Jack Dempsey - Lip Injuries

Ylem122

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2008
6
1
33
PA
I have a pair of Jack dempsey's, first time parents and my first time breeding them, they laid eggs about 3 weeks ago.

There are about 10-20 babies still alive and the mother is protective of them but the male is lip locking with her and they both have some bad mouth injuries.

I put in a divider to separate them.



My plan is to pull the babies, let the parents heal, and see if they pair up with out fighting as much.

For healing the fish, I have a planted tank, so i am just planning on keeping the water clean and monitoring the injuries, if the injuries get worse i will probably dose E. M. Erythromycin.

Does any one have any suggestions or does that sound like a good plan?

Thank You
 

duanes

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Outer jaw injuries are common with JDs, even in nature.

The photo above is taken in a Cenote where JDs come from. Note the jaw on the one on the right.
If it were me I'd let the one taking care of the fry now stay with them, remove the male to another tank, letting her to care for the fry, giving them the entire tank to themselves.
JDs almost always lip lock during courtship, and keeping them apart for a while will not stop it in the future. But allowing her to take care of fry flows her to acquire needed parenting skills, while healing up.
And in another tank, the male does the same.
 

Ylem122

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2008
6
1
33
PA
Outer jaw injuries are common with JDs, even in nature.

The photo above is taken in a Cenote where JDs come from. Note the jaw on the one on the right.
If it were me I'd let the one taking care of the fry now stay with them, remove the male to another tank, letting her to care for the fry, giving them the entire tank to themselves.
JDs almost always lip lock during courtship, and keeping them apart for a while will not stop it in the future. But allowing her to take care of fry flows her to acquire needed parenting skills, while healing up.
And in another tank, the male does the same.

Thank you for your advice.

Yesterday when they started fighting I picked up a 10 gallon for the fry, with plans to get a 150 gallon rubbermaid depending on whether any of them survive.

I set up the 10 gallon with a large Aquarium Co-op sponge filter. Filled with half tap half water from the main tank. I didn't have any cycled filters so i rinsed 2 power head sponges in the 10 gallon, added a little food, API quick start, and filled half the tank with guppy grass.

It has a bacteria bloom today, i am thinking about putting 2 white clouds in it and see how they do.

The male dempsey is about 3.5-4.5 inches, do you think the 10 gallon is big enough for him temporarily until he heals up if i monitor the water and keep it clean?

Attached is an imagine of the female with her injury, I am a little more worried about hers it is a little fuzzier than the males, and her lower lip is also damaged, if it starts to get worse would Erythromycin be my best bet?

_DSC2723.jpg
 

Ylem122

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2008
6
1
33
PA
Put the male in the 10 gallon, the next day all the babies were gone from the females tank.

I left them in their tanks for about a week, every thing was healed up, so last monday i put them back together.

fought for like an hour, the female ran away, the male left her alone for about 30 mins, then chilled next to her, and they were cool after that.

for the next few days they were very skittish whenever i approached the tank, then on Friday night i noticed the male had red worms from his anus area, i looked it up as camallanus worms. The only thing i have on hand for parasites is ProziPro, so I dosed the tank with that along with adding a small amount of Epson salt 1 tsp per 20 gallons.

Saturday (yesterday) morning the female had laid a batch of eggs. I went out to the local pet store and picked up MetroPlex, Focus, Garlic Guard, and some frozen food. I added about 1 tsp of epson salt per 30 gallon yesterday and today.

Both are eating the medicated food and I've witnessed both of them poop today so it does not seem like they are constipated, but the worms are still visibly attached to both fish. the prozipro bottle says it should be good for a 5 day treatment but if i need to redose, dont do it more than every 3 days, with dosing it friday night, if the worms are still attached tuesday morning i am planning on dosing the tank with Prozipro again.
 

Ylem122

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2008
6
1
33
PA
Oh dang, nasty! Hope you get rid of them! Probably need to treat all your tanks eh?
I have 35 gallon (maybe 37) Tuff Stuff stock tank that i keep inside with some mosquito fish and plants in it, a female mosquito fish died a month back, didn't know what it was, and havnt had any deaths since, thought it was related to giving birth, but now that ive started looking into camallanus worms, it is obvious that is what it was. I had taken guppy grass out of that stock tank to help cycle the 10 gallon that i put the male Dempsey in and i think thats how he got it.

the tank they are in, the stock tank, and the 10 gallon are the only ones i've treated so far, Prozipro isnt too expensive though, like 12$ to treat 480 gallons, so i might do one week of treatment on everything just to be safe.
 

Ylem122

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2008
6
1
33
PA
ProziPro didnt make any difference and the next day, Monday jul 13th, I ordered Levamisole from Select Aquatics. Kept dosing epson salts, but stopped with the rest of the meds.

The levamisole arrived Friday, I dosed it along with 1 tablespoon of epson salt per 10 gallons, about 3 hours later the male that was sick the longest, passed a huge impaction.

Both fish are doing great now, worm free and happy.

_DSC2772.jpg
 
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