Jack Dempsey info please

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theheffners

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2008
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Ohio
well for v-day my husband bought me some jack dempsey juvies. only thing is i never had jack dempseys before and not shure on there temperment. In about a week or two weeks i am getting a 90 gall tank, 75, and 55. i already have a wide assortment of tank sizes. can any one give any info on what to expect and if i will be able to house them together, and possible tank mates, and what tank size would be the best, and are they slow growers? thanks alot!

here are fish i currently own and they are split up and divided amongst random tanks.

1 albino oscar - 5 inch
1 common oscar - 4 inch
1 pleco-3 inch
1 eyebiter- 3 inch
3 convict cichlids about 3 inches
2 jellybean parrots about 3 inches

the jack dempseys are about 1.5 inch- 2 inch. He knows i love aggressive fish, and he said these looked good. one more question i plan on getting parrot fish later on, would these guys interbreed wiht the parrots? or any fish for that matter.
 
i have 2 jd, one is 2" and other 4" they all in 90 galon tall tank with frlowerhorns, jewel, convicts, and 3 large 13" oscars, they all ok in that tank, some time they bully eachothers but not a big deal, every fish has different tempers.
 
jack dempseys will get 9-11" full size, they completely change colors as they get older and different colored gravels will also change their colors (from my experience) They can become very mean, or sometimes are only moderately aggressive, if you keep them with some other south/central american cichlids of similar temperment you might just get some mildly aggressive fish.

the local store got two full size dempseys in this week, they were the only two left of 4 that someone kept in a 55 gallon tank, one of them killed the other 2, and was trying to kill the 3rd one when they traded them in for smaller fish.

id suggest a 75 or 90 gallon tank once they are over 2 years old, a 55 gallon tank will be fine for smaller JD's

the ones at the Local store were approx 9-10" long and 2-3" thick, very healthy looking for living in such a small tank their whole lives.

matthew
 
generally they are aggressive, but not to the extent that they need single confinement. They mix well with other CA's of similar temperament like convicts, but also with moderately aggressive species that can fend for themselves.
 
I looked in their tank this morning and the one dempsey is black now, yesterday they were both the ame color, but now he is really dark with is stripes a tan color, are these like oscars then and change their color? or is he sick? and has been dark since i put them in their own tank now. im guessing this is prolly normal
 
I have 3 Dempseys myself, an 11" male and 2 females around 7" and 9". They are semi-aggressive I would call them and yes they mingle fairly well with other cichlids their size. I have a Tiger Oscar and some Green Terrors in with them and they seem to live among themselves pretty good.
 
theheffners;1518561; said:
I looked in their tank this morning and the one dempsey is black now, yesterday they were both the ame color, but now he is really dark with is stripes a tan color, are these like oscars then and change their color? or is he sick? and has been dark since i put them in their own tank now. im guessing this is prolly normal
Click to expand...

perfectly normal i'd say.
 
the color change is normal, when i had my pair they were with different assortments of fish they got along with every one except my FH. they are relatively slow growers, when i got rid of my pair the male was about 2yrs old and 6"-7". you will enjoy them, i wanted to go a different route so i traded them in for some GT's.
 
when it coems to jack dempsey the darker the girls mos tof the time means the healthier the fish males will develope more color flecs such as greens yellows and blues throughout the body while fmeale tend to be less colorful and may have blotch of blue on their cheeks. The change in color could just be the dempseys color is the change from the environment fromt he pet sore to the tank depending onw aht colors you have in ru tank the dempsey will be darker or lighter also i bught mine at 2 inches a month ago and put him in a 55 gallon and he is now almost 5 inches in just one month. I fed him cichlid pellets as a constant and lettuce and all different kinds of meat and shrimp he now can feed from my hand be sure to feed him good and give him a variaty of foods and they will grow nice and big and healthy if oen day they become really pale over nigth then there maybe soemthignw rong with ur water or tank but until then watch their colors get more intense as they grow and watch for the blue blotches ont eh females and the coloring on the body for the males, Also the striped arent tan colored they r black colored and most of the tiem as females develope the black close togetehr and make mos tof her body black and shell have a nice healthy blue on her cheeks Good luck with your dempseys one of my favorite cichlids:)
 
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