Hi, I'm setting up a 75 gallon aquarium with a Jack Dempsey as my main fish. I would prefer two, one male and one female, along with some Cory and Ottos as a cleanup crew. I would also like to add a minimum of six schooling fish that a nice to look at can hold their own in this aquarium. Any ideas? Also, will two JD's be overkill? Filtration and water quality will not be an issue. I'm just worried about space.
75 gallon Jack Dempsey tankmates
- Thread starter Riverak
- Start date
Here's a video of how JDs live, and the kind of fish they share waters with in nature. (live bears like swordtails and mollies, and Rhamdia catfish)
If you had two females it might work, or if you have a compatible pair, but the getting a compatible pair is the rub.
You usually need to start with about 6 juvies, let them grow up together and choose their own partner. You then, either remove the others, or the pair do, by killing them.
A friend of mine kept a male and about 5 females in a 75 and it worked well. But with that crew, there wasn't any room for other fish.
I would guess that cory cats may have a hard time surviving in a JD tank (unless they are large ones), and because the cory's have a sharp barb, when the JD tried to swallow them, the barb may get caught and kill the JD.
Eden2
If you had two females it might work, or if you have a compatible pair, but the getting a compatible pair is the rub.
You usually need to start with about 6 juvies, let them grow up together and choose their own partner. You then, either remove the others, or the pair do, by killing them.
A friend of mine kept a male and about 5 females in a 75 and it worked well. But with that crew, there wasn't any room for other fish.
I would guess that cory cats may have a hard time surviving in a JD tank (unless they are large ones), and because the cory's have a sharp barb, when the JD tried to swallow them, the barb may get caught and kill the JD.
Eden2
I've kept ottos in other tanks so I know them well ... but I've never tried them in a JD tank. I'm almost certain they'd get eaten. Tiger barbs look great in a school of 7 or more and the JDs won't be able to pick them off when they're juveniles. But when the JDs mature they'll eat pretty much anything they can catch which will fit in their mouth and the TBs will be on the menu.
I would recommend sailfin mollies as the dither fish... they won't exactly school but they will swim together especially if large JD's are present, also they are geographically correct. They can get to 4-5" and will be too large for the JD's to eat at this size. I would not keep cories or otto's with JD's, they are just going to be eaten. And the cories can choke the JD's with their spines.
+1 to everything duanes said, excellent advice
+1 to everything duanes said, excellent advice
Thanks for the advice. I'm a little disappointed about the Corry and Ottos, I really like them. This aquarium isn't a personal one, I'm setting it up for the office which means I'll have about 100 critics so I have no margin for error. I wanted a planted tank with peaceful community fish and my boss agreed to this until he saw a silver arrowana eat a mouse on YouTube. Now he wants large aggressive fish. I didn't feel comfortable putting a silver arrowana in a 75 gallon tank so I thought a JD would be a good alternative. I'm trying to find a middle ground between his aggressive fish and my peaceful community fish so I have a lot to think about. If any one has more advice, I'll take any help I can get. Thanks.
Are you planning on getting the fish at a lfs or would you consider a fish that you might need to order from http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/ or another place?
Have you comsidered a Salvini? Nice looking fish that's large and aggressive enough to satisfy your boss. Easy enough to set up a nice looking tank with some plants and a bit of wood. Some larger tetras can be added as a school for some extra colour and movement. Not sure if you could add the cories and ottos though.
definitely no smaller corys. maybe some of the larger ones or pictus. i have a raphael cat with my jd and a flowerhorn.
as for schoolers, at around 6-7" my jd has eaten danios and rainbowfish that were pushing 4" but strangely seems to not go after my larger blackskirt tetras, which have a taller profile. might be worth it to try some since theyre cheap. but otherwise a group of some of the smaller growing silver dollars should work.
good luck with your tank.
as for schoolers, at around 6-7" my jd has eaten danios and rainbowfish that were pushing 4" but strangely seems to not go after my larger blackskirt tetras, which have a taller profile. might be worth it to try some since theyre cheap. but otherwise a group of some of the smaller growing silver dollars should work.
good luck with your tank.
