tips for keeping ebjd

hi i just got 10 ebjd and im wondering has any1 got any tips for food ect...

Hi there, hows the ebjd's going for ya?

I'm also the proud owner of one of these gems! have him the past 5 months, he was a mere 2 or 3 cm when igot him, actually i got two. unfortunatly one killed the other.
the remaining one is doing great, 4 inches now and stunning colours. He lives with a small bircher in a 2 foot tank with lots of java fern and bogwood. I feed him a mixture of kens fishfood growth pellets, bloodworm, shrimp and spirulina, hes thrivin on this diet.
now the things you need to be aware of regarding new world cichlids such as these,

Hole in the head disease or lateral line disease. Very common, esp with our mineral rich water. I operate under the assumption that every american cichlid I buy has it or will get it soon. the reason? It is far more likely for an american cichlid to develop it in Irish water then it is not to. Unfortunatly the cure or prevention is only available via prescription from a vet or a helpful GP. Metronodazol aka Flagyll 100 mg per 10g (imperial) of water every other day for 3 treatments.

If your jacks dont have it yet they have an 80% chance they will develope it in the future, (imo) always treating new water for metals and chlorine etc will greatly reduce this chance as will having some form of salt ionizing material present such as bogwood or a regular dose of blackwater extract . I highly recommend Azoo's Cichlasoma live water which you can get from thepetshoponline.ie. It is the biggest killer (next to stupidity, and other fish !) of SA/CA cichlids that i know of and is often brought on by stress, and is more often seen in fish from a delicate and thin gene pool such as the ebjd which brings me to my next next issue; Jack dempseys will fight!

There is a general rule in the hobby of monster fish keeping. If your gonna keep more then 1 male conspecifc (same species) of any large aggressive SA/CA cichlid then the only way to do it is to pack them in so they haven't got the room to set individual territories. so if you have your Jack's in a big tank together they will start killing each other within a month. keep em packed as they were in the petshop, seperate them or choose 1 and sell the rest when the aggression rears it's ugly head. Trust me made that mistake before hoping that I would get away with it, disaster !)

Other then that the usual tips apply, keep the tank in a quite place and regular partial water changes etc. Oh and I recommend trying to get to know you JD and try train to hand feed, they're clever fish and will become a very responsive pet if given plenty of attention, Also don't neglect to include regular veg like spirulina in the diet, try feed small high protien pellets avoid flake as it's useless to this fish from about 4 inches. It's a bottom feeder so sinking pellets are best.

Hope this helps , as you can tell from the lengthy reply SA/CA cichlids are a passion of mine so any questions i'll be happy to answer if I can.

Best of luk with your new JD's, and most importantly enjoy !)

Regards
Jim

thanks alot,ive heard off these things,but luckly havent experenced any yet,i had a scare of white spot but i cleared that up quickly,what water treatment do u use on tap water,thanks again

Hi , I use and recommend Azoo's cichlasoma live water from petshoponline.ie. Altough any good tap water conditioner will do , like aquasafe, tapsafe etc. I like the Azoo product because it also alters the chemistry to suit the JD better.