Pairing and breeding jack dempseys.

[bm5424]

I'm going to breed jack dempseys in my 55 gallon. I can only find them small or mid sized. For pairing would I be best buying the mid sized one and buy a group or try my best to sex or buy the smaller ones as a group and let them pair. Also should I get a divider invade of agression and do I need to do anything special for them to breed. Lastly, are they good parents? When should I remove fry.

 

[Candi1990]

I'm going to breed jack dempseys in my 55 gallon. I can only find them small or mid sized. For pairing would I be best buying the mid sized one and buy a group or try my best to sex or buy the smaller ones as a group and let them pair. Also should I get a divider invade of agression and do I need to do anything special for them to breed. Lastly, are they good parents? When should I remove fry.

I have unwillingly become an expert at this. Lol not really expert but I have had a Couple of groups of JD fry. I bought 4 JD fish. Not for breeding but I learned afterwards this is the best way to breed. I can't sex them. I can mine because i know them and i have watched them but it's hard to explain to you how to sex them. Again I know now that buying 3-4 about the same size is the best way to do it. I am guessing it's your best chance of getting a male and a female to pair up. All of mine were about 4-5 inches. I thought they were too small to breed, but they weren't.

They say give them a smooth rock or something to lay eggs on, I didn't. Mine laid eggs on some decor I had in the tank. I don't know the spawning process I didn't pay that much attention, but the female lays eggs, and the male comes and fertilizes them. A few days later they hatch.

They are GREAT PARENTS! For a while. It is amazing to watch them parent. Very protective and attentive, they chew their food for them and everything. Somewhere between 4 and 8 weeks, when the spawning process starts they will turn on them. They will view them as the enemy to protect the new babies to come. So you should remove them. Some people don't but my jacks aren't very friendly when they are spawning and I didn't want to risk it. I can't imagine fry surviving in a tank with the babies. My jacks eat feeders that are much bigger than my 2 month old fry.

Do yourself a favor. Find out what you are going to do with the fry! They have hundreds of them!!! No one in my area takes them. And they don't breed once and stop. Every two months you can expect new fry! I have 70 from my first batch, they are about 2 months old, some are an inch long. They are in a 40 gal tank so they are ok for a while, but I have to find somewhere for them to go and there is nowhere around here!!!! My second batch are a few weeks old I guess and it's about 300+ of them now. Some will die off they are tiny! Like little bugs. They are in a 20 gal but I have to find somewhere larger for them soon. The size difference is too big between them and my first set so they can't live together right now.

One more thing!!! I told you I started with 4. The two that pair up are REALLYmean to the other two when they are spawning. I mean nearly killing them, and they try to jump out of the tank to get away from them. They don't allow them to move from a corner protecting the eggs! So I had to take them out, while they parented so that was another tank! And all the tanks of course have to have heaters and pumps so it has gotten very expensive and out of hand!!!!

I know I have given too much info but I wanted to share my experience with you it may save you some trouble!

 

[Andy Sager]

Breeding Dempseys

I'm going to breed jack dempseys in my 55 gallon. I can only find them small or mid sized. For pairing would I be best buying the mid sized one and buy a group or try my best to sex or buy the smaller ones as a group and let them pair. Also should I get a divider invade of agression and do I need to do anything special for them to breed. Lastly, are they good parents? When should I remove fry.

As Candi said, if you are not sure how to sex them, get mediums and let them pair off naturally. (4 to 6 fish should do it.) You will need to remove the other fish once a pair has bonded as they are extremely territorial when it comes to spawning.
The spawning surface can be anything flat. I used larger flat rocks or pieces of shale with a larger flat surface. I made sure that the rock would fit in a 10 or 15 gal tank as I artificially hatched mine out. Be prepared for a lot of fish as they do have larger spawns as they get older. I used Kiddy pools and coffin liners to grow mine out and sold them as smalls to keep up with the space requirements. If you try to raise a lot of them to Medium or larger, make sure you have a lot of water space. (You will need it )

Hope this helps...

 

[Candi1990]

As Candi said, if you are not sure how to sex them, get mediums and let them pair off naturally. (4 to 6 fish should do it.) You will need to remove the other fish once a pair has bonded as they are extremely territorial when it comes to spawning.
The spawning surface can be anything flat. I used larger flat rocks or pieces of shale with a larger flat surface. I made sure that the rock would fit in a 10 or 15 gal tank as I artificially hatched mine out. Be prepared for a lot of fish as they do have larger spawns as they get older. I used Kiddy pools and coffin liners to grow mine out and sold them as smalls to keep up with the space requirements. If you try to raise a lot of them to Medium or larger, make sure you have a lot of water space. (You will need it )

Hope this helps...

How do you heat or filter the pool?

 

[Andy Sager]

How do you heat or filter the pool?

My pools were indoors so heating was as much an issue as cooling but the whole warehouse was air conditioned so it wasn't a problem. In larger sized pools, you use a small pool filter with cartridges. It truley wasn't a big deal

 

[Candi1990]

My pools were indoors so heating was as much an issue as cooling but the whole warehouse was air conditioned so it wasn't a problem. In larger sized pools, you use a small pool filter with cartridges. It truley wasn't a big deal

Ohhh ok. I am in a house.... So I can't put a pool indoors. I got excited thinking I found something to do with my fry. I have a pair that keep spawning. I love the process and watching them spawn. Its exciting waiting on the eggs... And watching the,m parent, and I love watching them grow. I just have nothing to do with all the fry! I have to get rid of the parents. I hate to but I have no choice.... Don't want to separate them here.

 

[Andy Sager]

Ohhh ok. I am in a house.... So I can't put a pool indoors. I got excited thinking I found something to do with my fry. I have a pair that keep spawning. I love the process and watching them spawn. Its exciting waiting on the eggs... And watching the,m parent, and I love watching them grow. I just have nothing to do with all the fry! I have to get rid of the parents. I hate to but I have no choice.... Don't want to separate them here.

Yeah, that's the problem with some fish, they breed too much LOL. I had that with Oscars. I was doing 13 pairs and supplying all the wholesalers in NY, NJ, and PA with fish and I still had to dispose of the leftovers.
What you can try is to look up "Tropical Fish Wholesalers" in your area or neighboring areas and see if they will take your fish. Your Local stores may not carry them but wholesalers deal with a larger clientel in a broader area. Just a thought

 

[Candi1990]

Yeah, that's the problem with some fish, they breed too much LOL. I had that with Oscars. I was doing 13 pairs and supplying all the wholesalers in NY, NJ, and PA with fish and I still had to dispose of the leftovers.
What you can try is to look up "Tropical Fish Wholesalers" in your area or neighboring areas and see if they will take your fish. Your Local stores may not carry them but wholesalers deal with a larger clientel in a broader area. Just a thought

I definitely will look into that I never thought about wholesalers!!!

 

[Candi1990]

My pair of JD who have spawned a couple of times are suddenly fighting. The male is being very mean to the female and they are definitely not playing! He may be hurting her but I have no way to separate them what can be going on any ideas?

 

[jetajockey]

Mine do that from time to time, I just leave them at it and give them hiding places, but if the female looks beaten they really need to be separated.