I have a 7 inch male Jack Dempsey, and a 5 inch male Red Devil that are very dear to me because I have raised them both from baby fish. However they piss me off because they wont allow me to have any other fish! I got a 7 inch arowana, killed it, 4 inch Jag, killed it, clown knife fish, killed it, tiger oscar, killed it. I see awesome tanks all the time where people keep these fish together but mine wont put up with any other fish besides pretty much eachother and fish that are too hard to catch because theyre small and maneuverable. My baby jag just reached 2.5 inches and nowtheyre bullying it and I am going to have to get rid of it most likely before they kill him! I don't want to get rid of the 2 fish because I want to see them at their full size, but I want other fish and can't afford a new tank. Does anybody else have this problem?
My Fish Piss Me OFF!!
- Thread starter Wesley M
- Start date
Depending on the tank size I usually expect this to happen with Red Devils. I know for a fact that if I tried to add another cichlid to any of my tanks there's a 95% it would get slaughtered in a hour. Do I wish I could get more fish maybe but I'm content with what I have.
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With most cichlids, this is a territorial norm. Trying to add new fish to an already established (probably too small) aquarium is not going to happen, as your 2 cichlids have already carved the boundaries of the tank up.
In nature a jack dempsey pair will keep all other cichlids out of a 4' X 4' area, that's "at least" 240 gallons. Although you could rearrange the decor to destroy the established territorial lines, if the tank is small, it's probably a useless exercise in futility for the new fish..
In nature a jack dempsey pair will keep all other cichlids out of a 4' X 4' area, that's "at least" 240 gallons. Although you could rearrange the decor to destroy the established territorial lines, if the tank is small, it's probably a useless exercise in futility for the new fish..
This is fairly common with established cichlid community tank as they won't accept new fish. So the best way to start a community is to raise juvenile fish all at the same time. As the fish grow big, they will work our a hierarchy to get along. Introducing new big fish is perceived as disturbing the hierachy and won't be tolerated. You may have a chance to introduce new small fish, not small enough to be food, but small enough to pose no threat to the hiarachy and be able to hide in caves for a while. Eventually the small fish will come out to eat and grow into a member of the community.
Over stocking is the key.I have a6x2x2 and about 15 big cichlids in it no aggression
I can put new fish in no problems, as long as the new fish is bigger than 17cm all is well.
I also have a completely bare tank with no territory there is 1-2 ornaments in the tank and that's it, the fish spend their time watching their back instead of picking fights.
Synspilum are really good peace keepers, if you can get a15-20cm syn, put him in the tank he will dominate the other fish, and then when you add anything new it will protect them from the jd & rd.....
Also I would get 4-5 other fish same size as the ones you have in there too...try out then all in at the same time, remove all ornaments for the introduction, and don't put them back straight away, when you do out the ornaments back out then in completely different places.
Your jd has an area so does your red devil....
I have:
30cm+: Midas, fenustratus, jaguar, Oscar, green terror
15cm+: flowerhorn, kamfa,jd,rd,2 synspilum
(My fen is the piece keeper,40+cm, but he is a placid fen,i would not recommend a fen as a piece keeper)
Just my opinion (waiting for a load of people to tell me I'm wrong...but I'm not)
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I can put new fish in no problems, as long as the new fish is bigger than 17cm all is well.
I also have a completely bare tank with no territory there is 1-2 ornaments in the tank and that's it, the fish spend their time watching their back instead of picking fights.
Synspilum are really good peace keepers, if you can get a15-20cm syn, put him in the tank he will dominate the other fish, and then when you add anything new it will protect them from the jd & rd.....
Also I would get 4-5 other fish same size as the ones you have in there too...try out then all in at the same time, remove all ornaments for the introduction, and don't put them back straight away, when you do out the ornaments back out then in completely different places.
Your jd has an area so does your red devil....
I have:
30cm+: Midas, fenustratus, jaguar, Oscar, green terror
15cm+: flowerhorn, kamfa,jd,rd,2 synspilum
(My fen is the piece keeper,40+cm, but he is a placid fen,i would not recommend a fen as a piece keeper)
Just my opinion (waiting for a load of people to tell me I'm wrong...but I'm not)
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Get a larger tank or another for the other fish. These two have already claimed their territory and IME nothing you can do will change that in their current tank.
Lol
You could buy a couple dither fish, that way the aggression is more spread out
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