Advice please - JD very aggressive

[dcbbow]

First I am a newbie, and am in the process of stocking my 55 gal tank. It is cycling fine. A LFG had oscars (tiger and red) for sale plus some sharks, black and albino. When I picked up the fish, the Oscars had eaten the sharks. So he shows this pretty fish to my wife (different tank) dark blue spots. We take them all home and the dark blue one becomes aggressive overnite, keeping all of the other fish at the top upper corner, or chasing them. I search onlline and find out that this is either a JD or a Texas cichlid, pretty sure of the JD and is about 5". I had my wife take her out temporarily until I can decide. Which is the best fish to keep. Besides these I have two parrots and a pleco, tri-colored shark.
Which fish should i put in a separate tank? Are JD's always so aggressive? Help please.

 

[wataugachicken]

hmmm. . . jack dempseys aren't named after a famous boxer because they're sweet and kind.

if i have this right, you have 2 oscars, the jd, two blood parrots, a pleco, AND a shark? in a 55g tank?

two oscars need about 90g just for the two of them. since 55g tanks are 12" wide and oscars get 14" or more, they don't fit unless you fold them. blood parrots about 25-30g each as they mature. since you didn't give a specific name for the pleco, i guess you bought a common one? they get 18-24" at adult size, and grow fairly quickly.

basically, you should take everything back, FINISH the cycle (you want ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and visible levels of nitrate). spend some time at the store, see what you like, find out the names, and come back. we can give you ideas on what to stock and what will be compatible before you buy anything.

 

[dcbbow]

Thanks, that is good advice. In the meantime we did buy another tank. Unfortunately we are 'hooked' on the fish. We are going to buy a larger house so that we can get even larger tanks. And this is a great place to learn, which we have!! Sadly the guy selling us the fish just called him a purple passion, we should have figured out something was amiss when this guy was all alone in a tank.