View Full Version : 2 new dempsey shots
I like the fins on my dempsey. Well, I like fins on all dempseys, but I think these are particularly nice (I'm biased of course)..
http://www.arofanatics.com/members/vfrex/oscarreddevildempseyetc/image35.jpg
http://www.arofanatics.com/members/vfrex/oscarreddevildempseyetc/image34.jpg
Anyway, I haven't taken pics in a while. I had some free time and figured I'd give it a whirl. The dempsey has really taken to the New Life Spectrum pellets I started it on.
eastcoast420
03-06-2003, 6:58 PM
Nice fish man.. What else is in the besides the jack and the "O"?
Im from jersey too by the way.. Where do you like to go for your fish?
Tyler718
03-06-2003, 7:09 PM
That is a great looking fish. Good pics also. How big is it now? I have 2. My male has the same kind of colring, but my female isn't as colorful.
Its a 125 gallon tank. There are 3 silver dollars in there, and a pleco. I had a needle nose gar in there for a week or two, but it mysteriously disappeared. (I'm guessing the oscar).
All of my fish I bought at the Petco I work at (Ramsey). Whats cool is that I got this fish at 1" long. Its so cool to see it grow & color up.
The size guestimate is ~6.5-7 inches in total length.
Thanks for the nice comments :)
Tyler718
03-06-2003, 7:27 PM
Originally posted by vfrex
All of my fish I bought at the Petco I work at (Ramsey). Whats cool is that I got this fish at 1" long. Its so cool to see it grow & color up.
The size guestimate is ~6.5-7 inches in total length.
I got mine around 2". They have grown real fast. Mine is about 4" now. They are growing about 1" a month. I can't wait for mine to get to the same size as yours.:)
Oh yeah. For a few weeks, the dempsey had the oscar edged out. Awesome race :p each of them had ~1" per month.
When the dempsey hit 6", its growth slowed substantially. It turned very picky with its eating and started eating a lot less. Its a little while off for you yet, but if start seeing that kind of behavior, let me know. I want to see if all dempseys have a transition like that.
Sumpin'fishy
03-07-2003, 12:00 AM
Yes, Vfrex, my Denpsey is about 6" overall and did the same as yours. He now almost never really eats (waits for frozen foods), he's much more reclusive, and slowed his growth considerably at about 5 1/2 to 6". I haven't really noticed much growth out of him in a few months now. Maybe 1/2", but I think he's thickened up a bit. He also started digging pits in and around his caves like a gopher!
I have a question that I've been asking, and you may be able to help with....How do your Silver Dollars do with your cichlids? How big do they get? How quick/fast? Durable?
I need some dithers for my Blackbelt and Dempsey so they will come out more. The Blackbelt's not too bad yet, but he's been getting more reclusive lately also. I rarely get to sit there and watch my Dempsey just swim around the tank anymore. Only when he's angry at my Blackbelt:rolleyes:
Your insight would be appreciated.
VoodooChild
03-07-2003, 12:19 AM
Ok, I need to know. Is the Spectrum really any good? I've never heard so much hype for a food before. Does it realy improve the color like claimed? By the way, those are nice looking jacks. I work at a Petco too. Nice fish from mass dealers are a rarity.
Voodoo: its funny you should say, but I had some frieky good luck. If you look at most of the oscars sold at petcos (at least mine) now, they all have the elongated body shape. Mine has the natural full body shape. I had no idea of the difference at the time that I bought it.
I find it hard to judge a particular pellet. With the variety that I feed the fish, I don't think that there would be much of a difference between it and hikari cichlid gold. However, my picky dempsey goes nuts for NLS. The 1 time that I'll see it aggressive now is when new life spectrum pellets hit the water. The silver dollars go for it, the oscar goes for it, the crayfish goes for it, the midas goes for it, the danios go for it. So the fish universally like it, and it seems to be more cost efficient than hikari cichlid gold.
Sump: Also funny you should note about the digging...my dempsey started digging a bit around "it's" cave (reason for the "" is that the fish don't really fight for territory)
I bought the silver dollars at 3". At most, they've grown 1-1.5 inches. They were purchased at the same time as the cichlids. So as you can see, the growth is SLOW. They aren't very active and dont' really move all that much. They aren't really wary of the cichlids. The cichlids used to take shots at the silver dollars to try to hold territory. A few scales would fly, the silver dollars would swim away, and a few minutes later, would swim back. Now the fish don't seem to care too much about territory.
I believe that they would be more active and less skittish if the group was significantly larger (talking at least 6). That being said though, silver dollars can be EXTREMELY fast and destructive scared. Probably not capable of breaking a heater, but lets go back to max size. I've read sources that say max size is between 8 and 10". If you had one that attained a size of 10", it could probably break a filter intake, and possible a heater.
Durability: They've done fine in my tank, but my fish are not very persistant. Any aggression is a 1 shot deal that is over in 1 "charge". My silver dollar's carelessness of not running when attacked makes me wonder if they could last with true aggressors like red devils, trimacs, guapote, etc.
Overall: If you have a big tank, it would probably be cool to get 6-10 of them as see how they do. However, I think danios & barbs do better as dither fish because they seem to swim more, reguardless of how many of them there are.
Sumpin'fishy
03-07-2003, 6:58 PM
Well I ended up going with 4 x 2" Silver Dollars. So far things are cool, but the cichlids are trying to establish their "dominance". Especially my Blackbelt, since he used to be the underdog. He looks like part of the school because he's riding them so hard, but they seem to be dealing with it well.
VoodooChild
03-08-2003, 12:51 AM
Yeah I've noticed the elongation too. We also often get them with semi-veiled to full veiled fins, which looks ok on certain fish, but just terrible with oscars! Something as bulky and muscular as an ocellatus just wiggles his body trying to get anywhere no time soon.
I haven't seen one yet with veiled fins. But then again, our bigger ones haven't been swimming much. Maybe we're getting the crappy stock :)
ROLLIN
03-11-2003, 9:09 PM
Originally posted by vfrex
When the dempsey hit 6", its growth slowed substantially. It turned very picky with its eating and started eating a lot less. Its a little while off for you yet, but if start seeing that kind of behavior, let me know. I want to see if all dempseys have a transition like that.
My dempsey also seems to be like this. When I first got it, it ate like a pig and was usually out swimming. Then 5 or 6 months ago it started hiding more and eats less, its been like that ever since. Its about 6 inches.
goldfries
03-11-2003, 9:26 PM
now the fish are X.
Arofanatics had a security breach. As a result, they're running on their backup server and galleries are down. Should be fixed sometime. Don't know the timeframe on that.
Tightdog1
03-13-2003, 8:18 PM
I need some dithers for my Blackbelt and Dempsey so they will come out more. The Blackbelt's not too bad yet, but he's been getting more reclusive lately also. I rarely get to sit there and watch my Dempsey just swim around the tank anymore. Only when he's angry at my Blackbelt
i think the best dithers are pacus cause they are strong and fast but since they are fasta dn BIG they need huge tanks not 55g like i got now
Sumpin'fishy
03-13-2003, 8:26 PM
I ended up going with Silver Dollars, which are similar to Pacus. They seem to be doing really well, and I'm feeding more veggies so they and my Blackbelt are getting a better diet. Of coarse, my Jack Dempsey would rather wither away and die than touch any greenery:rolleyes:
It has been working really well for seeing more of my fish, and especially my Blackbelt, who hangs around them so often he looks like he schools with them:D My JD is still a bit reclusive, but I see enough of him to keep happy. I hope it stays this way or improves! There are 4 SD's in my tank and are only about 2" diameter, but they are very active and school well together because of the cichlids.