New Jack Dempsey; Male Or Female?

[Jackiee]

I had the honors of acquiring a beautiful JD, for free, from a man that needed a tank cleared out asap.
He/she is 4 and a 1/2 inches long and is now in my 90 gallon aquarium.

In the pictures I was originally sent from the previous owner, my first thought was female. But now I'm not so sure.
Any opinions?

(sorry for the dirty glass, it was right after rearranging the tank)

 

[Monty-2010]

looks like a male to me...

 

[Jackiee]

I thought so too now.

I mean, they say if they have alot of color on their face, over their gills and down to their jaw, they are probably a female.
but they also say if they have more coloring on their bodies, they're probably a male.

Well, this fish has both.. color all the way around.

But one other thing is the red line that runs along the top of his dorsal fin.
I read somewhere on the internet that If a JD has this red horizontal line running across their top fin, it's a male.

So, just trying to get opinions.

 

[Verminator89]

Misconception with the red line on the top dorsal fin. Here is my female, with the red line.

I still think yours looks female to me, not male. Although admittedly it is a hard one to tell. Any chance of clearer pics without the glare/flash?

 

[matt_storey]

Looks lovely! wish i could house one with my Oscars

 

[Jackiee]

I've been trying to get pictures of him but he never stays still, the only way for me to get a picture at all is if the flash is on, because without the flash, the picture is blurry from him moving.

Here's the pictures I was originally sent from the owner before I even acquired the fish.
The pictures don't do justice to how much color there is on the body though, as they arent the highest quality pictures, they were taken with a cell phone, and he said the fish kept moving also .

 

[minnnt]

James you are such a lucky sod!! You have what seems like probably the best pair of jacks in the world!

Is it normal for me to like your female more than your male?

As for the OP, I have no idea but I would go with whatever verminator says as he is the king of JD's. Mine won't stay still for good pics either, I have been trying to describe them to him but pics tell the story so much better. Keep trying with the camera I am sure you will get one eventually.

 

[Jackiee]

I know it's been a while since I posted on this, but I just recently took a video of my JD last night to give you guys a better look at the fish, rather than pictures where I had to use the flash on my camera.

So here's a video, I figured this to be the best way for you to see him how I see him and give your opinions on the gender,

You can skip ahead to, or stop at 0:41 seconds in and there's a good stand still view of the little guy, (or gal)

http/youtu.be/Zvl81UYyEM8

 

[Verminator89]

After watching the video a number of times, and looking at it stopped at 0:41 i'm still saying female. The blue spangles on the face cover the entire head, and are all over the gill plates, which females characteristicly have. Another unreliable "my way" of sexing them is by the look of them, i honestly believe they look male or female with their facial features, and yours to me looks to be female.

Having seen 'her' in the video, she certainly is a good looking Jack!

 

[Jackiee]

Yes I'm almost positive I agree now, I just went and looked very closely between your male and female JD's characteristics in the face in your journal, and mine much more takes your females characteristics.. actually your female looks very similar to mine! Just larger!

Thank you, "shes" the prettiest fish in my tank by far, can't beat those flourescent eye catching colors!

Can't wait til she grows more.. I've had her for about 2 months now and she doesn't seem to have grown very much to me though? Is there anything I can do to help her growth? Live food maybe?

She ate 3 live guppies last week that I added into the tank just to see if any of my large fish in there would eat them.. My JD was the only taker.
I added about 20 guppies into the tank and the JD only ate 3 of them immediately after me putting them in and got full..
All my other fish left them alone and then the guppies settled in at the top of my tank.. Then my Jack got used to them being there I guess, and never tried eating another one, left them completely alone.

Strange.

 

[Verminator89]

In terms of growth, i've found Jacks to be slow growers. Best thing you can do to aid growth is all the uusual things really. Regular weekly water changes to keep the water chrisp and clear, and feed a varied/mixed diet. Consisting of good quality food and not masses of quantity. Jacks are one of those that prefere the quality to be strong and colourfull fish.

She would certainly of eaten them as you put them in the tank, the guppys. She may well leave them alone during the day now that they are settled themselves, but during lights off she will more than likely become opertunistic. Mine certainly is. I added 15 Yellow Tip Tetras to my tank a few months ago, and gradually to this date i'm down to the last 5. I know for a fact its my female Jack eating them aswell! haha.

 

[Redfishmagazine]

Those are beautiful JD's. Most specimens here in Australia arent nearly that good!

 

[Jackiee]

Yes, they are very beautiful fish!
I'm so lucky to have come across mine, I posted a wanted add for South American Cichlids on craigslist, believe it or not, for fish that needed rehome.

A man emailed me and said he wanted to get rid of his JD to make more room for his africans since he was breeding them. He handed her over to me for free.
I was quite surprised because she has awesome coloration, I was expecting to pay a high price for her.

But the man was overly generous, gave me some old tank decorations he didnt use anymore, some rocks to build caves, and also ended up giving me 5 other fish for free.
An Oscar, 2 striped convicts, and 2 pink albino convicts.

It's crazy what you can find out there.

 

[GShorty1981]

100% male, it has full body spangling and pointed anal fins, females are darker, have all the spangling on the face and rounded off anal fins.

 

[Jackiee]

Hmm.. I'm still getting both sexes as an answer even after showing people the videos,