# JD tank how am I doing?



## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

I have 6 JD's (3 are 3.5-4 inches and 3 are 2.5-3 inches) in a 55 gal tank with two 60 gal rated filters running. I feed them a small amount of omega one cichlid pellets three to four times a week and frozen brine with spirulina once a week and I have live java moss if they want to nibble on that. The only reason I have so many JD's in one tank is Im waiting for them to pair up. Once I get a pair Ill remove the others as they begin to get aggressive.

My large Male "Jack"









My large female "Jill"









The Tank


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## AmishDude (Apr 5, 2011)

Don't quote me, I'm by no means any expert but I think you might have a bit too much gravel in that there tank.
Jack and Jill both look great though!


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## MonteSS (Dec 8, 2008)

Everythink looks good to me.

...Bill


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## Elijah (Mar 30, 2011)

I really, really like Jill. Nice coloring. It does seem like you have alot of gravel, but to each his own; different strokes for different folks. :thumb:


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## jason_nj (Feb 24, 2010)

Tank looks great. They'll start to pair up soon.


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## Flippercon (Mar 5, 2011)

Yeah the gravel is a bit high. You lose water when there is more inside the tank. So you Polly have a 45 . Any way o recommend switching to pool filter sand. One bag will be plenty for a 55,and should cost less then 
$10. Better for fish when they get spawning.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

Flippercon said:


> Yeah the gravel is a bit high. You lose water when there is more inside the tank. So you Polly have a 45 . Any way o recommend switching to pool filter sand. One bag will be plenty for a 55,and should cost less then
> $10. Better for fish when they get spawning.


I've been considering outing a dark maybe even black sand or substrate, I heard it keeps their colors darker. My current substrate is already established with lots of beneficial bacterial. I have several live plants an amazon sword and several clumps of mondo grass wont sand kill seeded vascular (rooted plants)? So should I leave some of the substrate and put the sand on top. whats the best way to go about removing substrate and adding sand without traumatizing the fish or scratching glass?


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## Flippercon (Mar 5, 2011)

Not to sure on the plants. You can always pot the plants. If you have bb in your substrate it isn't much. Best way to remove is a dustpan or shop vac. Rinse sand with pillow case and can easily be put in with the pillow case. You are right about the darker substrate. Colored sand is a little more pricey then pfs.


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## xxbenjamminxx (Jan 22, 2011)

I have PFS in my tank and growing Jungle Val in there and it is doing good.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

If I was to take out alot of the gravel and then put the sand on top (because I'm cheap and lazy) would that work? Or is it all or nothing?


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## Flippercon (Mar 5, 2011)

You might regret not taking it all out. It's your option. I perfer sand over gravel, but that's me.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

Ok honestly how hard is it to maintain. Gravel is really simple to clean. I mean I do water changes once every week... I read u have to vacuum one a week?


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## Flippercon (Mar 5, 2011)

I do 50% wc and vacuums a week. The only tank I have gravel in is my ghost shrimp tank. The other 12 have sane. The difference in maintenance is stirring the sand before vacuum, and be careful when you vacuum not to such the sand up and Syphon out. Other then that its the same.


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## sjwrx (Apr 15, 2009)

i find sand is a lot easier to keep clean. 
All the gunk just stays on top and doesnt slip inbetween the gravel.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

Ok so my friend is moving and going to GIVE ME a 75 gal tank and all the equipment. So Im thinking Im just gunna fill the 75 with the black sand I was gunna switch over to, and them switch them all over. So, how do i get the sand tank cycled? I had an idea to just do a 50% water change and pour the water I take out into the 75. Any advice on what I should do to switch them over? Also any advice on getting a pair?

I know for a fact I have two 3.5-4in males a 3-3.5in female and a 3in female. Then I have two smaller 2-2.5in males. Should I move them all over or just the larger males and females? and if I eventually get a pair. What can I keep with them?


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## Flippercon (Mar 5, 2011)

All you have to do is put the existing filters,fish,decorations, and a little bit of the existing substrate. You can put the substrate in a bowl so water can flow over it. It is not necessary to move substrate. That's all you have to do. It is called an instant cycle. Your filters now are supporting the bioload so all you have is more water. I would recommend another filter for the extra 25 gallons being added. I have done this from a 29 to a 125 with no problem. Congrats on the free upgrade. Those are always the best.


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## Flippercon (Mar 5, 2011)

Sorry I missed something. You can set up the new tank with the new filter, and the old ones. It will pick up the bb and be cycled in a few weeks. The instant cycle is so sweet.


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## Shellbella35 (Jul 24, 2009)

Used quick cycle when we switched our JD tank from gravel to pool filter sand, worked great! And I absolutely LOVED the sand, until my leopard sailfin pleco got too big and started wreaking havoc with the tank. He would flip the sand everywhere and it killed both my filters. Cleaning up after him became an almost daily project and too much of a hassle for me to keep up with so we had to switch back to gravel along with a new Marineland C-530 canister filter. Probably would have been easier to keep the sand and get rid of my pleco, but couldn't bear to do it. Good luck with the sand and post a pic, I love to check out other tank setups.


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

My preference is fine gravel/large sand. I have large black gravel in my JD tank. 

















I would just use the old filters and half the old water in the new tank and not bother with old substrate. Just make sure the new sub is clean. It would be just like switching substrate and a WC in an existing tank. I've done that a few times.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

Problem with the free tank I received #1 it was a 55gal. #2 it was saltwater with a badass black clown and a purple tang and lots of live coral. So needless to say I'm keeping the well established sw tank. Anyways to change from gravel substrate to the black sand what do I need to do? Do the JDs need to be removed while removing the gravel. I know they get pissed/scared when I move decorations. Also surprise I have a 4in. MS crawdad living successfully in the tank for three months now any advice on moving and keeping him with my JDs?


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

O and lovely males rice burner how old are they?


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## Supragsx (Jun 12, 2011)

For ur plants
The plants dont need gravel because the have roots they will root in the sand just fine. The gravel will let more waste through which the plants will use as food. If ur looking to do sand you can buy a plant fertilizer for fish aquariums so our ant will still get the food it needs. I can't remember the name of but it looks like little red and black stones u could use just this as ur bottom cover or u can cover with sand. The problem I had (I hate) the cichlids JD will move the sand and uncover the fertilizer so if u use white sand (I did in my first set up) you will get red and black spots in the tank from the fertilizer getting moved to the top. You could do a 1" fertilizer on the bottom and cover it with 5-6" of sand and hope they don't dig that deep. You don't have to put the fertilizer in the tank but it will help the plants.

You can do it just sand I would do it about 1" above the trim on the bottom of the tank this gives them a good base to dig there nest. The sand will still aloe for the plants to get the fish wast to fertilize it just not ad much as the gravel will.

Cleaning the sand or gravel
IMO the sand is alot easier because it doesn't allow for a lot of wast to go past the top layer your filter will pick up most of the waste in the tank. I do a stir and clean the sand everyother month.

Gravel being larger let's a lot more to sink to the bottom of the tank therefor u have to clean the gravel every time u do a tank clean or it gets so bad it will take you a hour plus just to clean the 
gravel.

Color
Your JD's will use the colors in the tank to display their colors light colors (blue white pink pure yellow light green) and you will see more yellows blue and green in your JD.
Dark colors (black brown red dark green) your jack will display a black body with brown stripes and the spots will be dark yellow blue and green.

Pairing

With the way you are trying to get a pair you will have a lot of dead fish. When a male and female pair the male will kill the others. Not every time but 90% of the time. You best bet is to put a male and female together and wait to see if they pair. There is a fast way to pair them but it cost money. You put 1 female with 5 males in a coue of days you will have a pair and 4 dead males. So pairing JD's are not like other fish where you can put them all together and they will pair up. They will be a pair for life so they don't play around when it comes time to do so.

I would remove all males and leave one in with all the females when u see the liplocking u have a pair. The do the same with the next male and other females in a different tank. You won't get 2 breeding pairs in a 55gal only one. There's not enough room for the 4 to live happy and you will have dead fish. There is about a 20% chance of getting a breeding pair with 1 female and 5 males so the chance of u getting all to pair up is very low.

I hope this helps and good luck.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

Just to clarify with the pairing. I've had the 6 JDs(two 3inch M. Two 2.5inch F. And two 2inch Too small to tells) in the same tank for about 3-4 months and no pairing. The only liplocking was between the two large Ms after this one time they've never done it again one of them is the dominant. Now were u saying to take some out and put them in a foreign tank? Or just remove the other female?


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## Supragsx (Jun 12, 2011)

You will need more tanks you can move all ur males to it but one the one will pair with one of the females then u have a pair. You can move that pair to a tank and add another male to the females that are left and do the same till you have all ur pairs. If you first male doesn't pair in 2 weeks you can remove him and add a different male best to wait a month. JD'S are a long process to get pairs without killing your fish. Some times you will get lucky and get a pair with just 1 male and 1 female, but the odds are like 1-100 to do so. So you will have to be patent and do it in steps or you can have 2 fish and the rest dead.

The easiest way would be put 1 male and all female in the tank u have the others in a different tank this will alow for you to keep them all alive as long as you move the females out or the pair as soon as u know they are a pair. They are aggressive fish and when they pair up they are more aggressive.

Hope this helps

Good luck


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## sjwrx (Apr 15, 2009)

Best way is to just get 6 or so Juvi's and let them do their thing. Sometimes they take long to pair up sometimes they dont.

I've been trying to pair up one of my Male JD's for a while and he doesnt seem to find a liking to any of the females, so i've just given up on pairing him up and gave him his own tank.

My EBJD male on the other hand was very quick. I had him ( 2 1/2") and 2 females (1.5+")
and he paired up with one of the females in a few days. and have spawned 3 times since then.

I've also never had my Dominant males kill every other male that was in the tank, Sure aggression peaked at times and there were nips but no deaths. Just know when to separate when aggression becomes and issue. I had 6 juvi's which i started out with, turned out 3 males 2 females(before i found out how to sex them) they grew to about 5" or so without deaths, but they were starting to nip and tear at each others fins( hate ripped fins) so i removed the ones that were getting picked on to different tanks.


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

jegrego1 said:


> O and lovely males rice burner how old are they?


Thanks. I've had them for about 3 years and they were probably about a year old then.

One of my fave pics...









Their tank back then...









had 13 of them and after 2 pairs mated, I sold off the rest.


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## jegrego1 (Jan 24, 2011)

Before








Close up of the sand.








Love is in the air or water.


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