Jack Dempsy Breeding

[katie19]

My boyfriend and his friend have a 55 gallon tank that currently has a small pleco, 3 firemouths and 2 jack dempsys. The dempsys have bred 3 times now and each time the eggs kind of turn white and then they eat them. Someone suggested we take out the rock with the eggs and put it in another tank but wont that stress out the parents?

why are they breeding then eating the eggs like that?

 

[mike os]

if the eggs turn white within about 36h then they are probably infertile

various causes, from immature/infertile male, too hard or too polluted water, 2 females, or just not being fertilised because they are being disturbed

 

[jb12288]

if they turn white, the they are unfertilized. they are just learning how to raise kids, it takes a few times.

 

[ox5477]

If you see no yellow eggs (development of yolk after fertilization), then its possible that the male is too immature, infertile or that they are both females.

If you can get pics of the pair, this would help things... also, 55G is barely big enough for a pair of JD's by themselves, so throwing in 3 fm's is not helping to keep the stress levels down in that tank...

Ox

 

[katie19]

I don't have any pics right now but one of the JD is very large with bright colors all over it's body the other is about half it's size and is black with dark brown on it. Before they lay the eggs they rub all over the rock and suck it clean for hours. The first time they had the eggs I remember that the Fire mouths kept testing them and they fought alot, but since the one Jack got real big, the fire mouths stay on one side of the tank. The only fish in the tank that I have control over is the large jack demspy so I can't do anything about the 3 fire mouths in the tank.

 

[ox5477]

Yes, cichlids defend their young violently and hence why I was saying that the 55G was too small for them. I would take the fm's to the lfs to be traded in or if another 55G can be purchsed just for them, that would be best... not just because of pestering the couple, but because they can be seriously hurt from the jd's with their strong parental instincts.

Also, both male and female JD's will have the characteristic purple/teal/green speckling all over the body. Males are typically larger, but more telling characteristics are the fins (males have much longer and pointier tips of both the dorsal and anal fins) and the speckling at the jawline/gill plate. Females speckling continues onto the jaw and gill plate while males will have very few spots, if any at all. If the female (the smaller of the two) is just a dark black with very little color, then it seems to be overly stressed (cichlids show emotion through their skin coloration like humans have facial expressions).... pictures would be good.... im assuming the smaller is the female right now, but if it is a juvenile male that is not yet mature enough to fertilize eggs, then the female could be stressing it in trying to fertilize the eggs and hence why the smaller of the two is darker, and more stressed.

About how big is the larger of the two?