# jack dempsey



## babyalbino (Oct 13, 2006)

i have a 4-5 " dempsey and i recently had to move him to another tank because i had to move in with my boyfriend. he has a large oscar in the tank. ever since i moved "jack" he has been very pale and is only black/dark whenever he is in his hiding place. when he was in my tank he was black all the time.. do you think it is because he is stressed or i read somewhere that if you have light gravel your fish will be pale and if its darker, it will be darker. my tank had black gravel in it and my bfs tank has slate along the bottom and no gravel because it was really dirty and harder to clean with the gravel so we took it out. do u think i should put some gravel in to make him darken up? i like it alot better when hes dark because his blue stands out alot more.


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

Glad to see you back, Babyalbino. I am glad the death of your oscars didnt discourage you. This time you know what youre doing and can do it right.

When he is dark it means he is stressed out. I also have a 5" Jack dempsey, and the only time she is black is when she is fighting or during water changes. Dont try to make her black.


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## Ringo (Apr 10, 2006)

Alright I know this is way way way off-topic, but is the Jack Dempsey chichlid named after Jack Dempsey the boxer? Sorry I just have to know


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

Yes it is. I guess because they are good fighters


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## MikeRTooley (Jan 13, 2007)

yea, previously i had a demspey with an oscar...the demspey was quite abit smaller but when the two faught the demspey owned the oscar...besides that the demspsey was really chilled out...they only fought once but that was a while ago


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## babyalbino (Oct 13, 2006)

The only thing that came from the oscars dieing is me learning not to buy fish from walmart, it wouldnt make me give up, i wont give up on them i love them too much  i spend most of my day either thinking about them or watching them.. are you sure they arent suppose to be dark? any pictures i see of them on the internet, they look dark and not light.. thats weirdd.. oh well i believee you  ur the expertt  ... i put the dark stones in anyways tho cuz i thought they look better than havin none and they help break down the poop dont they? well now that i know that i wont be so worried about him.. ive been thinking that the oscar is stressing him too much but the oscar hardly ever chases him- only when hes being a bee with an itch; most of the time they swim beside eachother .. its adorablee  Anyone have any ideas on what i can do to treat the diseases in the tank? i think there's ich but i think i got rid of it/ am in the process of it still.. the oscar has HITH disease and the result of that is a huge hole under his eye- it looks like his eye is about to pop out of the socket. he had one close to his dorsal fin and then he scratched himself on some fake coral and ripped a big hole on top of that hole and i started treating him with melafix and doing salt baths and the one cleared up fast but the one under the eye is still there and seemed to be getting better for a while and then it stopped.. he also has a perfect hole in one of his pelvic fins and the fin rot is eating at his pectoral fin. Also the other day i looked at him really closely and you know how every fish has that lateral line well it looks like there are little yellow spots all around it.. i thnk that might be part of the HITH disease but i dont know.. There is also pleco in there with fin rot and it looks like ich as welll.. but my jack dempsey looks to be fine. he doesnt have any fin rot or any symptoms like the other fish but it does look like he got scratched in one place. Ill try to take some pictures tonight but i only have a camera phone thats working and it isnt great quality. Any help would be appreciated thanks alot


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## babyalbino (Oct 13, 2006)

The only thing that came from the oscars dieing is me learning not to buy fish from walmart, it wouldnt make me give up, i wont give up on them i love them too much  i spend most of my day either thinking about them or watching them.. are you sure they arent suppose to be dark? any pictures i see of them on the internet, they look dark and not light.. thats weirdd.. oh well i believee you  ur the expertt  ... i put the dark stones in anyways tho cuz i thought they look better than havin none and they help break down the poop dont they? well now that i know that i wont be so worried about him.. ive been thinking that the oscar is stressing him too much but the oscar hardly ever chases him- only when hes being a bee with an itch; most of the time they swim beside eachother .. its adorablee  Anyone have any ideas on what i can do to treat the diseases in the tank? i think there's ich but i think i got rid of it/ am in the process of it still.. the oscar has HITH disease and the result of that is a huge hole under his eye- it looks like his eye is about to pop out of the socket. he had one close to his dorsal fin and then he scratched himself on some fake coral and ripped a big hole on top of that hole and i started treating him with melafix and doing salt baths and the one cleared up fast but the one under the eye is still there and seemed to be getting better for a while and then it stopped.. he also has a perfect hole in one of his pelvic fins and the fin rot is eating at his pectoral fin. Also the other day i looked at him really closely and you know how every fish has that lateral line well it looks like there are little yellow spots all around it.. i thnk that might be part of the HITH disease but i dont know.. There is also pleco in there with fin rot and it looks like ich as welll.. but my jack dempsey looks to be fine. he doesnt have any fin rot or any symptoms like the other fish but it does look like he got scratched in one place. Ill try to take some pictures tonight but i only have a camera phone thats working and it isnt great quality. Any help would be appreciated thanks alot


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

HITH is curable... By impeccable water conditions. And I mean _clean[/I water. WC's twice a week would be good. It will go away, but he could be permanantly scarred if its very deep. My 8.5" tiger oscar has a deep HITH scar on his cheek too. There is also HUTH medicine gut clean water and a good diet are the best medicine. As for ich, put the temperature up a few degrees and add some salt._


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

Hey, I;m going to take back what I said. Its not a bad thing that they turn black, Ive just noticed that mine was only black when excited. They change color often, and sometimes right when they come out of cover their colrs will change. I think you'll see him/her black again, but once they get 6-7", they dont turn black as much


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## Jgray152 (Jan 16, 2007)

> Hey, I;m going to take back what I said. Its not a bad thing that they turn black, Ive just noticed that mine was only black when excited.


Glad you changed your statement 

They are supposed to be darker in color. If they are pale or lighter, as in loosing their color, then they are stressed. 

I would highly reccomend putting your JD in a different tank while all the other fish get treated. You don't want your JD to get the same thing as the rest of them. Plus, treating the tank with the other fish may only stress out your JD while he is not affected with anything. This could be the reason why he is stressed. Compair hidding spots from your tank to your bfs tank, does his tank have less hidding spots? Even though JDs don't often hide, they still like that comfert.

I to have a JD, he is only about 3.5" right now mixed with a bunch of Mbunas.
He is always dark with a bunch of spots with blue/red/gree/orange


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## babyalbino (Oct 13, 2006)

i would put himin a bigger tank but i dont have anywhere for another tank right now.. im staying at my bfs house and were getting a place sooner then later and thats when we plan ongrabin a big tank so qwe dont set it up and then move it right afterwards.. ill make more hiding places even tho he already has a few .. thanks everyone


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

While I take back my statement that they are onlydark when stressed, i wouldnt say that when they are light they are stressed... in fact quite the opposite. They are not supposed to be that dark all the time. I have read about yourtank, and to me the JD probly IS stressed.

And Baby, all I'll say is that it'd better really be sooner. Oscars grow quite fast, and a 45 wont be big enough for more than a few months.


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## Eraserhead (Feb 1, 2007)

I've got a young Jack Dempsey, and he seems to darken up quite a bit when he's mad at other cichlids in the tank. My roommate has a 4 year old Dempsey, and he stays pretty much the same coloration no matter what is going on around him.


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## Jgray152 (Jan 16, 2007)

> JD probly IS stressed


Every JD I see is always a darker color. Not saying BLACK but a darker color.

Im sure there is times where he is stressed but when ever I watch my tank, everyone is as calm as can be. Maybe I will have to take a video of it show everyone that may not believe me


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## babyalbino (Oct 13, 2006)

thanks everyone for your advice.. i made more hiding spots and he seems alot happier.. were gona get a tank within the next month or sooner if we can.. the only time he turns a light color is when the oscar is in apissy mood and tries to chase him and thats not often .. usually they are 3 inches apart swimming around together its weird to see.. hes gotten so big in the little time hes been in there.. only about a month and hes grown an inch.. i measured him the ohter day and hes 5" and he was only 4-4.5 when he got in there.  the diseases are slowly going away


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