I am interested in getting a few electric blue jack dempseys, my LFS has them for 19.99. However, I have been reading about how fragile they are, though these posts are from like 3-4 years ago. Has anyone had more recent experience with EBJDs and can maybe tell me if they are as fragile as they sound?
Electric Blue Jack Dempsey Questions
- Thread starter dgebhart
- Start date
i find mine to be just as easy to keep as regular jds, just they grow a little slower and stay a little smaller. Id say grab em , they are great looking fish
EBJDs seem to be fragle up until the ~3" mark. They are easly stressed so mellow tank mates (no bullying) or a tank all to themselves is best when small. I high fiber diet consisting of plant matter or a high quality pellet is a good choice. I used NLS Thera A+ and NLS Grow in .5mm and then 1mm as they grew. Omega One Super Veggie pellets are also a good choice. They are pron to intestinal bacterial infections like GTs when small if feed a diet high in meat protein, this is often mistaken for IPs and they often die from an improper diet or stress from bullying tank mates. Keep the water very clean the temperture around 85 and feed an appropreate dite and they will grow into healthy adults. Once they hit the 3" mark they seem to pass the critical stage and are as hardy as any other JD. This has been my experiance with them. GL
I agreed with above post. I bought 3 from a breeder about 8 months ago. One is a very nice male he is now about 4 inches or so. I have him in a 55 with a bgjd female. The other 2 are smaller females and are in a 46 tank. I feed mine a high protein pellet and nls flake also feed frozen brine. Here is a few dos and donts thats my opinion. Do keep clean water somewhat soft no salt. Temp around 80 to 82. Dont feed bloodworms. The tank with my male has a uv steralizer. Do buy from a good breeder. Be selective on tankmates and not to stress them out.
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Thanks for the info all. We are going to start with 2 or 3 EBJD, we have a 55 gallon, but I was wondering what might be good to start them with. We are getting them at about 1.5-2 inches. I am thinking two small plecos, but I am not sure what else. I might just do some tetras or something to start with, but I am worried about disease from them. Maybe a bala shark, but I have heard those can be kind of aggressive. I was also thinking some gourami or some hatchet fish. Anyway, any suggestions?
I feed mine bloodworms with no ill affects. I do agree they are fragile when young and are prone to bacterial infections and don't handle ip very well. Seen the same thing with gt's as stated above. Had an outbreak of columnaris in my 210 and the only one that bit the bullet was the gt. I felt sad for him looked like a flesh eating bacteria. High protein isn't a good choice because they can become constipated and that leads to a whole host of problems. Uv sterilizer is a great way to give your ebjd a fighting chance.
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I personaly dont belive they are anymore fragile than a regular JD i have 2 males and 2 females who were all 2 inches and under when i bought them. Not a one of them has ever eaten pellets all have had bloodworms and live blackworms from day one with zero problems. All came from a couple different LFSs no special breeders. All have grown very well biggest male went from 2 to 6 inches in around 5 months. Second male went from less than a inch to a lil over 4 inches in 4 months. Biggest male was always raised with regular jacks and was always dominant. Both females are about 3 and a half inches. I was told not to feed bloodworms and blackworms wich had no effects on them other than fast growth. I think a lot of people just have bad fish to begin with i see a lot of deformed fish being breed just because the are blue, i see a lot of poor genetics in alot of the EBJDs floating around. I have culled a couple deformed ones who were no good for my breeding program, i know some folks wont like it but culling is very important in breeding.
I have to agree good genetics go a long way. Starting with strong healthy fish is a big pluse. The issue is there are a lot of indiscriminatly breed fish for $$$, so in that instance some of the weaker strains require some extra TLC to get them started. The old anacronym GIGO (garbidge in garbidge out) is especially true with EBJDs. Caveat Emptor.
A couple years ago I had a young one that died after I started it on bloodworms. (had the stringy poop) Bloodworms probably did not have any input on death. Heard were other people has had issues with them. Also heard many instances were people that did not have any issues. I've bought all my EBJD from the same breeder (tarmack) and have not lost a single EBJD. By the way he feeds 2 things Beefheart flakes and frozen brine. Many dont like to feed the beef heart flake. Here is my blue male.
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