The Jack Dempsey Cichlid Fish
Name: Jack Dempsey (Archocentrus Octofasciatus)
The Jack Dempsey is a Central American Cichlid. It is an energetic and beautiful fish that has several colorful speckles across its body and a stained-glass effect on its dorsal fin that is especially displayed in certain lighting.
The Jack Dempsey gets its name after former heavyweight boxing champ, Jack Dempsey.
As aquarium fish, they are fairly easy to care for, but cannot share a tank with just any fish because of their aggressive nature. Their tank mates need to be of the same size or larger and need to be able to fend against the Jack Dempsey, such as firemouths, convicts, terrors, select Oscars etc.
Jack Dempsey’s can live for 15+ years. The males can grow from 9-10 inches and the female from 6-8 inches.
Aquarium: Since wild Jack Dempsey Cichlids live in waters that are muddy and sandy it is good to use these substrates in the aquarium.
They require a good deal of space so they need to be in a 55 gallon or larger tank.
They usually eat and/or destroy live plants, so it is not recommended to have live plants in the tank.
Rocks, wood and pottery are good to use with these cichlids because they use them for territory boundaries and if there are mates to breed they use the flat rocks or hard flat surfaces to lay eggs on.
Water temperature for Jack Dempseys should be between 72-80 degrees [22-30 degrees C]
pH range is 7.0-8.0 and the dGH should be between 9-20.
Breeding
Aquarium bred Jack Dempsey Cichlids are common.
They will clean off a piece of slate or flat rock for the female to lay her eggs on, then the male quickly fertilizes them. As the mother fans the eggs the male stands watch over them.
Because of their ultra protection of their young, there should not be any other fish in the tank while they are breeding.
The parents will actually chew food and spit it out for their fry to eat.
After their young reach about ½ inch they should be removed from the tank.
Feeding
Jack Dempsey’s can be trained to eat most fish foods, but need to be fed a variety such as: crayfish, shrimp, grasshoppers, earthworms, Hikari pellets and spriulina flakes. Also, some vegetation such as lettuce and plankton.
When they are fed a variety of nutritional foods their color is at its most beautiful…
Photo credit: shaletann
