If I Buy a Jack Dempsey....

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13784

13784

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 23, 2007
91
1
36
California "City With A Mission"
I came across a nice looking JD for sale. The store owner joking said he was kind of a brute, but I watched him for around 10 minutes and he hardly moved in the 100 gallon with a couple large Parrot fish and a couple smaller cichlids whose names I don't know. One of the smaller cichlids was a bit beat up and maybe it was caused from the JD.
As I shop around for a JD, what behaviors do I look for that would be compatable to a (gentle) Green Terror, tin foil barbs, "eye biter", sevrums, firemouth, and Parrot fish? This is in a 180 gallon. If I place my finger on the aquarium glass and the JD doesn attack, is this a sign of being calm/compatible? Or, should I forget the JD and go for an arowana?
Thanks!
 
to be honest it's not really going to matter what kind of behavior you see in a tank at the LFS, what you look for in the LFS are signs of disease or illness - lethargy, heavy breathing, ignoring foods ect.

With aggressive cichlids, whenever you move them into new tanks their behavior can completely change from what it was in another tank...there's really just no way to tell what will and won't work until you try it.
 
Most jack dempseys in LFS's are gonna be skittish and probably not come swimming to the top if you stick your finger in the tank. Maybe one that doesnt wig out if you move quickly in front of the tank, or doesnt try to hide.
 
it could go both ways. it might be a real sissy, or a monster. one thing to look out for is that eye biter. its an african, so it needs different water hardness, and it might decide to kill everything in the tank, which it will be able to.
 
If you put even an aggressive JD in a tank that already has established occupants, he might actually be picked on because he's the newbie. You say your GT is gentle, but seeing a new cichlid of similar size to him might cause him to get territorial all of a sudden. I don't think there's any way to predict for sure, other than buying him. :-)
 
It is hard to say what will happen introducing a new jack. If one of your fish has already established dominance then putting in a new jack could be very bad. my house caught fire a few months back and I had no power. My friend suggested i stick my jack in his 55 gallon with his jack, texas and oscar for a day or so. after a day in the tank and getting picked on by the texas(slightly larger at the time about 7 inches) he turned on the texas and killed it. my dempsey was about 6-6.5 inches at the time. so at first he was picked on but then he killed the dominant fish in the tank. if you put a jack in the tank i suggest watching it for a few days very closely and watch the behavior of the other fish. It also sometimes helps to take all of your fish out, and rearrange the entire tank then add all fish back along with a new one so that they have to re-establish territory again.
 
If you get a JD, rearrange the tank, this will creat a new territory for all at the same time, and keep the lights off for a while.
 
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