stocking for 125g

[punchiechip]

Looking for stocking ideas for a 125g...
What I know without doubt I want are jack dempseys. How many can you keep in a tank and at what female to male ratio? My debate is to do a species only tank but I can't find info on how many I could keep. Is it best to just keep a pair or could I do a male and multiple females?

I also want to do one pleco (blue phantom or gold spot), and there is the possibility of a single oscar but I am in two minds about owning and oscar or not.

The pleco will be purchased as a larger size and put in first. The rest (dempseys and possibly oscar) will be introduced at very small sizes simultaneously.

The tank is currently empty.

Thanks for any feedback

 

[Deadeye]

I wouldn’t do more than a pair of jacks in that size tank (any more would just be targets for the pair). It’s best to get a small group of juvies and let a pair naturally form.
Along with the jacks, you can do a group of dithers (my Jack leaves Buenos Aires tetras alone) and a pleco and/or catfish. Mine doesn’t bother with the bristlenose plecos or raphael cats.
My full 125 stocking is:
Banded leporinus
Male Jack dempsey
Female convict
2 bn plecos
Raphael cat
Delhezi bichir
Kribensis cichlid pair
School of Buenos Aires tetras + 1 “Australian” rainbowfish (technically an aquarium strain mutt marketed as Aussie rainbow)

It would be a completely peaceful setup if the leporinus wasn’t there… but I like him too much.
I’d pass on the Oscar, the water parameters don’t match up with CA cichlids, and a solo Oscar alone begins to max out a 125. If you’re looking to mix cichlids with a jd, I’d go for one of the convict relatives. They don’t do as well when they aren’t the most dominant fish.

 

[punchiechip]

What about single of each of my fave blues, like one each JD, EBA, Green Terror....would that even work? I also like texas cichlids but I don't know a thing about them; are they too aggressive?

 

[Deadeye]

The thing about all of those cichlids is that they look close to each other. On top of that, each one fills a similar role in its environment. In a cichlid tank, that’s usually a recipe for disaster.
You could potentially do an eba with a jack or Texas, but it could still go south. I definitely wouldn’t mix one with a cichlid in its same genus (gt).
As duanes can tell, the most successful cichlid mixes don’t let similar cichlids near each other.

 

[duanes]

A friend had a great JD tank he kept 1 male, and bout 4 or 5 females.
The tank had a pile of logs and rock in the middle.
It was quite the scene with the male kind of holding court over his harem.
Of course when the male would spawn, the pair would drive all the others into a corner, where they could be netted out until the fry were then removed , and females put back. In nature a pair will defend an area equivalent to 250 gallons of space, from all other JDs or other cichlids

Even in nature JDs do best without any other cichlids in their habitat.
In many Cenotes, their habitat is shared with non-cichlids like sail fin mollies.
Below is a video taken in one of those Cenotes.
https://youtu.be/txmi1mng_XQ
In another video below, JDs share about 10,000 gallons with another cichlid (Mayaheros uropthalmus) and even in that volume of water, the JD population is much smaller, and they are quite torn up.
https://youtu.be/eBFAtr6ZfIs
And in the video below at about 1 minute you can see a pair defending a spawning site of about 6ft x 6ft x 6ft, from all other cichlids., But mostly ignore the non-cichlids.
https://youtu.be/e8OVy3JKxcw
I recommend turning the volume down on all the videos, so you don;t have to listen to my labored breathing.

 

[punchiechip]

Thank you for all of the information! And the videos -- wow what a site! I know it's not nearly the same but we just got a gopro and I can't wait to dunk it in our tanks haha.

Ok I think I have an idea and would love feedback on this last stocking idea--
I currently have a 29 gallon grow out tank with one electric blue JD and 11 tiger barbs. Could I get one female JD to go in there and move them all into the 125g? There is a female at a local fish shop that is about the same size as my EBJD. The only problem is I do not know the sex of my JD, however the pointed dorsal fin suggests male but I can't be sure. The one at the shop is almost assuredly female with rounded finnage and blue "pearling" on her gill plate.

 

[Deadeye]

The ebjd are hard to sex - the problem with years of line breeding is that you lose a lot of the identifying traits.
I don’t think 2 females in a 125 would be too much of a problem, especially if one is naturally going to be weaker and less aggressive (the ebjd).

 

[ruincccc]

Male Jack dempsey
Female convict

curious did your jack and con ever breed? I too want to mix CA cichlids together, but were afraid of having hybrids

 

[Hybridfish7]

curious did your jack and con ever breed? I too want to mix CA cichlids together, but were afraid of having hybrids

Go by biotope, that way you guaranteed have species that evolved to not breed with eachother (for the most part)

 

[Deadeye]

curious did your jack and con ever breed? I too want to mix CA cichlids together, but were afraid of having hybrids

They laid eggs once, but within 2 days she ate them all. They looked fertile, but I think the Dempsey wasn’t being a good father (ignoring the nest, not defending).
They go back and forth with pairing behavior, sometimes they are digging together, protecting each other, right by each other’s side, and breeding. Other times they want nothing to do with each other.
Even if they did have fry, I’d just leave them all to be bichir food. No need for more mutts on the market.