# giant dianos with JD's?



## jack lover (Aug 12, 2008)

Well i have a 75g with 2 JD's 4-5" and a firemouth 3".I was thinking of adding a school of 6 giant dianos will it work out?


----------



## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

I've had them together no problem. Of course if the danios are young and small you might have a problem putting them in with 5" JD's, but I've had adults together before.

Giant danios are almost impossible to catch in a large tank. My wife kept laughing at me attempting to move some a few weeks ago. They jump right over the top of the net out of the water and keep going.


----------



## Nathan43 (Jul 9, 2007)

This is true, it took me 20 minutes to catch 5 of them in a 55 gallon. Brutal


----------



## maddyfish (Jul 23, 2004)

My JD ate his Giant Danio tankmates. I never saw him get one, they just disappeared overnight. Caught them while sleeping maybe?


----------



## clgkag (Mar 22, 2008)

I had them in a tank with jd, gt, fh, midas, cubans and fronts. I would lose about 1 a week but never knew who the culprit was.


----------



## Notrevo (May 2, 2005)

I tried that a couple of times myself...but as most others on the thread have noted, all I did was provide an expensive snack for the cichlids...and 1 or two committed suicide. I suspected that my Kraussi (now since passed) and Umbee were the main ones. They always had rather fat stomachs the morning after.


----------



## jack lover (Aug 12, 2008)

ok so what should i have?


----------



## jack lover (Aug 12, 2008)

like SD's or convicts


----------



## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I got a bunch of Giant Danios to keep with young breeding pairs of (Blue Gene) Dempseys... but the fast action of the Dempseys seemed to make the young parents (with fry) nervious.

So I pulled the G Danios out of all 4 tanks (not fun) and put them in a 75 gal with a large Oscar, Convict and Firemouth. They did fine in there for a few weeks, I didn't notice any missing (although I wouldn't have noticed one or two gone).

Then I put a fat male Dempsey in the tank and the herd of G Danios thinned at a rate of about 3 per day until there were only a small handful left. I've sinced moved the Dempsey and the few remaining are avoiding the Oscar with no problem.

I gave up on non-Cichlid dithers quite some time ago, and then decided to try them again... this experienced has again made me give up on Non Cichlid dithers... But I find Convicts & W African Jewels to make great "dithers" for adult Dempseys.


----------



## Bignick (Dec 20, 2008)

I like an O with Jacks. Then you can get something like a Salvini and be done with a 75.


----------



## jack lover (Aug 12, 2008)

so 2 JD's 1 oscar 1 firemouth???


----------



## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

As adults... a breeding pair of Dempseys, an Oscar and a Firemouth is a lot for a 75 gal... it's possible, but unlikely to work out long term...

But then again... if your 2 Dempseys prove to be a spawning pair, the lonely FM will either live a life in hiding or in abuse... pairs just don't like company...

I have kept an adult breeding pair of Dempseys and an adult breeding pair of Convicts in a 75 gal fairly successfully. There was always a lot of flaring, but the pairs battled amongst themselves more than they did with each other... but a FM in the middle would be in big trouble... I've done the same thing with Dempseys and W African Jewels with the same results...


----------



## Stein Hart (Sep 1, 2008)

I have 7 GD's and they all are missing scales, but seem way to fast to catch. By me or the cichlids. I have a breeding pair of cons plus 1 female, JD, Jag, and a GT. They all are still juvies so that could be why my GD's are still alive.


----------



## MetalHead06351 (Oct 3, 2007)

Giant Danios are very fast fish that make great dithers for cichlids. The size they are at when you put them in makes all the difference in the world. I had a jd in a 55 take out 6 2 inch ones(when he was 4 inches) but couldn't mess with 3 inch gd's when he was 5inches all the way up to 6 inches when I got rid of him. As for catching them at night, I watched my freddy do it and i figured it out. Giant danios stay at the very top of the water in the night and kind of skim around aimlessly. My freddy would sit in one spot for however long it took for one to come close to his mouth and he would grab it. It was pretty smart on his part, to realize the patterns of the school and adapt a way to hunt them. Cool to watch but not fun to lose a dozen fish in a week.


----------



## twohuskies (Mar 1, 2008)

Toby_H said:


> I've done the same thing with Dempseys and W African Jewels with the same results...


Hi Toby,

This interests me, as I now have 6 Red Jewels. Since I'm building my "all girl" JD tank, could I put 2 of the Jewels in with 2 female gold JD's (3") and 1 standard JD (6")? All girl JD's. I can pick from the jewels, adding all girls or male/female combo.

What do you think?


----------



## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

In my experience...

A breeding pair of adult Dempseys will be dominant over an adult pair of W African Jewels...

W African Jewels will attempt to dominant Dempeys, but if/when large enough, Dempseys will take control of the tank...

Male W African Jewels bow down to a dominant Dempsey, female W African Jewels will be dominant over a very small territory in a tank that is controlled by Dempseys.

Although I have not tried it personally, I believe that a tank with female Dempseys will do well with female W African Jewels, providing the Dempseys are dominant. Although if the W African Jewel females are dominant they will be too aggressive for sub dominant female Dempseys.

In my experience, W African Jewels are very 'aggressive', but aren't necessarily all that 'tough'. They will dominant any fish they can, but once they cannot, they make good subdominant fish. With female W African Jewels making better subdominant fish than males.

As far as adding Giant Danios to this mix, if the Dempseys are big enough to eat the Danios, they will. The Danios will be hard to catch, but (especially at night) the Dempseys will be able to catch them, although not all at once...

I hope this helps, and feel free to ask more specific questions. Let's just make sure not to pull Jack Lover's thread too far off topic.


----------



## twohuskies (Mar 1, 2008)

Thanks for your reply, Toby. I've always felt that for *my* female standard JD, the Giant Danios would be too active and make her more nervous. I would not characterize her as a dominant female, but I really have no experience with tankmates other than dominant males. That absolutely did not work!

Sooooooo, I think I'll add tankmates slowly and see how it affects the tank, starting with the smaller gold female JDs. If that works well, then I may consider adding some Jewels.

Thanks again!


----------



## NY SURF RIDER (Dec 26, 2006)

I had 8, 3 inch danio's in w/ a red tiger mota, salvini, 5 star general, and JD, for almost a year without problems...

Then I went away for 2 weeks... my cichlids must have gotten hungry while I was gone... No danios were left when I got home


----------

