Help with Jack Dempsey

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Snakehead23

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 6, 2008
124
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U.S.
Hi guys, I have a 45 gallon right now with 2 oscars, 1 GT, 1 JD.(all juveniles plan on getting 80 when they get big) So my tiger just jumped out of my tank last week and died so I went and got a red to replace him. On my way over there I see a Jack Dempsey too nice to pass up so I got him. It's been a week and he is not being active at all and I havent seen him eat although my mom says she has. I try to feed him cichlid pellets, shrimp pellets, blood worms, and other food but he seams to have no interest in them. What do I do?! Please post response, thx :)
 
Jack Dempseys are shy.

The 80 gallon will be two small for those fish when they are grown. Oscars are extremely messy fish and even with super filtration and weekly water changes you can expect problems like HITH. I would look into less fish or get bigger than an 80.
 
Yeah, he is being skittish at the moment.....when I got my jacks they did the same thing for like a solid month, and that was just moving the tank from where I bought it to my house. Once that subsided, they eat just fine.
 
TrikkyMakk;1764628; said:
Jack Dempseys are shy.

The 80 gallon will be two small for those fish when they are grown. Oscars are extremely messy fish and even with super filtration and weekly water changes you can expect problems like HITH. I would look into less fish or get bigger than an 80.
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I agree. It's possible that your current water conditions are less than optimal as it is. I would try doing a large water change. Oscars are so messy and constantly pollute the water with waste. If you're going to keep oscars, you need three things:

1) an extremely large tank (150g +)
2) great filtration (large cannister supplemented with a HOB, etc.)
3) time to do water changes at least once, if not twice a week.

Good luck.
 
Thx, BTW I plan on getting rid of the JD when they get big. My filtration that I have right now in there is an eheim 2217. I also diatom every 3 weeks. I do a 15% water change every week. so the water is always crystal clear. What I'm thinking about doing is moving them to my 200 with and fx5 filtration system. (and getting rid of the lake fish.) just caught them in my dad's friend's lake. Thanks for the help
 
Snakehead23;1764834; said:
Thx, BTW I plan on getting rid of the JD when they get big. My filtration that I have right now in there is an eheim 2217. I also diatom every 3 weeks. I do a 15% water change every week. so the water is always crystal clear. What I'm thinking about doing is moving them to my 200 with and fx5 filtration system. (and getting rid of the lake fish.) just caught them in my dad's friend's lake. Thanks for the help
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I would do more than 15% Weekly WCs. Just because the water is clear doesn't meant the Nitrate level is where it needs to be 0-30ppm. I do 2 20-25% WCs a week. Some people do much more than that. Just my opinion.
 
Yeah, moving them to the 200 would be great. That should work out fine. Check your nitrate levels; you may need to step up the water changes.
 
Yeah, I test the water once a week and I have absolutely Zero nitrate, Zero nitrite, PH is at 7.0, The hardness is medium and I gravel vac once a week. So my water is perfect.
 
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