# Jack Dempsey in a bucket... :(



## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

Hey everyone,
Its my first post here so I'll quickly start with the tank spec's
P.H. - 6.8-7
ammonia - 0
nitrate - 10
2200 L/hr Internal filter dual canister/ 4 mediums

I have a 120cm x 60cm x 60cm tank housing about 5 bristlenose pleco's the oldest one is an albino bristlenose at roughly 8" he has been with me through 3 different tanks and a whole range of fish, he is now the dominant fish of the tank rivalled now and then by a 9" tiger oscar, their is also a 5-6" peppermint bristlenose, 2 6" common bristlenose and a dwarfed 3 year old 3" bristlenose aswell as the sick 6-7" jack dempsey now in a hospital bucket. The tank has been cycled and running for over 3 years it originally housed angel fish along with all the bristlenose then my partner (owner of the angels) left the household about 1 1/2 years ago so I decided to buy a harmless baby Jack dempsey, he grew into a terror and at 2" i had to re-home the 5" -6" angels... at the same time as re-homing them I bought a 2" tiger Oscar, they were actually great tank mates playing lockjaw and tag around the tank all the time, it looked as if the Dempsey was the dominant fish for a long time and even when the Oscar outgrew the Jack, the Oscar never had a chance of catching him through all his caves and jack could swim circle around the Oscar.

Beginning of the sickness... I noticed Jack was really fat and I thought that I had gotten his sex wrong all along and he was actually a she with awsome spangles across the face. after about aweek I was concerned as she was extremely bloated in the belly so I kept a close eye on her and she didnt seem to want to eat at all, I let it go one more night after researching alot i determined it was most likely cichlid bloat probably from eating too many food scraps left behind from the Oscar. The next day I went and bought some epsom salts in the morning and as I was preparing the hospital bucket I noticed the Oscar going balistic on poor Jack and she was struggling to outrun the oscar and running into every ornament in the process, I quickly intervened and scooped jack out I noticed ALOT of scales missing and blood and extremely bloated..... I thought the worst immediately and even researched techniques of painless euthanising fish, I read a few articles on how tough some cichlids can be so i decided against killing jack and gave it a heavy epsom salt bath in the bucket, it barely noticed and just sat on the bottom so i left it for a few hours, then siphoned most of the water from the bucket and added 15l from my tank. I tried feeding shelled pea's and feeding salt soaked pellets but it wouldnt touch anything!!!  I just had to siphon all the food out after a few hours so it didn't taint the water and replace it with more tank water. I have been changing about 15l water from the bucket everyday and salt bathing every second day (requiring almost 30l from the tank). Im also scared of jeapodising my tanks filter bacteria because im taking so much water from it everyday, but I think the 2200L/hr internal filter should cope.

This has been going for 2 weeks now and finally the dempsey looks a little bit more lively slightly less bloated, also has been eating the salt soaked pellets and even gobbled down a shelled pea 5 minutes ago :dancing: it still is missing alot of scales and also still has the red spots were it was injured and bleeding, so I just went the LPS and got some seachem stress guard apparently has an anti-bacterial angel (says it helps fish heal from injuries on the bottle lols).
So questions are, 
What sort of recovery do you think my dempsey will make?
How long if ever untill I can put him back in the big aquarium? I also have a 45cmx30cmx30cm tank which is set up for breeding guppies can he live in their with 1 male guppy and 5 females?
Any suggestions would be great!


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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

obviously he can't "live" in that small of a tank but if I put him in their after maybe a few days more treatment to recover and give me time to get money to set up my next project, a 90cm, 45cm, 45cm tank to house my jack and hopefully a partner.


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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

alright so I see my only option is to set up the 3 foot tank i have empty because unfortunately I didn't research on the internet and only went from what the pet store people recomended but I now realise I should have never bought an Oscar, I told them I wanted a cichlid tank with 2 or 3 fish that will eat guppy's that I breed they recomended an angel fish, an Oscar and a JD I bought them all as juveniles and the angel fish lasted about 3 weeks, Jd and oscar have been together for prob over a year now... I guess the tank just got to small for the two of them  I cant re-home my oscar or upgrade the tank anytime soon so I will start saving for a 6x2 footer so I could possibly find Oscar a partner and move the dempsy too the 4 footer...


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## NZSIC'S (Apr 30, 2013)

Wow hope I don't run into this problem.. My tanks measurements are pretty similar to yours, I'll eventually get another big 4 foot once my fish grow!

Yeah LPS telling you to put some Angels with the Oscar wasn't the brightest suggestion! But I would have thought that the JD and Oscar would be alright.. but if the Oscar was bullying the JD as soon as he's able to catch him, he's going to inflict some damage.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

The JD and oscar both need a larger tank than what you have to offer, even kept alone.

Your fish are maturing and the tank has become very stressful. Time to upgrade and seperate those two!


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## NZSIC'S (Apr 30, 2013)

cichlidaholic said:


> The JD and oscar both need a larger tank than what you have to offer, even kept alone.


So do you think that a 75 Gallon will be too small for my Oscar, eventually? (kept alone)


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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

NZSIC'S said:


> cichlidaholic said:
> 
> 
> > The JD and oscar both need a larger tank than what you have to offer, even kept alone.
> ...


I think the main thing is the "width" of the tank, I think a 4x2 feet (48"x 24") is the minimum size tank for 1 Oscar altthough he probs wont be comfortable untill in a 6x2feet. 
Jack Dempsey was in the bucket for probably 2 weeks all up, I attempted at setting up a 55 gallon so he could have his own tank but he just so happened to have a leak, so im in the process of re-sealing it and in the meantime I got some more rocks and pvc pipes and made alot of caves in 75gallon, put him back in 3 hours ago he has ventured outside the caves a few times and the oscar is still chasing him around, but the Oscar cant get at him in the caves hopefully he will be okay


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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

I wish I had photo's because he made a **** of a recovery in the bucket, I was searching methods to humanely kill him 2 weeks ago


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## NZSIC'S (Apr 30, 2013)

SavemeDempsey said:


> I wish I had photo's because he made a #%$& of a recovery in the bucket, I was searching methods to humanely kill him 2 weeks ago


Good work with the Jack Dempsey resurrection :thumb:

Can you take some pictures now.. of the both of them?


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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)




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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

Sure finally got my camera working (sort of) used up two AA batteries in about 5 mins.... Anyways did some tests and the nitrate levels are reallly high like 60ppm nitrite still nill and amonia .25ppm   I'm pretty sure I have damage the good bacteria because I put a new filter in about 6 weeks ago, I ran the old filter next to the new one (both internals) for about two weeks, then I put some foam and wool from the the crappy old filter into the new one which uses bio noodles and foam.
The wool somehow ended up working its way up into the top cavity right before the intake pretty much stopping the flow, im not sure how quickly it did this but as I didnt want to disturb the good bacteria in the new filter I didnt open it up for sometime, about a week after the jack dempsey got sick is when I realised, I quickly took the wool out and had to dismantle the intake propeller becuz wool was wrapped all around it.... Its working great now packed full of foam and bio-noodles, but I think I may have destroyed most of the good bacteria. I do have a nice piece of drift wood absolutely covered in anubis which Im hoping has some bacteria along with all rocks, gravel and the god forsaken hair algae which killed all my other plants and has taken almost 6 months to get on top of (kind of).
I did a 30% water change after taking the tests and added about 5 tbl spoons of aquarium salt with the new water ( I never used salt before I discovered it and it saved my dempsey :fish: :fish: ). I have also noticed a few chewed up pelletes left over today from me feeding them last night (maybe too fed too much so excited dempsey is getting on okay) and it had furry/fuzzy white algae growing on it and their was a giant feces looked like from the oscar it was a normal log attached too 3 round poops pea sized and it had fuzzy white **** on it :-?

Photo Time 
This is the Cave I built the dempsey while he was in a bucket.























The Patient.























Happy Family??


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## SavemeDempsey (Apr 30, 2013)

^^^ That was a double fail ^^^
Photo Time 
This is the Cave I built the dempsey while he was in a bucket.























The Patient.























Happy Family??


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## NZSIC'S (Apr 30, 2013)

Nice pics.. thanks for sharing.


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