jack dempsey

I've had a jack dempsey for some years now. I cant tell if its male or female? I also want to get other fish but dont want to get rid of him or the other one. I have a 150 gallon tank with 3 3 1\2 4 in tiger barbs and a sunfish, so trying to get more in the tank jacks are about 6-7 in and 3-4 in any suggestions? or am i better off selling and starting over let me know
thanks

Depends on their personalities. I'm keeping a pair of young EBJD in a small tank that I quaranteen feeder guppies in. (Until the EBJDs are too big for my Bichirs to eat. Then they go in a bigger tank with Bichirs, Cories and Crayfish) The pair will bother Golden snails because they have large antenii - but completely ignore a greenish mystery snail species alone because they don't have large antenii. They don't bother the feeders - unless they produce fry (Yum!!!) or die from stress (Yum!!)

My pair are actually chickens, and will hide all the time if they don't have a bunch of feeders to 'protect' them.

If you can get a picture, I can sex it.

The easiest way I found to sex demps is by the dorsal and anal fins.... Males have very long fins while the females still have a "point" but are not long and whispy... hope this helps (or if I am misinformed, someone let me know). My pic is of my Blue Demps. Look at the anal fin.


As far as keeping other fish with them... All the fish I have with mine are smaller than the Blue... I have a Festae Red Terror, Red Jewel, Pike, 2 Tire Track Eels, 2 Raphaels, 1 big Syndontis Cat, regular female Demps, 1" EBJD... I was raising guppys with my demps. I had 100+ guppys with my demps and he didn't mess with any of them... DON'T TRY THIS, I AM SURE THAT WAS A FLUKE!

Here is pics of my dempsey. You can see the dorsal and anal fins in a couple of pics. This is a male.

https://s720.photobucket.com/albums/ww206/m_weckman/Fish/

I have a 6-7 in oscar, 6 in JD female and a female convict, what would be a good ground dwelling catfish that would do well in a 55 gallon with them? (getting a 125 soon so ill have plenty of room) i have tried clown loaches one was bitten and the other just disappeared, my 5 in. feather fin went belly up for no reason one day, i am looking for a catfish that will clean up uneaten flake and pellets out of the gravel. the featherfin did a great job but didnt survive for some reason.

jgrem91 wrote:

I have a 6-7 in oscar, 6 in JD female and a female convict, what would be a good ground dwelling catfish that would do well in a 55 gallon with them? (getting a 125 soon so ill have plenty of room) i have tried clown loaches one was bitten and the other just disappeared, my 5 in. feather fin went belly up for no reason one day, i am looking for a catfish that will clean up uneaten flake and pellets out of the gravel. the featherfin did a great job but didnt survive for some reason.

Not to sure if this thread is still alive but I figure I could out my .02 in. First off the easiest way to sex a jd is by the coloring. Females will have blue spangling on the lower gill plate and little color across the body, males are the exact opposite little to no blue on lower gill plate and lots of color across the body. Not to police but in a 55 one Oscar is pushing it, yes I have done it before but it was bare bottom with nothing at all in the tank. It's like putting shaq in a pinto and saying he is happy. It may work for you now but sooner or later world war three is gonna break out in that tank. If your looking for bottom dwellers for any of those fish I would go with yoyos simply because they are pretty fast.
To the OP what is the sex of your jd? How is your tank set up? I have 5 ebjd and three cons in a 125 with a bunch of dithers/loaches.

Coloring is the best way to sex Dempseys. EBJD's are harder to sex, because colors are very similar and fins can be deceiving.