New Roomie For Jd

[smooth_bourbon]

Hi I have a 8 inch Jack Dempsey in a 80 gallon with cory cats, and a sailfin leopard pleco. I had a 10 inch Oscar in the tank which I lost over a year ago. I would really like to liven the tank back up. I hope to add a Blue Dempsey, but am not sure if I should get a small one so it can grow up with the cories, but risk it being picked on by the dempsey, or get a larger one. My current dempsey definately has his territory staked out which is one large cave that he only yields to the pleco.

 

[vancouver]

It will be hard to add another dempsey. Blue dempseys are normally not as aggressive as regs, and large ones are hard to find.

 

[ox5477]

It will be hard to add another dempsey. Blue dempseys are normally not as aggressive as regs, and large ones are hard to find.

I agree 100% except for the word 'hard'. I would replace with 'almost impossible'. Not to say that for some strange instance it wouldnt happen, but for a full grown adult cichlid in an established tank, it is damn near impossible to add another cichlid, especially one of the same species. The old fish will not tolerate it and harrass the new addition close to or to death

 

[cheesy feet]

This jd is only 8 inches,it's not like it's a 16 inch oscar.If you rearrange the tank then add a blue dempsey the same or simialer size as yours(they are smaller then normal dempseys)hopefully that would work.But i dunno some cichlids will just kill each other for no reason .If the tank needs livening up why not try to get some new decor or some different varietys of corys instead.It's easier and your not running the risk

 

[smooth_bourbon]

ok thanks for your input. I love my cories, but have 7 as it is. I was hoping for something mid level, and from all I have read another chiclid was my best bet. Oh and the Dempsey I have currently is very tollerant. He grew up around Cories, an Eel, and an Oscar. Not to mention I had a Pond disaster and threw 2 10 inch gold fish in with him shortly after the Oscar died and he just got a bit more defensive of his cave. ( I know Goldfish bad, but needed a quick temp home and I lucked out)

 

[vancouver]

Probably something you'll just have to try. I wouldn't go for a larger one basically because of dominance issues. A 8'' JD shouldn't be too threatened by a 2'' jd, but then again it might obliterate it.. Might want to be sure you can return the blue jd if you find one, and it doesn't work out.

 

[smooth_bourbon]

Thanks for your input. As for finding a Blue Dempsey, the LFS here special orders them on request, and you can get them online for bookoo bucks. Sounds like I really need to just set one of my other tanks back up for the JD and look into a new larger family for my 80 gallon tank. So who is gonna explain to my husband why I need to drag one of my tanks out of storage

 

[vancouver]

Get the fish to do it

 

[Boids-n-more]

Something else you can try is adding a few new fish at once. This way if he gets aggressive its dispersed to all of them and not just one

 

[Miss Wiggle]

instead of adding one more cichlid which is likely to end in troublw why not look into a shoal of slightly larger fish such as silver dollars or bala sharks. not sure if these are suitable for your tnak you need to do some research, but just to give an idea of another route you could go down which may be easier.

before adding new fish to the tank turn the tank lights off, re-arrange decor/ornaments etc so you remove the JD's territories then add the new fish, give them a while then turn the lights back on. you're effectivley giving them a level playing field to start off from.

 

[LisaLQ]

I dunno about balas (the minimum shoal of 5 would need at least a 6 x 2 x 2ft tank if not bigger), but some silver dollars would be lovely, or some boesmanni rainbows (get large/adults though). I personally wouldnt risk another cichlid, not because it's impossible, but because if things went wrong and you put a divider in, that's only 40g each, in a bigger tank it would make more sense. Get some nice larger dithers, and not only will they liven your tank up a bit, they'll bring him out more too - I've found all of my cichlids past and present preferred some dithers about.

 

[smooth_bourbon]

hmm now you tell me I already set up my old 55 gallon. I moved the Biowheel from the 80 (it was some extra for the heck of it) and added another powerhead in its place. So I got a beautiful tank with a bunch of Guppies from my feeder tank keeping the filter alive, waiting for the big move.