Electric Blue Jack Dempsey Project

[oops]

I am a rookie to the Fish world and I am absolutely hooked. No pun intended.
I am facinated with the EBJD. Is there any EBJD experts who can clarify somethings for me.

First off - and I appologize as this question probubly gets asked every week or so. I will be setting up a grow out tank for a couple of JDs one or both of which will be EB. In researching and looking for this fish I find, several varying oppinions regarding EBJD and the Powder Blue. In short every store I have been to will sell me a "Powder blue" for like 15-30$ or an "Electric Blue" for 50-70. I am under the impression that these are the same fish. If that is the case how come everywhere I go tells me they are different fish? and why the varied price if they are the same fish. don't get me wrong money is not the object. I plan on spoiling these fish. I just want to make sure I get the fish I am after and not some weak strand or even the wrong fish. I will be getting close to Phase one of my Project and it would be nice to know that I am getting what I want.

secondly - I hear the coloring is based on environment. under what conditions cause the best coloring of the EBJD?

Thirdly - any recommendation or advise for this guys is greatly apprieciated.

Thank you in advance for you help!!!

I will start posting Pictures with my progress.

 

[love The Jack Dempseys]

the lighter the substrate/gravel the lighter the color and vice versa. I find that keeping the temp around 84-86 keeps them swimming a lot and disease free, maybe even darker at times. and if they hide a lot when small dont worry they WILL grow out of it eventually. mines about 3 and a half inches and has a great personality. However they are very slow growers, i suggest ALOof frozen bloodworms and beef heart, A high amount of protein will keep them growing faster and help with coloration!
I put some pics of mine so you can see how they look at 84 degrees and with natural gravel. Good luck with your project
Im excited tro see the pics soon

 

[cacichlids]

All the Electric Blue Jack Dempsey are just that, electric blue jack dempsey. "powder blue" or "silk blue" or whatever are names that pet stores use so that they can rob you some more. lol.

Color is based on several things that include mood, diet, genes, water quality, etc. Good water quality, a diet of high quality pellets (NLS, Hikari to name a few) and occasional treats (bloodworms, shrimp, etc) along with a proper sized aquarium will obviously produce the best coloration that its genes allow, which will depend on the source of the fish (experienced breeder vs. petsmart). Color of substrate will also play a part as already mentioned... darker substrate will produce darker fish as they try to blend in. Placing one of these fish in light substrate will turn them back to their normal coloration though, so you are free to experiment.

Now, most EBJD are inbred to hell so they are genetically weaker and tend to die easily (parasites, stress, injuries by tank mates or no reason at all). People recommend that you get a UV sterilizer for their aquarium since it kills any free swimming parasite/organism that might infect your little fish. It's also recommended that you keep them alone until they reach a reasonable size (around 4") and if you can't house them alone you must keep em with considerably weaker fish (tetras, barbs, loaches) that can't stress em out to death.

No matter what you do there's still a chance that they might just die in a few months or even weeks, so if you want to maximize your chance of success try to get a group and hope some of em survive. If none of em die you can sell the ones you don't want for a good price, not many adult EBJD are for sale out there.

Note: Don't keep a group of JD mixed with EBJDs when young, they will out-compete the blues for food and stress em out until they die.

 

[Red Devil Horde]

Buy them @ 4" or larger.
If you want a pair get a group & sell or take back the other once you find your pair.
Save your self the stress & $$$ when you buy them smaller.
I've never been successful with the small guys, so much that I don't even want to try with a larger one.
I bought them in bunches from a reputable dealer too.
I'm not even a noob.

Beautiful fish, but not a fish for a noob/inexperienced IMO.

 

[diggler81]

I have grown out 3 ebjd and working on my fourth big key is quality food and pristine water conditions. Out of the five I have only lost one so maybe I am lucky but I dont see were they are that hard to grow out.

 

[Szar]

secondly - I hear the coloring is based on environment. under what conditions cause the best coloring of the EBJD?

Neither light sand or black, small stones of variable color are best.
Plenty wood and plants, some rocks.

 

[Red Devil Horde]

I have grown out 3 ebjd and working on my fourth big key is quality food and pristine water conditions. Out of the five I have only lost one so maybe I am lucky but I dont see were they are that hard to grow out.

I had UV,overkill on filtration,NLS antiparasitic(food),Partial WC's daily 10-15%,30% WC weekly, & no other fish other than EBJD's.
I think I covered just about everything.

I'm just trying to save a new guy/gal some $$$.
When you pick the wrong fish to start with, it may give you a "bad impression".
From what I hear, I'm not the only one to have problems trying to grow them out.
They didn't even make it out of the QT tank, & are the only fish to die in this tank.
Consider yourself lucky.

Do yourself a big favor oops, buy a bigger EBJD.
It will be easier for you to care for it/them considering you said your new to this hobby.
Not only do you have a better chance of them surviving, you don't have to wait to see if it will be blue & not green.
There's far too many green EBJD's out there now IMO.

There's nothing wrong with buying a fish that's a few months old over a fish that a few weeks old, when you have a 95%-100% chance of survival when getting the older/bigger.

 

[Szar]

I had UV,overkill on filtration,NLS antiparasitic(food),Partial WC's daily 10-15%,30% WC weekly, & no other fish other than EBJD's.
I think I covered just about everything.
.

Yahh you covered why they died, my ebjds hate water changes.

I grew mine out to 5 6 ish inch with no water changing, these fish don't do well with water parameters changing rapidly.

 

[oops]

Thank you all for your expertise. I started to set up my grow out tank. I still have to get my larger tank to grow out to but... I got started none the less. Starting to look cool for a little tank but I got a long way to go.

 

[oops]

as my name suggest oops. I was not done posting yet.

anyway I was thankin you all for the helping me and getting to a few more questions if you all would not mind answering a few more.

Regarding EBJD selection: because I am new to this and it is evident that I know Zilch about fish selection along with my lack of knowing many in this hobby, I am at the mercy of the fish stores. Is there any way to detirmine the quality of the fish I am selecting. IE... health, sex, quality, color etc...? for the most part I find most of them to look similar at the most juvenile stages making it impossible to tell anything... then again I have no basis for comparison.

tankmates??? I would like to socialize my potential little homies at some point. is there any fairly successful groups of fish that do well in the juvenile stages with EBJD's.

How fast do they EB's grow and how big should I let them get before I transition them to a larger tank?

Also I think My water here sucks. I had it tested a coupel time over the past couple weeks. and this is what I have:

Tap: PH is fairly consistant at 7.8 natural amonia level is alamingly high 1.2PPM apparently my water district likes to use cloramine which I have heard is the reason for the lofty amonia levels. I fear this is going to be an uphill battle. correct me if I am wring but don't these guys prefer 6.8 - 7.2 for PH? I have another water choiuse As I have an RO that I can use.
RO: is pretty much 7 on the PH and nothing else. I am nervous with my lack of chemical lab skills but I am willing to try to create a pristine environment. any advise on RO or Tap water adjustments???