I took the plunge...EBJD
- Thread starter Big Jay
- Start date
The fish store I go to in my area is probably one of the best in the USA and have a lot of knowledgeable staff. I was talking with one of their managers about their frailty. He seemed to think it was from excessive inbreeding to achieve the best blue genes. It almost would seem the longer these fish have been around the worse the inbreeding becomes.
So far so good. My #1 goal is to have everyone in the tank alive and healthy. My fall back goal if that fails is to at least keep the residents healthy. Good news is that everyone seems to be doing good so far. Knock wood. The RHT seem to be keeping to themselves and the EBJD is just bouncing around the tank agnostic to everything else. I run about 900 gph of filtration between a wet/dry and canister with 30% weekly water changes. I also continuously run the tank at 80F for growth and resistance to parasites.
They very much are. I have attached a pic.
Now this pic may or may not be upside down this is mine, about 5 1/2 inches in length, good appetite & not over-bearingly dominant, when I got him his colours were washed out from a poor diet, I didn't believe at first just how much of a difference good food can make
Gorgeous! I can only hope mine grows out to that someday.
What food are you feeding?
I feed New Life Spectrum Cichlid.
Just give it time bud. I feed a rotation of Hikaro gold, frozen bloodworm, cooked mussel & occasionally sinking pellets, I haven't tried NLS yet as I have only seen it in small size pellets & my cichlid's for some reason won't eat small pellets
The fish store I go to in my area is probably one of the best in the USA and have a lot of knowledgeable staff. I was talking with one of their managers about their frailty. He seemed to think it was from excessive inbreeding to achieve the best blue genes. It almost would seem the longer these fish have been around the worse the inbreeding becomes.
So far so good. My #1 goal is to have everyone in the tank alive and healthy. My fall back goal if that fails is to at least keep the residents healthy. Good news is that everyone seems to be doing good so far. Knock wood. The RHT seem to be keeping to themselves and the EBJD is just bouncing around the tank agnostic to everything else. I run about 900 gph of filtration between a wet/dry and canister with 30% weekly water changes. I also continuously run the tank at 80F for growth and resistance to parasites.
They very much are. I have attached a pic.
Do you know if the standard looking "blue gene Dempsey" have the same issues? I see a lot of them around but very rare to see a electric blue.
Yours is looking great. Seems like you've got a good healthy one.
Just an update: Little guy is doing well *knock wood*. He's eating like a little pig. Spends most of his day swimming back and forth in the tank, picking through the sand. After I feed, he gorges himself on food from the bottom. Really great addition to the tank (so far). The geo's leave him alone, he leaves the geos alone, and he ignores the tetra dithers.
Hope this keeps going well.
Ironically, the only ones I've seen have been EBJD's. I haven't seen many JD's and actually haven't heard of the ones you speak of.
It's a shame because I think the regular JD's are great looking fish.
Hope this keeps going well.
Ironically, the only ones I've seen have been EBJD's. I haven't seen many JD's and actually haven't heard of the ones you speak of.
It's a shame because I think the regular JD's are great looking fish.
Another update:
Fish seems to have acclimated well. He eats everything in sight. So far it's been NLS Cichlid pellets and frozen mysis. Poop looks good. He's really bold. Man is he growing. I looked today and he's picked up some growth even in the week or two I've had him. Is this normal? Like i said, he eats great. Spends his whole day picking through the sand and crevices in the tank.
He gets along fine with the Geo's. They do their thing and the EBJD does his. He is not shy either. My GF loves him as he's constantly front and center. No pics today because I don't think you guys would notice any difference yet.
Fish seems to have acclimated well. He eats everything in sight. So far it's been NLS Cichlid pellets and frozen mysis. Poop looks good. He's really bold. Man is he growing. I looked today and he's picked up some growth even in the week or two I've had him. Is this normal? Like i said, he eats great. Spends his whole day picking through the sand and crevices in the tank.
He gets along fine with the Geo's. They do their thing and the EBJD does his. He is not shy either. My GF loves him as he's constantly front and center. No pics today because I don't think you guys would notice any difference yet.
So I found an article from a breeder of EBJD that stated his most successful batch were kept at most 77 f, and fed sparingly of a high quality dry food and frozen food. Power feeding and temperatures at 84f worked at great growing out blue gene JDs, but had the opposite effect on EBJD, resulting in slim, squinted eye, blind or eyes with deformed pupils.
Amazonas Magazine Nov/Dec 2014, Husbandry & Breeding: Propagating Rocio octofciata Blue Dempsey Blues by Alexander Wunsch
You might also want to consider running a UV sterilizer on the tank to prevent pathogenic bacteria and parasites from proliferating. Something like a UV sterilizer wattage at 0.3watts/gallon minimum with no higher than a flow rate of 7.5 gallons/minute.
