# Jack Dempsey Breeding



## gj310700

I have a 5 inch male and 4 inch female jack dempsey. I was wondering how i could breed them?


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## Mr.Dempsey

How to Breed Jack Dempsey Fish - Use only healthy fish with the color and traits you wish to have in the fry.

Prior to attempting to breed condition your fish with good quality food, live if possible and keep the water at its highest quality. Have ready a supply of food for the fry usually Brine Shrimp nauplii.

Make sure your water is soft to very soft and slightly acid. Use deionized water like that made from the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap water conditioner or if your tap water is good use Tetras Black Water Extract.

Have your breeding tank up and running and ready to go.

Move your breeding pair to the breeding tank. If all is well your pair may spawn as early as the next morning, but usually a few days will pass. Spawning sometimes can be triggered by a partial water change. A successful mating will be confirmed by the arrival of eggs, usually tiny transparent spheres.

As most fish cannot pass up a free meal it is now time to remove the parents. The tank should also be darkened if possible. It is very important to remove any nonviable eggs as mold could destroy the entire clutch. Viable eggs remain transparent throughout their development. Incubation is usually very short between twenty and thirty hours.

Newly hatched fry will still have a yolk-sac and once that is absorbed feeding should start with newly hatched brine shrimp. Feed in small amounts and often. Dead food should not be allowed to remain on the bottom. When you see nice full bellies you know your OK.

Once the fry have grown and are easily in the free swimming stage it's time to move them to a bigger tank. Keep up the water quality and good food and growth will be very rapid. You now have a bunch of new fish that you don't know what to do with! Congratulations.


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## bernie comeau

Mr.Dempsey said:


> Make sure your water is soft to very soft and slightly acid. Use deionized water like that made from the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap water conditioner or if your tap water is good use Tetras Black Water Extract.


I 100% disagree with this. That they would actually breed in such water, sure, as a JD is not too particular about water parameters. The fish is very aquarium strain and has been in captivity for many, many generations and is thus quite far removed from the wild. Usually local water conditions are more then adaquate, as long as water is kept clean by large and frequent water changes.

But really your statement makes no sense. JD originate from southern Mexico, Belize, Guatamala and Honduras----generally very hard, alkaline waters. So if your really trying to replicate their natural water conditions (quite unnessessary for tank raised aquarium strain IMO), soft and acidic water are exactly opposite of what you should be trying to replicate.

As a young kid, I had no problems breeding JD in our local water conditions (pH 8.0-8.4, moderately hard)---as does anyone else around this area. It's far, far closer to 'ideal' conditions for JD, then what you suggest!


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## Mr.Dempsey

when did he say they were tank raised?


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## bernie comeau

Mr.Dempsey said:


> when did he say they were tank raised?


As if they not. If they are purchased at an LFS, they are tank raised for many generations.

From what importer would anyone currently get a wild caught JD (???), as Jeff Rapps has not offered any wild caught JD in a number of years!

Moot point anyways since they originate from hard alkaline water!


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## Mr.Dempsey

if you want to argue the info then complain to the guy who wrote them, i had gotten this off www.aquaticcommunity.com, so sorry for trying to help. BTY my JDs wild cought and i had gotten it from my LFS so.......


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## bernie comeau

Mr.Dempsey said:


> if you want to argue the info then complain to the guy who wrote them, i had gotten this off www.aquaticcommunity.com, so sorry for trying to help. BTY my JDs wild cought and i had gotten it from my LFS so.......


IMO you shouldn't reiterate what someone else wrote on breeding a fish(all kinds of things are written on the internet :roll: ). If your going to give advice on breeding a cichlid, then it really should come from your own personal experience breeding the fish. Nothing difficult or complicated breeding JD.

I know this is quite off topic from the point of this thread, but i very much doubt your JD is wild caught, depsite what your LFS may have told you. In the very least they should have provided you with a collection point/location. Curious to know who their importer would be (?) as there is not a big market nor demand for wild caught JD. The price you paid for the fish would be some indication, as wild caught fish are not cheap at all.


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## Mr.Dempsey

What ever dude calm down your getting all bent out of shape for no reason.


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## bernie comeau

Mr.Dempsey said:


> What ever


Yeah, what ever :lol:

my point being don't screw around trying to alter pH or water hardness! STABILITY is most important. What comes out of your tap ( once declorinated) is more then fine to breed JD. Do regular, large water changes weekly in order to keep nitrate to a minimum.

Live food is not nessessary. A quality pellet is suffecient.

Generally it is advisable to get a group of young fish and let them pair off (then remove the extras). But since you already have a male and female it is a 'forced' pairing since they are not choosing mates from with in a larger group. Still IMO, I think your odds for success in breeding JD are very good....generally they are easy to breed.

Tank size: the larger the better. Preferably a 75 gallon or larger, though in all likelyhood, at the size your fish are, a 29 gallon would probably suffice for quite some time.

Tankmates: you should probably consider 'dithers' in order that your JD are not scared, as well as to provide 'target' fish to divert some of the male's attention/aggression towards the female. Some possible suggestions: blue gourami, paradise fish, giant danios, tiger barbs. the former 2 more my choices; the latter 2, choices that others on this fourum might recommend. It is possible that at some point in time, the other tankmates might have to be removed due to excessive aggression from the pair. As well it might become nessessary to seperate the male and female with a devider (such as eggcrate) temporarily, due to aggression with the pair ----so keep an eye on your fish and it is wise to keep a devider just in case.

Raising temp. breifly to 82* F or 84* F breifly can sometimes trigger cichlids to spawn. I did so many years ago, and it triggered JD to spawn.

If after many attempts to spawn have proved unsuccessfull, then maybe consider doing the eggs artificially. Sometimes the first attempt is successfull but often it takes the parents a few tries to get it 'right'.


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## Mr.Dempsey

Someone's a little full of himself :lol: . Your acting like a kid, all i tried to do is help this guys and all you want to do is hate on somone trying to help. How about insted of b%@#$ing at me you help this guy out hmmm..... kids these days...........


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## hauntingurcoma

ime just put a male and female jd together and it will happen.I've had them breed in community tanks,pair only tanks and in a 50 gal corner tank on my back porch outside.They are not paticular in water conditions ime.They will get aggressive with tankmates but as long as the tank is big enough it should be fine.I have found that they have a pretty large mouth so choose tankmates carefully.


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## gj310700

How do i get them interested in each other or rear them into breeding?


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## jason_nj

gj310700 said:


> How do i get them interested in each other or rear them into breeding?


Setup a breeding spot for them, either a clay flowerpot or a flat piece of slate in the corner of the tank. Make sure it secluded so lots of decor or plants around it so they feel it is a secure spot. Then just feed high quality food and lots of water changes and if they pair up properly it is just a matter of time before they spawn.

I've had my male JDs kill off their spawning partners after so adding some dithers to the tank will give the pair something to defend their fry against and help them bond and usually keeps them from killing each other.


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## MarieColby

Wow, this place is crazy!!! Anyway......I have a 90 gal tank with a Wild Oscar, Dempsey pair, 2 female Convicts, a Red Striped Earth Eater and 2 pleco's. It has lots of hiding spots and live plants, which keep getting torn up...... Upon checking on my tank about an hour ago, I found that my Dempsey's have been very busy. There are hundreds of little babies, and I wasn't even trying to breed them. I don't do anything special to the water, my test strip come up perfect for cichlids, I haven't even been doing water changes regularly and I feed them often. So, it would make me think that the most important thing for them to breed is that they like where they are. Good luck, the babies are so cute!!!


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## Iggy Newcastle

MarieColby said:


> Wow, this place is crazy!!! Anyway......I have a 90 gal tank with a Wild Oscar, Dempsey pair, 2 female Convicts, a Red Striped Earth Eater and 2 pleco's. It has lots of hiding spots and live plants, which keep getting torn up...... Upon checking on my tank about an hour ago, I found that my Dempsey's have been very busy. There are hundreds of little babies, and I wasn't even trying to breed them. I don't do anything special to the water, my test strip come up perfect for cichlids, I haven't even been doing water changes regularly and I feed them often. So, it would make me think that the most important thing for them to breed is that they like where they are. Good luck, the babies are so cute!!!


Although your JDs spawned, avoiding regular water changes is a bad idea. What is your nitrate reading? I'm guessing very high. Your tank is extremely stocked to the max.


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## MarieColby

Actually my nitrates are just a little high right now, and it's only because we stirred up the water a little by adding some. I test my water regularly and all my readings are pretty spot on, granted the water evaporates from the tank rather quickly, and we have to add 5-8 gallons every few weeks. None of my fish are full grown yet, but I think 6 fish and 2 plecos for 90 gallons is just fine and they get along wonderfully. My JD's aren't being aggressive at all, even with the babies in the tank and everyone else is respectful of each others space. It's a rather happy tank, actually.


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## Iggy Newcastle

Keep in ind that the Oscar would need a 90 gallon by itself; even then it would be cramped.

If you're adding water to make up for some that evaporated, then you're never removing any nitrate. Also, nitrate will not rise because substrate gets stirred up. What type of test kit are you using? What is your nitrate reading?


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