Should I have other species of fish with my two EBJD?

[Jexnell]

We little fry, under an inch I am guessing. Now the fun begins, watching them grow is my favorite part. Some just don't do it fast enough

These are from the day I brought Jack and Jill home. Both about 1.5in in size.

 

[sean2024]

So beautiful. How big are they now? Yeah they’re under a inch. Lil babies.

 

[koltsixx]

wow, thats good to know. Thank you. I would love to breed them, they’re beautiful fish with great personalities. So free and pretty peaceful. I just got mine today. Turns out, i didnt have to buy tetras because my mother had 5 tetras in her tank perfectly healthy. So i put thise tetras in there last night, as well as 3 little xray fish. Then today i introduced the two EBJD’s. Great so far. Weird thing tho, one of the tetras are shaking?!?? Like its cold, i looked it up and he may have shivvers? Either that or its giving birth which i hope the heck not lmao. I do not want a bunch of tetras in there haha. Its been in the same exact spot doing it and right underneath it, is a circle made through the gravel right down to the glass. So it might be the case lol.

I don't really keep tetras other than larger charcins like Silver Dollars, Hydrolycus, etc. So, I'm not sure but it looks like your tetras are serpae and black tetras. The shaking could very well be breeding behavior, it could be a male trying to entice a female or a female laying unfertilized eggs. Regardless it's doubtful you'll be overrun with tetras. Tetras are generally egg scatterers and don't perform any kind of parental care that I know of. As such the eggs are very vulnerable to predation and even the parents may eat the eggs. I believe many small tetra breeders use breeding mops to help protect the eggs and make it possible to remove the eggs to a safe location if they'd like.

 

[Jexnell]

I don't have them anymore. The male I gave to a fellow MFKer and he was the father of many more EBJD, and Platinum JDS.
Got to about 8in long and five years before he passed

 

[Jexnell]

Here he is at 8in, you can see a platinum females in the background he was crossing with.

 

[sean2024]

I don't really keep tetras other than larger charcins like Silver Dollars, Hydrolycus, etc. So, I'm not sure but it looks like your tetras are serpae and black tetras. The shaking could very well be breeding behavior, it could be a male trying to entice a female or a female laying unfertilized eggs. Regardless it's doubtful you'll be overrun with tetras. Tetras are generally egg scatterers and don't perform any kind of parental care that I know of. As such the eggs are very vulnerable to predation and even the parents may eat the eggs. I believe many small tetra breeders use breeding mops to help protect the eggs and make it possible to remove the eggs to a safe location if they'd like.

It definitely seems like a breeding behavior. Because he or she sits above that cleared out spot in the gravel and hovers over it and shakes like crazy then like 15-20 mins later will move and go to a different spot then will return back to that same spot. He or she already sat there and moved then went back 3 times that i saw.

 

[sean2024]

Here he is at 8in, you can see a platinum females View attachment 1539813in the background he was crossing with.
View attachment 1539814

Gorgeous!! JD’s are the best! I love the shape of their fins.

 

[sean2024]

I don't have them anymore. The male I gave to a fellow MFKer and he was the father of many more EBJD, and Platinum JDS.
Got to about 8in long and five years before he passed

So they grow really slow eh?

 

[Jexnell]

He was absolutely stunning at 3in

So they grow really slow eh?

Not the fastest, like an Oscar. Expect about a 1/4 to half in a month at the most.

 

[koltsixx]

So they grow really slow eh?

Because of their relatively small adult size they do grow slow. Like most fish they'll put on some size fast from fry up but hit a wall where their growth rate will significantly slow. I'd say after 4-5 inches their growth rate will slow. Also, EBJDs tend to be slightly smaller as adults and grow slower than their naturally occurring colored counterpart. My experience was different then Jexnell though, my Oscars significantly outpaced any of my JD's growth. My Oscars usually easily hit 8-10 inches in their first year with growth slowing after that. EBJD's also usually have shortened life spans compared to their wild colored counterpart in my experience. Mine only made it to around 12 years old while most of my fish hit 15-20 years on average.