Best Setup for a Jack Dempsey?

[RedAlkiestarte]

Im not to familiar with Jack Dempseys, but after my mother in law saw our monster tanks with Peacock Bass, Oscars, Catfish etc etc. She is starting to get sucked into this hobby!! She was doing her own research and is really fond of Jack Dempseys.

My question is what would be the best setup, size wise, tank mates, filtration? Can it be done with live plants? (I always had problems in Oscar tanks with live plants, they pretty much told me how they wanted it decorated lol)

Any help would be appriciated.

 

[jaws19]

filtration should be 20 gallons over the tank size for HOB filter so if you have a 55 buy a 75HOB filter, next anything above 55gallons is good

55 housing 1 pair
75 housing 2 pairs
100 and above 3-4 pairs

tanks mates anything able to stand its own ground (I.E Green Terror) but isn't aggressive this means no red devil or jaguar jacks have been kept with red devils and jags but im my experience they get bullied.

plants can be kept with jacks it just depends of the personality your has certain one dont mind the live plants others hate them or even eat them

 

[King Fisher23]

55 gallon is the bare minimum for JD's I agree with the above poster about filtration and plants it just depends.

Tank mates should be something that can hold its own against a JD like Cons,FireMouths, and few more can't think of them atm

 

[RedAlkiestarte]

Thanks for the help on this

 

[japes]

48x15"+ footprint minimum in my opinion. 55Gal for a single or pair is rubbish.

 

[r3d]

Ive got mine in a planted 40 gal with 4 Clown loaches, 2 plecos and a rapheal, mine does great with plants and all his tank mates, he does seem to get annoyed when all the loaches get into his clay pot cave and chase them off. although hes only 3 inches things might change as far as plants and tankmates go as he grows bigger.
ps. dont flame for the 40 gal its just a growout

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

I would go with just a single dempsey if the tank is 55 gal, mostly for the beginner, since there will be aggression issues, especially if there are tankmates

 

[Tongue33]

48x15"+ footprint minimum in my opinion. 55Gal for a single or pair is rubbish.

Opinion Rubbish is opinion


But wouldn't 48x15x18 work Japes??

 

[V1xIII]

Make sure to have some places for it/them to be able to run and hide in. They are sometimes skittish and like to dart for their safe spot from time to time.

 

[aliaz666]

we've had our jd in our 95 gallon with various other cichlids and once she grew to about 2inches she hasn't had any real problems with anyone. except for our male red devil that once it got to 4inches started chasing her to kill but she has been in with a lot of other sa/ca cichlids; oscars, green texas, a smaller jd, a flowerhorn, a vieja, some clown loaches, a chocolate pleco, some bristle nosed catfish.. she also seems to make a bit less mess than my other cichlids. hope that helps..