Jack Dempseys

[Oplr]

Hello
I picked up a Jack Dempsey 2 days ago and I believe it to be female(got blue running under its eyes and slightly rounded fins) It is only small however so its a bit early days.
A friend of mine had one before that was around 3"-4" and it was attacking everything near it and it never came out when we went round to his however mine is always at the front of the tank and never hides at all, as soon as it can see a person through the gaps between doors its following them around.

It is housed at the minute with 6 Western Rainbow fish and a school of Odessa Barbs. The JD doesnt chase, touch, fight or bother any of the other fish, even when feeding she/he has no bother with other fish and makes no attempts to chase any. The JD is around 2-3" at the minute and I was wondering for those with more experience as it grows is it likely to become aggressive and start hiding more or will it stay the same temperament wise as now?

Cheers

 

[tarheel96]

As it gets older it is likely to become more aggressive towards other fish. None of my male or female JDs would tolerate other fish in the tank. I have tried various barbs but they eventually get picked off one by one.

As far as hiding ... some JDs just seem to like hiding and others are more open to people. My JDs space out and the dominant male hangs out at the front of the tank when people are near.

 

[duanes]

Males get about 10" females slightly smaller.
They do not usually do well with other cichlids, but if the tank is large enough, will often tolerate dither fish (schooling/shoaling non-cichlids)
In nature they share habitat with large schools of velifora mollies, some that get as large as male JDs.


Dithers will often keep them from hiding in large enough tanks. In nature their most common predators are birds, and the dithers are like a warning bell, if dithers scatter JDs hide, if they aimlessly dither, the coast is clear.

 

[newworld]

Yea right Duane, I was more impressed w the velifera than the Dempseys haha

 

[duanes]

I had never before seen giant mollies like these before, and was also totally awed, some were as blue as, and rivaled the most striking blue malawi cichlids.
These were also only found at depths of around 20 ft or more, probably helping these older savy ones manage to avoid bird predation. At those depths algal growth was still massive, and these large males seemed to have harems of grazing females, and acted almost like territorial cichlids, herding them.
The closest I got to getting a photo was the one below, only about 4" and half the size and not as blue as the largest ones.