Unusual Dempsey Behavior

[vfrex]

Maybe 2 months ago I posted about my dempsey who stopped eating. It took the dempsey almost a week to start eating again, but it did.

Now the dempsey has small fasting periods quite often. It will eat for a day or two and then fast for 2-3 days. On the "off days", the dempsey is skittish. It will not remain on the same side of the tank that I'm on. It hides in or behind a clay pot. Furthermore, it shows drab light colors. On days it will eat, its colors are bright and waits at the front of the tank for me to feed it.

I don't really understand what is going on. The dempsey is ~6". Is this what dempseys do when they reach maturity?

 

[palehorse78]

My jd act sorta the same way skittish as h*** and always hide why do he do that he like the scarest fish i have hes in a tank with just a gorumia.and he does this hiding?

 

[TTman]

I've had 2 JDs (still have 1). they just love to hide. they are not out going at all. they will come up for food & then just go right back to hiding, ALL DAY. if u give them peace, they will hide, ALL DAY. if they have competition, either for food or territory, then they will stand their ground & fight. but once that's over it's back to hiding. IME.

palehorse, where in ATL r u located?

 

[ScottoMacD]

A few things that I would ask is:

1) What size tank is the JD in?

2) Do you have any dither fish?

3) How bright is the tank (IE: Lights, daylight?)

My reasoning behind these questions is.

From my experience with JD's 90% of them are skittish, and quite wimpy.

I don't know where they got their nasty reputation, but it is really undeserved. For the whole part they are the wimps of the the "tough" cichlid world. Don't get me wrong there are monsters in the species. I know. I have one. Mean SOB. He's killed his fair share of tankmates and has even attacked me once while cleaning the tank.

That however is only one of the 15 or 20 I have had as adults.

That being said it brings up question one. My nasty male only got like that after I moved him to a smaller tank with less tankmates.

Right now he is in a 55 gallon with some targets (arulius barbs) and my large female synspilum. She is in there because she keeps him in line. I have found that they have this "agreement" for lack of a better term they just live and let live and don't bother each other. When I moved her out and gave him a new tankmate (3 inch carpinte) he just beat the living hell out of it, and otherwise never came out of his log.

I had to move her back in and the carpinte out to another tank. Everything is great again. I think that he sees the bigger fish out swimming so he relaxes and come out. Kind of like a Giant dither.

The smaller dithers can make a big difference with JD's. Same idea as what my synspilum does but with smaller fish. The smaller fish are out and about, so the JD thinks that it is safe so he comes out and you will see him more.

The lighting can be a problem. I have had JD's that really didn't like the brighter tanks and would only come out after they went off. I also have had the opposite. Jd's that didn't care either way. Again it depends on the fish. You could try reducing the light in the tank.

Try adding some tough dithers. Danios, barbs (arulius, spanner/t-bars, rosey all work nicely) and maybe reducing the light and see what happens.

Now I'm not saying that this is "the law" when it comes to JD's. Other will have other solutions. But this is what I have foundthe best and easiest solutions from my personal experiences with my JD's.

 

[vfrex]

125 gallon tank. Tankmates are an oscar, 3 silver dollars, and a pleco. When the dempsey was a juvenille, it was significantly smaller than the silver dollars. It was not skittish at that point. Tank only has 1 light. Dunno the size of the light, but it doesn't even span the entire tank.

 

[Sumpin'fishy]

My experience with my JD is a bit different, although some similarities. I found out that my fish love Wardley Cichlid Flakes and I hat the mess they make when I drop the flakes in randomly. So I decided I'd hold a decent-sized pinch underwater and get them used to me. It didn't take long and now they immediately come to my hand and eat every Saturday when I give them flakes. I have established this trust with my JD and my Blackbelt to do this.

I also notice my JD doesn't like the attention my Blackbelt gets when he hangs out in the mid level of the water checking me out. He will even comes up close when I kneel down next to the tank. The JD gets jealous of the attention he gets and that he is so bold and showy. So he comes out and runs him off and takes center stage. Neither of my fish like when I stand next to the tank- except to feed them. Kneeling down doesn't bother them at all though. I think being so large of a target scares them (makes sense to me). I find that just spending lots of time in their presence tends to make them more comfortable with you. I love to turn off all the lights in the room and leave just the tank lights on. They have enough light to see me, but after a while, they tend to ignore me and swim around. I like that they come up close when I get my face next to the glass. It takes a minute or two, but they do get curious. I like to believe that they just love me and want to spend time with "daddy"

Anyways, you may want to try the feeding with the hand tip. I know some people don't like to get their hands in the tank (to expose them to other chemicals and such), but I'm real careful to wash my hands with just tap water. It's less messy for big eaters too using flakes and such.

My JD likes to hide most of the day, also, but I make the hiding spots and caves visible to me. This way he feels secure, and I'm happy that I can always see him. One thing is that my Dempsey never gets pale colors, He does get darker when nervous or something, though! Best of wishes for you!

 

[vfrex]

My dempsey used to jump for food I held.

 

[ScottoMacD]

vfrex.

When I mentioned the light. I was actually talking about the overall brightness (lumens) of the bulb. Some fish can't handle the massive amount of light we as the aquarists put into a tank for our enjoyment. But reading your post I'm pretty sure that we can rule that out as a problem.

You did however bring up something that I have noticed more and more since my fish have started to really breed and I have tons of fry and Juvy fish.

As juvies the fish are fearless. They come right to the glass are not afraid of me or anything else that comes to the tank.

I think that they have learned that I am the source of food. So they associate me withit and come to the glass begging. This fearlessness stays with them when they grow up and I keep them in my other tanks.

As opposed to my older fish which 90% of them are store bought seem to get startled much more easily and usually sit back and wait to see what I am doing before begging. Very odd???

I am starting to wonder if it has to do with the differences in the way that I raise my fry compared to the way that the fish distributor and store raise them.

Anyway food for thought. By your description it sounds like the JD is the smallest guy in the tank, or close to the smallest. I'm wondering if he is having some sort of identity crsis? Silver dollars get quite big.

Maybe you would try my earlier suggestion of throwing in 3 or 4 smaller dithers. That might help the JD to loosen up a bit.

Listen to me I sound like a freaking fish psychologist????

If the smaller dithers don't help. I could always try a JD to Human mindmeld and ask him what his problem is?

 

[vfrex]

I got the dempsey at 1". It is now bigger than the silver dollars. It has kicked their asses from time to time. I don't have a quarantine tank so adding other fish is out for now. Oh well, I guess i'll just have to deal with its moodiness.

 

[Wench]

Originally posted by ScottoMacD
I don't know where they got their nasty reputation, but it is really undeserved. For the whole part they are the wimps of the the "tough" cichlid world.

I read somewheres, not sure where, could of been here for that matter. Most likely TFH mag.

The jack dempsey was one of the very first cichlids introduced to the hobby years ago. Back when everyone was still just keeping small tropical fish.

Being the new, attractive fish that it was, it sold and people where taking them home and placing them in community tanks with guppies, tetras etc , only to find the new fish making lunch of the little guys. Somewhere along the way, they were named Jack Dempseys for the reputation it had in the community tank.

Now had it been introduced into the hobby after oh, say a jag or something, it may have been named Jane Doe instead of Jack Dempsey, get it, Doe, deer, timid, shy, oh never mind, maybe I should I go to bed.