keeping Jack Dempseys and EBJDs

[jaws19]

ok i just bought a small Jack Dempsey (hoping its female). i plan on buying a male EBJD. and keeping them in a 55 for a year or two. do you think this will work? i here about people keeping jds in a 30 gallon for there first year. also i plan on breeding the pair to try a reproduce EBJDs any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Connor0729]

i heard that you need to breed 2 ebjds together, and then breed the dad to one of his daughters (which will not be blue), and then those babies should be ebjds too. this breeding process is what makes them so fragile (all of the inbreeding)

 

[jaws19]

i heard that you need to breed 2 ebjds together, and then breed the dad to one of his daughters (which will not be blue), and then those babies should be ebjds too. this breeding process is what makes them so fragile (all of the inbreeding)

yeah thats the main reason i want to do this

 

[X24]

you need to get a JD that carries the EB gene, but doesn't show it (it is a resesive gene) and breed it with an EBJD and you will get a fraction of the fry to turn out EBJD's and a fraction of them to be EBGJD (electric blue gened jack dempseys) and a bunch of normal ones. this is the only way to do it.

 

[ia246]

You need to breed an EBJD to a JD then cross the offspring back to a normal JD. Your setup should be fine for now. The reason for fragility is not THIS process but the inbreeding that was undergone to produce the early line of EBJD. Currently some hobbyists are trying the strengthen the gene line by outcrossing as many different lines as possible (one main aim is to introduce wild JD genes into the mix). Check out www.bluejax.co.uk and click on the forums link for lots of info!

 

[jaws19]

ok now that i know how to breed and all that... lets talk about care.

 

[X24]

EBJD's are very fragile up until around 5" and they grow slower then normal jacks so it'll take a couple of months of lots of water changes with no swings in PH or temperature to get it from buying size to a stage where it isn't so fragile. Then i wouldn't even think of breeding it until it reaches 7" just to be sure there won't be an unexpected dead EBJD.

Meanwhile you should already have a good JD around that same size. Place them in the same tank being sure to have a divider on hand just in case. Condition them like any other cichlid and keep water clean and them well fed. They should do their work and there is a chance that they will eat the first batch of eggs, but just go with it until you get wigglers, then i'd probably take them away from the parents and raise them independently on infusoria, brine shrimp and then frozen bloodworms and some high quality flake or micro pellet. Once they get large enough to breed, you have to put them in with your electric blue and do the process all over again.

There are a couple problems though.

1. a lot of times EBJD's are sterile or nearly sterile
2. raising the fry can be pretty tough
3. breeding the EBJD's should be used to try and strengthen the breed (ie breeding it through wild caught JD lines and trying to inbreed as little as possible)
4. Price...this could be more expensive then thought. If i were to do it, i'd get 2 GOOD EBJD's and 2 wild caught JDs and the blue gene carrying offspring of them i'd use to breed with. Example EBJD1 breeds with WCJD1, EBJD2 breeds with WCJD2. EBGJD1 (from the 1st set of parents) breeds with EBJD2 and visa versa.

breeding EBJD's might be slightly lucrative, but i would NOT recommend it for beginners at all.

 

[ia246]

I am not sure that EBJDs are commonly sterile at all, I have not heard an account of a breeder complaining of this problem.

However, EBJDs are fragile when young, though i would not suggest leaving the breeding until >7 inches is a necessary precaution - invest in a UV steriliser. It is not particularly advisable to breed the offspring back to the parents as suggested above, and of course it would be ideal to breed the EBJD with a wild caught JD, however even in the US these are extremely scarce.

I have bred my EBJD without any problems and the offspring from EBJD x JD are very hardy, exhibiting the virulence of regular JDs. The hard part is raising the EBJDs from the second step in the process. Breeding EBJDs is unlikey to be financially beneficial - just enjoy it because it is fun!

 

[davidefc]

Good luck finding wild jack dempsey.....you'll need it

 

[thefishguy7]

i heard that you need to breed 2 ebjds together, and then breed the dad to one of his daughters (which will not be blue), and then those babies should be ebjds too. this breeding process is what makes them so fragile (all of the inbreeding)

Ideally, you want to breed an ebjd with a regular jack dempsey female.
Then, you take those fry and grow them out. They'll have the blue gene and you'll want to pick the nicest female from the batch.
You want to breed this blue-gene female with a different male that is entirely unrelated.

This will make them stronger and more colorful.
You may be able to get a blue gene from somebody, but most people won't sell them because of the time it takes just to get them. They also don't want them inbred, which would cause small ebjd's to become even weaker.