blue jack dempsey. my tank is (120cm 55cm 45cm) w h d. so i don't think its big enough as i've been told they can grow up to 25cm. been looking around the net but i'd rather have advice and knowledge of here. thanks in advance.

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

I've owned Jack Dempeseys a couple of times and give me a moment to say they are very aggresive and not the kind of fish suitable for a tank with gouramis, but anyway to answer your question it is true, Jack dempeseys are extremely large growing up to 25cm. your tank seems a little small for this fish and i would reccomend 180cm 50-60cm 60cm w h d. what you can do though is keep a juvinial and let it grow to a mid stege then sell it

 

[Davo86]

Your tank is roughly 300L so is more than ideal for a Jack Dempsey with a few select tankmates, or even for an established pair IMO.

Obviously the likes of guppys and mollys are not suitable tankmates but in some cases larger teras like Colombians and Buenos Airies can work as well as good sized barbs, Giant Danios etc.. Also not all JDs turn out to be aggressive, many tend to be quite skittish and even timid IME,

 

[fishprotector]

I have a similar size tank to yours, 300 litres and currently have a female JD. Granted, she is only around 3 - 3.5", but at the moment she is very well behaved. I have her in a tank with a 5" Severum, a 6" Ellioti, a 3" Jewel (temporary home), a shoal of 20 Black Ruby Barbs and a couple of Plecos. The only thing that she tries to cause trouble with is the Jewel. The rest of the time she either spends swimming the length of the front pane showing off or hiding in her cave. So as has been said, they can be timid but I imagine that they could be really quite troublesome if the other tankmates could not stick for themselves. Oh and you should post this in the New World Cichlid section for more responses, as JD's are from Central America

 

[ripil]

oh yeah i knew livebearers and cichlids wouldn't get on too well. (even my rams hunted down the fry very well) the tank has nothing in or wouldn't have if i got one. are the electric blue ones less aggressive? really not sure i could keep a fish knowing i'd have to sell it as i get quite attached to them. i was thinking one electric blue jack dempsey and one albino tiger oscar.

 

[Davo86]

a JD (either standard, gold or blue morph) would be fine in the tank for life, An oscar on the other hand would require a bigger tank if kept alongside a JD and others; a tank bred JD is likely to get to around 8" whereas an oscar could quite comfortably reach 14"

The electric blue morph are the same as regular JDs in all aspects, with the only minor difference is that EBJDs can sometimes be quite sensitive when very small.

In a 300L I would be keeping with the EBJD as the centrepiece fish and then going for maybe one or two other midsize cichlids like an acara or Firemouth and then some dithers like Giant Danios or a shoal of Rainbows

 

[fishprotector]

+1 on 300l being enough for a JD for life

I have heard from several people I know who own EBJD's that they are a little less aggressive then the normal JD. I do not have first hand experience on this though. It is a well known fact that they are very fragile when young, quite expensive and hard to find a decent looking one.

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

I completely agree. the JD's would be great in a 300l because they cant get size stress and they will have massive spaces for the fish to hide if it ever gets scared

oh and btw fishprotecter, BRICHARDIS RULE!!! I only have 1 but they are great fish