JDvsGT Territory, quick question.

[KCK]

My GT is probly 6" right now, I could measure him if anyone cared.
And my little Jack Dempsey is about 1.5".
In year or two whenever I'm comfortable that their size difference isn't a vulnerability, I'd like to introduce the JD to the GT for his final home.

The GT has been with a senegal for about a year now, so they're always going to be together.

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to "spam" popcorn: ) the tank
with feeders (quarantined/homebred) and put the JD in there after a few hours?
Or maybe add like 3 medium Silver Dollars or some other medium sized dither, and then throw the Jack in after a day or two, or maybe even the same day?

My only question is: What would be the best way to introduce a younger and weaker cichlid to my older and stronger cichlid, whos maintained his territory for two or three years by then?

Thanks immensly.

Oh and HELLO MFK I've been gone for several months, probably at least 8.
Got intensely into botany.
And I started playing cello again.
The winters been just dandy, hope all yours have.

 

[AcsFoolMike]

Redoing the aquascaping of the tank could help. If possible, even remove the GT for a week while the JD stakes a claim on some territory and then tried adding him back to the tank. The dither thing isn't a bad idea. Either way, have plenty of hiding spots for the smaller JD to retreat to if the **** hits the fan.

 

[KCK]

Redoing the aquascaping of the tank could help. If possible, even remove the GT for a week while the JD stakes a claim on some territory and then tried adding him back to the tank. The dither thing isn't a bad idea. Either way, have plenty of hiding spots for the smaller JD to retreat to if the **** hits the fan.

Wow I've been so busy away from fish tanks for so long that the idea of reshaping completely fell out of my other ear.

I'm a little scared to take the GT out of there at that age..
I don't want to offend him anymore, because If I'm going to have to buy
7+ years of food for him, he'd better not be a little snot.

What do I do if I reshape the tank into seperate territories, and the GT still claims all of it?
Do I just let them figure it out or do I intervene? And if I do, which one would I pull out for how long? They may seem like pointless questions to some of you, but it really does matter..

 

[Jc1119]

How big is your tank? I recently had some issues adding a GT (2")to my tank with a 4.5" Jd. Basically the reverse of what you're doing. I moved my Jd to my qt tank, rearranged my main tank and introduced my GT at night. After a few days I reintroduced my Dempsey and he went to beating on the GT almost immediately. I isolated the Dempsey again for about a week. Reintroduced and the beatings started again.

Final solution for me was to introduce a Midas to the system. Dempsey doesn't beat on anyone anymore now that he's lost control of the tank. Midas keeps everyone in line and there's very little chasing and no real fighting.

By no means am I suggesting you do the same. Just trying to point out that the rearrange and isolation trick doesn't always work. Sometimes it will, but it really depends on the fish. Target fish can help but it's not a sure thing either. Just be ready to separate them if it gets bad. Really depends on the fish. Space is key and your GT currently claims most of it

 

[Younglin]

A big docile fish. Something large enough that no one would try anything with it, but it wouldn't hurt the smaller fish. I used my big ass oscar in my community tank to keep things in line, when he died the tank went into chaos and the fish had to be divided into three different tanks.

GT's have there name for a reason. they can be insane and murder everything no matter what you do, I hope you have luck with yours but if he has territory and a size advantage I doubt the jack would survive no matter what you try.

 

[Sarah88]

well the good thing is that JDs grow much faster than GTs and become larger, so the JD should be large enough to be added to the tank in less than a year if you have one with a good growth rate. and yeah how big is the tank? when adding them together dither fish would def help and rearrange everything so that the GTs territories are all broken up, if that doesnt work you can try the divider for awhile and reintroduce to see if that helps but sometimes certain fish just dont get along, if you see that they are just not getting along and causing actual damage to each other (more than just a couple split fins or something) then you need to separate them (like stated also adding in a third large cichlid to keep things in check can work, also helps to spread around aggression instead of having only 2 together, but could also backfire...)

 

[cacichlids]

JD grow faster but normally GT become much larger... Not only in length but weight too.

The best method is to use a divider and let them get used to each other, because you never know how a specific fish will react. I have this male salvini that is an ass to fish that are bigger than him, yet I added 7x 1" festae to his tank and he completely ignored em. Then I added a school of otocinclus and he killed most of em... lol. There's no way to predict their behavior, even if you know they're normally aggressive.

 

[xinchavoc]

JD grow faster but normally GT become much larger... Not only in length but weight too.

The best method is to use a divider and let them get used to each other, because you never know how a specific fish will react. I have this male salvini that is an ass to fish that are bigger than him, yet I added 7x 1" festae to his tank and he completely ignored em. Then I added a school of otocinclus and he killed most of em... lol. There's no way to predict their behavior, even if you know they're normally aggressive.

i agree gt's get larger and have a stockier body build.... to the OP i would change the decorations around and introduce the gt along with some other dither fish.... but i dont seea real problem if the jd is only 1.5" then it would be no threat to a 6" gt therefore it would leave it alone but incase your gt snaps have a separate tank ready.....

 

[Freshwaterpredators]

First question is how big is your tank. second is do you know what sex your fish are? If you have male Gt and female dempsey or visa versa it would work alot easier. also i would add another cichlid or two to even out the territories. if your only going to go with two male cichlids in any tank you will have issues, even with dithers. the dithers will only get in the cichlids way when they are attacking eachother. as dithers do not become territorial and dont pose a threat to a cichlids territory like other cichlids do. But they do help and i would NOT use a divider if they are two males. all this will do will allow them both to think they are boss and grow larger in size and attitude which will make it a Rocky Balboa vs Rocky Marciano fight but that will not help you in your tank situation.

wether they are both males or not i would add convict, synspillum or something thats not going to be beligerant or overly aggressive to help balance it out. if theres only two the dominant one will pick on the other, 3 is a crowd and 4 may even it out. Convicts tend to befriend GT's, and synspillums arent really that aggressive but can def hold their own. now im not saying get convicts and syns cause every fish has different personalities and different ideas may work very easily.

and lastly, It will not take you that long to grow the JD out to 6" prolly another few months. if you have a decent size tank you could get started alot earlier while the dempsey is smaller so the GT can rain supreme alot longer basically having a mental uperhand on the dempsey.