also keep in mind they are not fast growers if the female is bigger than the male she will harass the hell out of him in most cases, something to keep an eye on. female JD can be little b&^&s, I have had a little 4" corner my 12 and 13" oscars.
Just got a jack demps
- Thread starter Jwilson02124
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I got a firemouth with my jack and a snail 3 Pictus Catfish do you think I need a bigger tank for them
I have a jack and a firemouth and snail 3 Pictus do Catfish do you think that is a good pairing of fish
I'm guessing your 60gal is 48"x13"x24"? I don't think you'll have any major problems with compatibility unless your jack is a lot larger than your catfish. You have 3 catfish, correct? I think that your biggest issue in that set up is going to be waste. Catfish generally are large waste producers, but you can combat the water quality problems with appropriate bio filtration, and regular water changes. I clean the tank with the gravel vac on Saturdays and replace about 20% of the water. And on Wednesdays I do about 20-30% water only. As for the snail, probably won't last long with the Jack Dempsey. I've had 3 Jacks and each of them thought snails were candy.
Just a update pic on how big they have gotten and yes they did eat the snails
coming along nicely....they grow faster than people say though, mine always hit the 8"-mark by about a year or so, then growth slows for the next 2". Probably has to do with what you feed them....i'm a bit looney when it comes to feeding time - I feed until everything has a fat belly, none of that "only feed what they will eat in 3 minutes" nonsense LOL If I did that half my fish would never get food ....takes 3 minutes just for some to even realize there's food in the water
In nature, JDs do best without other cichlids around, unless they are non-aggressive types like Thorichthys (fire mouths e.g.)
Most of the time they share waters with lots of live bearers that they watch, to gauge the threat of danger. If the surface dwelling live bearers are comfortable, so are the JDs.
In the cenote photos above, you can see there were no other cichlid species, and the JDs were doing very well, surrounded by live bearers, and a few catfish.
In a different cenote below with other cichlids, the uropthalmus dominate, and the JDs there suffered a bit, being quite torn up, and their numbers were quite low compared to the uropthalmus population. click on pic to run below.
Most of the time they share waters with lots of live bearers that they watch, to gauge the threat of danger. If the surface dwelling live bearers are comfortable, so are the JDs.
In the cenote photos above, you can see there were no other cichlid species, and the JDs were doing very well, surrounded by live bearers, and a few catfish.
In a different cenote below with other cichlids, the uropthalmus dominate, and the JDs there suffered a bit, being quite torn up, and their numbers were quite low compared to the uropthalmus population. click on pic to run below.
