Jack Dempsey Tankmates???

[A.Reiser]

I have a pair of Jack Dempseys that i had (quite stupidly) got as target fish to help pair up my oscars-as i said STUPID!!!!!!

Anyhow, they were so belligerent that i had to remove them(obviously!)

But my problem now is that since they're alone in a tank together now, the male has been pointing all his aggression at the female.

So my question is are there any fish out there that i can get that can tolerate the irate JD's well enough that i won't have casualties????

And if not, what else should i do???

I'm relatively new to the cichlid world (which i'm loving i might add) so sorry for the stupid questions!!

 

[abarilot]

What size tank are they in? How big are they?

 

[ChiaJesus]

Red hook silver dollars work wonders with most C/SA cichlids, even highly aggressive ones like red terrors and jaguars. Also make sure that there are lots of hiding spots with rocks and/or driftwood.

 

[steelshade]

Maybe a green terror.

 

[d1anonly22]

what exactly is your male doing to the female it may not be aggression but love , it looks the same with cichlids.

 

[BadFishPa]

If there paring up to mate,they will kill all others in the tank

 

[Kellem]

This tank would not be considered a community tank with breeding jacks and certainly no welcome mat for new cichlid tankmates.
I would agree however that a couple of silver dollars would be fine

 

[A.Reiser]

hey thanks! the fish are only about 3", and the male seems to chase the female everytime she comes out of the cave, and he also keeps her away from the food at feeding time. It might be that tank size tho, they're in a temp 20 gal, we were waiting on our r/o system to arrive to set up the 55. it just got here today so we'll be moving fish! Silver dollars sound nice, i was kind of wanting to avoid having anyother cichlids in with the jacks, i have other tanks for that Thanks again for the input, as you no doubt have noticed i'm new to the cichlid world but i'm hooked for good! lol

 

[heavyhammer]

It sounds like the male wants to mate and the female is not taking to his flirting. The 55g you are getting will be a good home for the pair furnish it with lots of caves. Make sure a couple of the caves are to small for the male to enter. This way the female can hide when needed.

As for dithers i would go with giant daios. Nothing to large like redhook silver dollars.

 

[d1anonly22]

they wont always go after others in the tank just because they are mating, my pair ignores everyone else when they are mating. and i have had other cichlids, plecos, to feeders in their.