120 Gallon Tank Central American

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That sounds good. So having 8 juveniles all at once in the tank would be fine? Is it possible to guesstimate their sex at the store when they're around 2-3 inches?

About the Jag idea, all of you think a pair should fit in perfectly in a 125?
 
If you go with the Dempsey's and the Green Terrors, you'll want to get rid of the other males once a pair forms or dominance starts to show. My male Dempsey killed one of the other males in the tank, he's very intolerant of any other cichlid in the tank with him. He's just recently turned on his mate as well. I'm not sure how GT's are, but I can only imagine it's not much different.

As for identifying both, female Dempsey's have blotches of blue on their gill plates and less spangling on the body, where males have less color on the face and spangling down the whole body. I've found that the "rounded dorsal and anal fins" thing to be misleading, as both of my males and females have pointed fins. Look for nice shape and colors. GT's sometimes are trickier at smaller sizes. Generally the males have an iridescent green on the sides of their bodies, while females do not. I'm not an expert on them, so someone else on the board would have to help with them.

Overall, it's entirely up to you which to go with. I think either of the 2 combinations will result in an exciting tank.
 
Darkskies;4334764; said:
That sounds good. So having 8 juveniles all at once in the tank would be fine? Is it possible to guesstimate their sex at the store when they're around 2-3 inches?

About the Jag idea, all of you think a pair should fit in perfectly in a 125?
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This sounds good as far as the JD's ad GT's are concerned. a 125g is more then enough room for some juvies to grow out.

Jags yes, but if you go that route you will have ONLY Jags as a pair will own a 125g by them selves. If you want a solo species tank get the Jags, if you want a community tank get the GT and JD's. You could even do a few other dither fish with them and probly be fine.
 
+1 with anubisscott, and yeah its tricky and not 100% with telling sex at that size but with these species you can have a good idea, with JDs, like stated females will have blotchy blue on their gill plates and little body color while males will only have speckling on their gill plates and more color on their body (though at that size you have to go just by the gill plates they may not have their body color yet) and for GTs the females will also have more blue blotches or lines around their gill plate and almost no body color and no reddish design with their dorsal, while males will have some blue spotting and irridescent body coloring (but if they are really little they may not have this yet) and designing within their dorsal fin. some babies without the design may turn out to be sub dominant males but if they have the design and color and everything even at a young age then they are for sure a male, and then just try and find the one with the less amount of color and most blue on the face for the females, GOOD LUCK
 
I think I'll be going with a pair each of the JDs and GTs. Gatorxxx420, I'm sorry for your loss. Do you know any reason why he turned on his mate? Did you have to separate them or have they been able to work it out?

What kind of dither fish should I have and when should I add them? I could add all of the fish at once since they will be rather small(maybe with an extra helping of biospira/safestart) or wait until the pairs form but by then they might be too large in comparison to the dither fish and end up feasting on them.

I've read that female green terrors grow slower than the males once they spawn for the first time. Is this true? If so, how large do the females get and how long does it take for them to reach that size? I don't want the tank to look empty but if the pairs of both fish reach around sizes of 8-12" that shouldn't be an issue.

Once both pairs are breeding, will they be able to tolerate each other? I would like to see some brood care(at least for a little while) so will the fry get eaten by the other fish? I know that once they start breeding, they never actually stop. Does this have any detrimental effect on the parents' well being or lifespan? The life expectancy for these fish is around 10+ years and I would hate for that to be cut short. I might grow out some of the fry but I don't think I'll be interfering much with the majority of the spawns(especially if they never quit spawning). Thanks again!
Darkskies
 
i would add all the fish in at once, just make sure your bio media can handle it (like add ALOT of food to the water for the last week of your cycle before you get them and do a water change and then add them) and yeah with all cichlids, once the female spawns her growth slows considerably so you will want to try and hold this off for as long as possible (maybe divide them if you want them to grow larger before spawning) males should still grow the same though, and yeah the pairs will protect the fry from being eaten when they are tiny but once they get some size on them they will eventually serve as free feeders for the adults and yeah both JD and GT males will eventually get to like 10in females will get to 6-8 but if they breed early you will be lucky to get them to 5in

and yeah it will take some work to get the breeding pairs to work together but the tank should be big enough, just make it so that their territories are on opposite sides and there are some site breaks or something between them so they dont have clear view of each other all the time when they are in their respective caves/shelters
 
It's ok, death is part of this hobby, especially keeping cichlids. I'm not really sure what caused him to turn on her, sometime last week they spawned and finally had a successful spawn. When I did my water change, idk if that spooked her and she sensed danger to the fry or not, but she ate them. Ever since, he's been on the warpath with her. I did separate them after he went nuts on her. I'm going to try to reintroduce her back in a few days, hopefully he's over whatever it was. If not, he's gonna be awful lonely in that tank with just the bala sharks lol
 
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