Visual Inspection of my new JD

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FreakIndeed

FreakIndeed

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 14, 2007
23
0
0
Columbus, OH
Hello all,

It will be a week tomorrow that I purchased this 4.5 to 5" Jack Dempsey from my local fish store. This is my first big cichlid (only Angels and German Blue Rams before) and I'd like a little help with a visual inspection.

He eats well, but isn't very aggressive at meal time. The 4.5" Gold Severum I purchased the same day eats circles around him. Even the Giant Danios out-compete him for food. Is this normal or will he grow bolder in time?

I'm feeding a variety of Hikari Gold pellets, frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp, sinking shrimp pellets, and freeze dried krill.

I'm considering getting some earthworms from Walmart and adding them to the diet. My only concern is how to get the worms to him since he is such a passive eater. Anything else, diet wise, I should be adding?

I keep calling JD a "he" but can any of you tell the sex?

Also, does his color look drab for his size? Is there something I should be feeding to bring that out?

Lastly, is that piece out of his dorsal fin something genetic or did someone take a bite out of him at the LFS? It hasn't changed in the week I've had him at all. I've had fish with nipped fins before but they usually show a visual improvement within just a few days.

Thanks for any help!

jd-1.jpg

jd-2.jpg
 
It might color up some more. Just keep feeding it some Hikari Bio-Gold. That always worked for me. As for it's fin...it's hard to say. Looks like one of the rays was taken out, so it might not grow back. But I've seen worst injuries with a full recovery. Just give it time to adjust and it should be fine.
 
nice female JD!!!! my 7 inch female is getting teh shizzles beating outa her by teh male BP ( hard to believe i now lol ) but ya shows how strong they can be so he mustive found the JD weak spot lol
 
Looks to be a nice female. Just keep on feeding what your feeding and do plenty of water changes. Let her settle in a little longer and she may color up a bit more or get more aggressive during feeding. The finnage is nothing to worry about and its hard to say if its genetic or if it was inflicted by anither fish. But nice jd and btw what size tank is she is???
 
It does appear to be female, although i have seen a handful of males with this amount of irredesent spangling on the gill plates in the past. The sex on this particular Jack could swimg either way.

As Jacks mature they do tend to become more placid, but i'm sure it'll eat and colour up more (colour looks fine.) as it settles in to it's surroundings. The diet you are feeding sounds great. I'll suggest you add some vege matter to their diet, such as Zucini, shelled peas, lettuce etc.
IME they absolutely love earthworms, so give them a go. Once he get's the taste for them, there will be no stopping him.

I personally feel the damage to the dorsal will be permanent. Time will tell.
 
She's in a standard size 125 gallon. Tankmates include a Gold Severum around her same size, about a 6" Common Pleco, 2 Pictus Cats, 6 Giant Danios, a Gold Gourami, and 4 Silver Dollars (non-red hook). I did have about a 5" Rainbow Shark in there as well, but believe it or not the Rainbow Shark was bullying and chasing the JD into the corner. So he had to go.

I'm hoping future tankmates could include an Electric Blue Dempsey and a Flier Cichlid.

Thanks for the responses so far!
 
I'm hoping future tankmates could include an Electric Blue Dempsey and a Flier Cichlid
u can even add a few cons to teh mic or maybe sum firemouths if u want but tha EBJD and flear is good to
 
A Rainbow Shark bullied your JD? That's hilarious.
 
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