My Jack Dempsey is a wimp

[gavinh87]

Hi guys, sorry my first post is asking for advice!

Ive recently moved my 5inch JD from a 55g and moved him into a 120g, at the same time my brother closed his tank down and gave me his green terror. The problem is the green terror seems to hate the JD, but he does nothing to defend himself he just tries to swim away resulting in a chase.

Now, before this the JD has been picked on by a yellow lab (in there for a short period whilst treating another tank, and has been bullied by a convict half his size. I've heard that JD's are known for being tough and quite territorial but this guy is a wimp. The tank is fully decorating with only one other fish in there (a severum) so there is plenty of room for both of them.

Has anyone had this before or knows what I can do to stop it? I dont want to get rid of the JD since ive had him since he was barely 1/2 inch however the GT looks awesome.

 

[ehh]

In my experience jack dempseys aren't as aggressive as a lot website say.
I've owned one and he was picked on my a belly crawler pike and a convict

 

[justarn]

add more fish to spread aggression, add more deco too, the jd will come out of his shell as he grows.

 

[gavinh87]

Thanks, I was thinking of adding a few severums and some others anyway but I'll do that sooner if it helps.
Also, any ideas on what sex this GT (or saum) is. Not the best pics I know, but I'm leaning towards female.

 

[ehh]

That second picture is really good. I'm thinking male. It's showing nice color. It's forehead looks like it's starting to steepen.

 

[justarn]

looks male to me too

 

[duanes]

Whenever I've snorkeling with JDs in nature, they seem to only be really successful when they are the only (or very few) cichlids in the area.
Where I've found them together with uropthalmus, unless the area was immense, the JDs were very ragged. Compare the ones in my first video, where the small cenote is dominate by uropthalmus, with the 2nd youtube one where the JDs dominate the biotope. click on pic to run 1st one.
Beyond, if by yellow lab, you mean the African mbuna, they will dominate a JD 9 out of 10 times

The only way to (maybe) stop the aggression, would be to rearrange all the decore to change all the territorial markers the other cichlids have set up. Any new cichlid added to an established cichlid tank is at a distinct disadvantage.

 

[gavinh87]

Those videos are amazing thank you! I really thought a JD would have owned the yellow lab, being from what I've saw to be : a softy of the african world.
The weird thing here is the JD was the first in the tank you would think he'd run the show.
I've taken the GT out now and the JD's colours have come back and seems a whole lot happier, I'll try and reintroduce them when I've got a few more fish.
Any ideas as for tank mates? I like the idea of severums (rotkeil in particular) and maybe a few earthmovers.

 

[duanes]

As you can see in my videos, the fish that share natural habitat with JDs (at least in the areas I've been), are Rhamdia catfish, and live bearers like sailfin mollies or gambusia.

I've also seen sleeper gobies, but they prey on juvie JDs. Astyanax tetras are also very common in that area, but I've never seen them with JDs, I have a feeling the speedy tetras simply wipe out any JD fry before the parents realize the tetras are their.
Here's another video of Cristalino cenote where JDs are common.

A cenote only 100 yards away (Azul) was full of uropthalmus, but not a JD in sight.
I get the feeling, the JDs simply were out competed and succumbed to the larger more aggressive uropthalmus pressure.

Below is a video full of tetras only 20 miles south of where I found JDs, but in this cenote, I only saw Parachromis freidrichstali, and introduced Tilapia, no JDs

 

[Stang725]

I had two that were fully grown in my 90 and I moved them over to my 240G and they didn't do that great... think one was injured during the catch and transport and never really recovered... he was the more aggressive of the pair, of what I think were both males... He didn't make it after I put both of them back in the 90G (assuming at the time that maybe something in the wafer in the new tank was causing them issues)... The more passive guy, after going back into the 240G when I was sure the water was fine... is the biggest wuss in my tank now. Even more skittish than my clown loaches and my plecos.

I'm pretty sure he isn't too happy about the loss of his buddy and the back n' forth between tanks probably didn't help.... But I needed to get everyone in the 240G and for some reason those two were the only ones that had issues.

Have lots of misc cichlids, loaches, tetras, plecos, and catfish and only the JDs didn't take well to their new home.... Kind of sucks, because now I never see him unless I catch him swiming from from hiding place to the next, usually when the lights go off. Maybe in a month or so, he will realize I'm not out to get him. But yeah, JDs in my book now are "chickens".... and I'm only keeping him in my tank because I feel bad that I took away his friend and he at least protected the injured JD til the end from other fish... they looked identical, so I don't think they were M/F pair...

Been meaning to get that off my chest, felt pretty bad about losing that guy and what it did to the other JD...