Is my Jag a jerk?

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pelleeklund

pelleeklund

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
May 23, 2009
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Pennsylvania
I know this breed is an angry bunch but my rapidly growing little jag is probably the most intolerant fish I have ever kept. I have been trying to get him a fish to live with in his 55 until they both can move into my 220 with some bigger guys, and he has abused the hell out of all of them. The only reason I have been trying to acclimate him to co-habitating a tank is my fear that as soon as he moves up he may be under the impression he owns the big tank too. I am sure my dovii would correct this assumption pretty quickly and I would hate for him to get a fatal taste of his own medicine. So far he has ate a convict outright and brutally beaten a flowerhorn and two channel cats, so what I gather from him is that he is totally cool with being alone. I've decided to oblige him unless someone has a better option, but I am curious whether this is pretty much what I can expect from him if he were to be introduced to larger cichlids in a new tank? Would he still think he's the best and only fish ever? By the way he is alone right now in his 55 and is about 5 in. The 220 has a male dempsey that isn't very aggressive at 11in., the dovii which is female and around 7in. and a green sunfish thats about 5in. I planned on moving him after he grows another couple inches because my dovii is much stockier than him now and could potentially kill him before I could save him. Any thoughts? Could this work?
 
Jags are generally pretty territorial. Your Jag has claimed the entire 55 as his territory. That's why he is taking out all other fish. I wouldn't try to add anything else with him in the 55. He could simmer down once he's placed in the 220 and only claim a portion of the tank. But this isn't guaranteed. Things could also get bad for your other fish in the 220 if the male Jag and female Dovii decide to spawn. The only thing to do is wait and see and be prepared to remove a fish before one is harmed or killed.
 
I stepped them up size wise. The convict I bought on reputation and it was about 2in. The next fish I picked up was the flowerhorn at about three inches. I heard they were pretty tough too so I kept him just below the Jag in size because I didn't want him to eat the fh, and honestly because the Jag is my guy, I want him to live his life out here so I knew the fh couldn't beat him either. I went to channels next because they seem to be ignorant to all of the posturing and the hierarchy that cichlids observe. I figured they would just swim around actively and maybe if they didn't play the game with him they would be cool. Like I said they all got pretty shredded regardless of how much space they gave him, the Jags has just been an ass, chasing them around for no real reason at all. Kind of frustrating but I'm getting the message he's been putting down. I'm just curious if a change of scenery and some bigger contenders would calm him down or send him charging to his death.
 
You still run the risk of having them killed, but you could try adding 2-3 fish equal in size to the Jag to the tank at the same time. He may not be able to single one out that way. But I believe that he has already claimed the 55 as his own.
 
Hey Gruff. If they did decide to breed and wanted the tank to themselves I actually wouldn't mind moving the other guys. That dovii has been trying to breed with the dempsey unsuccessfully for about a year now and I'm getting tired of vaccuming unfertilized eggs out. Honestly the only two fish I am interested in keeping are the dovii and the jag. Those are my 1,2. It would only suck if they pulled the superman doomsday and both died fighting each other. That's worst case scenario, and I would assume that there is as much of a chance that it could happen as vice versa.
 
LOL As a comic nerd myself, I can appreciate the Superman/Doomsday analogy! It is very possible that the two can breed. There has been a few threads (not all very civil though) about JagxDovii hybrids on this forum. I think Flowerpower has some JagxDovii growouts from his pair. Hopefully they will live together peacefully with the other fish too. I hope he continues to grow big and strong before his introduction to your community tank.
 
Thanks buddy. I've seen flowerpowers fish too. If they are wrong I don't want to be right. I'm going to have to take a look at them again. I am definitely cool with hybrids if they should happen, never been much for the well beaten path.
 
I experimented a bit last night and added the green sunfish to his tank. They are essentially the same size, the greenys thicker and higher and the Jag is more elongated. I wanted to see what the reaction would be if he had a go with a fish his own size. And Gruff your definitely right about the Jag having established the tank as his own. He chased the hell out of the greeny and I have never seen those guys back down. Eventually they both calmed down and stopped running around the tank though, I guess they got tired. No damage was done and I guess they have called a sort of truce. It must not be as rewarding for the Jag if he isn't tearing his victims up. So I guess I am going to leave them together for the time being. I'll keep an eye on things but as of now this is nice. Now he can get used to sharing space and food with another fish. Maybe we can rehabilitate this guy into tank life after all.
 
I hope it works out. It would be good for the Jag to learn to have tankmates. Hopefully it will learn to accept having another fish in his tank so that his transition to the larger tank will be much easier.
 
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