Jack Dempsey - Visual Growth Rate

[elting44]

Monster Fish Keepers-

This thread will be dedicated to my Jack Dempsey, I will post pictures in this thread at different intrevals with the current date and how long I have owned the fish, hopefully it will serve as a visual reference of the maturity and growth rate of Rocio octofasciatum (formerly Nandopsis octofasciatum)

The fish will live in a 55 gallon, with 50-60 percent weekly waterchanges. It will be fed HBH Baby Oscar Bites, Bloodworms, and Spirulina infused Brine Shrimp, until it is big enough to eat Hikari Cichlid Gold and Krill.

I will try to post pictures with and without flash throughout the thread. Feel free to comment

Enjoy-

4-20-2008 - Week 1
Without flash

With Flash

 

[Edwin]

he looks awesome

 

[Adam-011]

Kool

 

[killerfish]

looks like a male with good potential keep us updated i got one that big about a month ago and know its about 3'' hope i'm not spoiling your thread will be interesting to see how fast it grows hope it turns out good

 

[13784]

Awsome photos. How big is your Jack? I have one about 1 1/4". He's in a 180 gallon with So. and Central American cichlids 3-4 times his size. So far, now in its second week, none of the other fish bother the little Jack with the exception of an African Eyebiter. He chases the little Jack back into a tree trunk, but this past weekend, I noticed the liittle Jack out of the tree trunk more often. I'm not sure if I should remvoe the little Jack or the Eyebiter or either as I hate to stress them. I'm monitoring the behavior of both. LIttle Jack seems to be eating the flake food I'm using. Pellets are a bit too big.

 

[elting44]

I forgot to mention his size He is currently around 1 1/4" long. I do not believe he has become fully comfortable in his new home yet, and hopefully I can get some better shots in the next update. I also think it is a male but it is still early so I don't want call it either way. And its vertical bars fade in and out. Thanks for the positive feedback

 

[13784]

Thanks for the updated info. I'll be tracking the growth of yours (from your posts) compared to mine.

 

[RDW]

Nice looking Jack, I have 3 myself and I love the Dempsey, an absolutely beautiful fish! I too, will be following your growth of yours, look forward to that!

 

[Toby_H]

Although your fish at 1.25" is too small to tell for sure... I'd be willing to bet it proves to be a female...

She's pretty too...

 

[elting44]

Although your fish at 1.25" is too small to tell for sure... I'd be willing to bet it proves to be a female...

She's pretty too...

I agree it is too early to tell and I am not about to pretend to be an expert dempsey sexer Thanks for the compliments, It was the best looking JD of the bunch, I watched a tank of 15 or so for about twenty minutes. This one was both the most colorful and most outgoing. There was a fish that was more dominant. A real ***hole that was almost jet black and claimed about a 1/3 of the tank as his. I thought it was odd for such a juvie fish to exhibit the kind of dominance so early on, I almost bought it but I think in the end I was scared it might escape it's tank and kill my family