Electric blue cichlid compatability?

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NitroDempsey

Gambusia
MFK Member
Mar 15, 2012
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My lfs had a 4 inch electric blue, I really want to pick him up but I have a jack Dempsey, would this combination work out or would it be a fail. My jack is about a inch and a half. Thank you.


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hmmm... My best opinion on this is yes it would work. I have a bunch of electric blues and they are pretty decent fish. The jack dempsey's can be very aggressive, but a 4 inch electric blue verse a 1 and a half inch jack dempsey I would put money on the electric blue. I mean my electric blue is mellow, but if a fish tries to bully him he does not put up with it at all! Good luck and yes I would get the fish. I love electric blues
 
Gotchya. Okay Jack Dempsey's are very aggressive and will try to mess up a lot of fish, but they aren't totally stupid. They aren't going to pick a fight with a 4 inch electric blue that could easily kill them. The convict probably got killed because he was smaller. You will encounter this problem for getting new fish as the Dempsey gets bigger. If you upgrade to a 29 gallon and introduce the electric blue with the new tank, then they should be totally fine. By the way are you getting a electric blue from Petsmart? If so I would try and look at other Petsmart's because I have seen some pretty nasty looking electric blues, but I have also seen some decent ones. Good luck
 
The BIGGEST thing you have to realize is that an electric blue is an African cichlid and the Jack Dempsey is a South American. That being said it is usually not a good idea to mix these at all since most African's are nicer and the South Americans are just plain MEAN. I don't recommend mixing these, but the Electric Blue will do just fine. They should grow accustom to each other over time when the Jack gets bigger, or the Jack will eventually grow to the same size as the Electric Blue and they might fight, but they probably wont'.
 
Yeah I don't think he's that dumb, but the thing that worried me is the jack never lost interest in him so if for some odd reason the jack goes after this blue it won't end well. And yes the blue is at petsmart, same one I got my jack from, but they by far have the healthiest fish and constant new shipments and they all seem healthy. I plan on getting the new tank and introducing them both to it at the same time. What is a good way to reduce aggression? Multiple caves or what?


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NitroDempsey said:
Yeah I don't think he's that dumb, but the thing that worried me is the jack never lost interest in him so if for some odd reason the jack goes after this blue it won't end well. And yes the blue is at petsmart, same one I got my jack from, but they by far have the healthiest fish and constant new shipments and they all seem healthy. I plan on getting the new tank and introducing them both to it at the same time. What is a good way to reduce aggression? Multiple caves or what?


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A good way to reduce aggression, is the do a water change and redecorate the tank and introduce the new fish to the JD.Add a few hiding spots, new territories no aggression (usually). Are you keeping the JD in the 29 for life?
 
Dayvydp is absolutely correct. Introduce at the same time and have a couple of caves and the Jack Dempsey will be like "Crap what do I do" and the Electric Blue will think the same thing and they will be more worried about having a "Territory" than fighting each other, unless they want the same territory. To fix this just put multiple caves and the 4'' Electric Blue will pick the cave he wants because he is bigger and the JAck can have one of the other caves.
 
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