Regular Jack Dempsey and blue electric jack dempsey behavior

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9

920fish

Feeder Fish
Jul 26, 2011
4
2
3
USA WI
Hi guys,

I'm new to jack dempsey so I have some questions. I currently have 3 around 1.5 inch 2 regular and 1 electric blue. The two regular one they would turn into a darker black color and have vertical bars on the top of their body is that normal? Any1 know if that is a sign of a female or male? Also they would follow the electric blue to his hiding place and they would hide there and sometimes they would push each other around or just show off their fins. If they like following each other does that mean they are a pair or they just buddy buddy type of thing cuz the bigger regular jack and the electric blue follows each other around alot.

Thanks for any information.
 
bobblehead27 said:
at 1.5 inch, they are too small to sex, much less pair off... It must be a "buddy buddy type" thing...

in another .5-1 inch you should be able to start sexing them (the female will have speckles on the gill plate forming a beard like pattern and the male will not)

http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish/jack-dempsey-cichlid-profile.jpg (female)

http://homepage.eircom.net/~johnstropicals/assets/images/jack_dempsey_02b.jpg (male)
Click to expand...

If you know what to look for, they can be sexed at that size. The blue gill plates show up pretty early as I have 5 females that are growing out and are about the size of the OP's and some people have said theirs have spawned at 2-3". My regular male was about 4" and the female was about 2.5" when they first spawned.

As for the OP question, it's pretty normal for them to darken up like that. Of the 5 fry I have, 4 of them darken up often when in a disagreement with each other or the Convicts and Festae they're in with. The biggest thing you should worry about is the regular 2 outgrowing the electric blue 1. EBJD's are generally weaker and less aggressive. They become easily stressed and that can cause them to get sick and in my experience with young EBJD, once that happens it's hard to get them well. I lost 2 small ones and bought a third at 4" and he's now pushing the 9" range. You also need to watch out for deformities, while they can look normal when small, by the 4-6" mark they can start to show beak face, which you can't breed them then.

I had a regular pair and I still have my EBJD and his mate. Both females get jet black with purple bars on the top of their backs around the dorsal fin. The regular male got to be a dark purple with a tinge of black in some areas in his breed dress. The EBJD turns black on his sides sometimes when spawning and guarding.

The regular pair guarding fry
1ed0a9a7.jpg


The EBJD guarding (his mate is sisters with the regular ones mate, they looked the same in breed dress)
82001ed5.jpg


EBJD not in breed dress
5dd3911e.jpg


Regular pair not in breed dress (though she's dark in this picture, she's not as dark as she was in breed dress)
PA110187.jpg
 
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So do ONLY females get dark? I have what i thought were a female and male she has the green scales all the way around and he does not. HE got really dark one day and never switched back he just stayed a really dark brown almost looks black color. Is this possibly 2 females??
 
CatchemAll said:
So do ONLY females get dark? I have what i thought were a female and male she has the green scales all the way around and he does not. HE got really dark one day and never switched back he just stayed a really dark brown almost looks black color. Is this possibly 2 females??
Click to expand...
Also the dark one is always chasing after the light one which i know is a sign of a male spawning??
 
Males can get dark as well, the black bars are sometimes "stress coloration". Doesn't necessarily mean the fish with it are stressed 24/7 as I have had some JD's that are just darker than others all the time. They can be quite variable in shade, but in general a lightly colored JD with blue spangling is "normal" non-breeding, non-stressed coloration.
Can you post some pictures of the JD's?
I agree that keeping a baby blue with two normal JD's may not be the best thing for the EBJD.
 
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Well I don’t have one yet so I’m speaking from research when I say the Jack Dempsey is a hardy fish whereas the electric blue Jack Dempsey is more sensitive like stated above I would say he should have his own tank I am looking into a Jack Dempsey setup I did want a electric blue until what I read so I am going with a common a severum and possibly a fire mouth that’s undecided maybe 2 Severum
 
I like EBJD I used to breed it and I hope u get to pair urs. This is my ol’ EB.

8A533A61-AE21-44D6-9E5B-4CD802AFF013.png
 
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