Tank mates for two female convicts and a jack dempsey

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Garrett Wise

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 30, 2016
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all three of my fish are relatively new and are under 3 inches and living happily in a 55 gallon. I was hoping to add some colorful small schooling fish to help liven up the tank and add some extra color. Any ideas of fish that will help with this and can deal with the aggressive nature of my three current fish?
 
i would swap out one of the female convicts for a male and let them breed
and let the jd grow out. also with the convicts breeding the jd will have a good
supply of fry to snack on long as you provide enough hiding spot for the pair
and the jd something to break the line of sight. jd get a good size also so i
wouldnt add anything else in a 55g. but this is just my opinion of course.
 
i would swap out one of the female convicts for a male and let them breed
and let the jd grow out. also with the convicts breeding the jd will have a good
supply of fry to snack on long as you provide enough hiding spot for the pair
and the jd something to break the line of sight. jd get a good size also so i
wouldnt add anything else in a 55g. but this is just my opinion of course.
you're drunk. Don't breed Convicts in a mixed community, wth? lol hahahaha
Try some Tiger Barbs, Rainbowfish or Giant Danios. Grab some Raphael catfish while you are at the pet store also. 2 female Convicts will try to breed between themselves anyway and will be nasty enough,..... with a male the eggs will actually HATCH and the Convicts will destroy the whole tank to protect their babies. All my breeding pairs of ANYTHING are in tanks by themselves. Once the breeding pair bond forms, they will kill anything they are able to......which for Convicts is anything that can't swallow them whole.

And yes, I do have 2 female Convicts with no male that lay eggs every 2-3 weeks and guard the nest fiercely. If they (or MFK) ever fix the picture issues i'm having, ill post photos next time they do it
 
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you're drunk. Don't breed Convicts in a mixed community, wth? lol hahahaha
Try some Tiger Barbs, Rainbowfish or Giant Danios. Grab some Raphael catfish while you are at the pet store also. 2 female Convicts will try to breed between themselves anyway and will be nasty enough,..... with a male the eggs will actually HATCH and the Convicts will destroy the whole tank to protect their babies. All my breeding pairs of ANYTHING are in tanks by themselves. Once the breeding pair bond forms, they will kill anything they are able to......which for Convicts is anything that can't swallow them whole.

And yes, I do have 2 female Convicts with no male that lay eggs every 2-3 weeks and guard the nest fiercely

i did it multiple times with success in smaller tanks providing plenty
of cover for all the fish in the tank to hide and what not your over
exaggerating them it's only convicts and they stay small compared
to a jd. given enough hiding spots and objects to break the line of
sight it can work out and jd's are tough pretty sure it can stand its own.
ive bred multiple different species of cichlids and even bred a festae
pair and amph hybrid pair in a 240g before. each pair on each end.
i wouldnt add any more fish in a 55g...
 
i did it multiple times with success in smaller tanks providing plenty
of cover for all the fish in the tank to hide and what not your over
exaggerating them it's only convicts and they stay small compared
to a jd. given enough hiding spots and objects to break the line of
sight it can work out and jd's are tough pretty sure it can stand its own.
ive bred multiple different species of cichlids and even bred a festae
pair and amph hybrid pair in a 240g before. each pair on each end.
i wouldnt add any more fish in a 55g...
yea that's what i'm saying...... a breeding pair of Convicts will dominate a tank, but IF you can do a JD w/ them it needs to be at LEAST twice their size. I have hade pairs of Convicts kill cichlids notorious for aggression (pound for pound) - JDs (different JDs w/ different pairs), Salvinis, Jewels, and then of course there were Oscars MUCH larger but Oscars simply are NOT fighting fish.

A Green Terror would make a better tank mate than a JD.....more active and less shy and reclusive. But again, it must be considerably larger than both Convicts by 100% mass. I would only ever put a breeding pair of Convicts w/ a mixed community of much larger more aggressive cichlids. 2 of my adult females (3") share a 55g w/ a 5"-6" male GT, a 5" male Sveni Pike, a 4" unsexed Jack Dempsey and 2 male Firemouths (3.5" and 4"), plus a few larger-ish catfish [(5"-7") a Spotted Pimelodus, Lima Shovelnose and 3 Colombian sharks]

I also have a harem of 1.7 Pink Convicts (1"-1.5") in a peaceful SA (mostly) community w/ 3 Rainbow Cichlids, a pair of Cichlaosoma cienagae (?), 1.0 Blue Acara, 0.1 Geo. albelios, 0.2 Jewels, a Rainbow shark, Black Shark, 7 Corydoras, Clown and Bristlenose Plecos, 2 Asian Bumblebee cats, 4 Spotted Raphaels, 3" albino Channel Cat, and 2 "Valentine" synodontis-hybrids (2" and 3") in a different 55g.

Also have an empty 75g and another 75g (maybe a 90g) on the way :D
 
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I recommend the op upgrades his tank before adding anything as Jd s get 8inches (I've seen them larger tho) afterwords he can stock the empty 55 too
 
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I recommend the op upgrades his tank before adding anything as Jd s get 8inches (I've seen them larger tho) afterwords he can stock the empty 55 too
Based on this suggestion, I'd get the JD a bigger tank and add small dither fish (eg: barbs) to both the 55 and JD tank... But that's just me. :)


I believe there was (still is?) a guy on here with a HUGE JD, I think he's like 10" or so... Here's the link https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/check-out-this-beast-jack-dempsey.660377/
 
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