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| This is a record of the progress of Jack Dempsey fry born on Oct. 29, 2005 AND a new clutch of eggs on Jan 13, 2006. Read how the remaining juveniles from the Oct spawning have reacted to the NEW hatchlings and how the adult pair have acted with them as they began to spawn and lay eggs. Nothing that I've read about this scenario indicated the results that I've seen in my own "World of Jack Dempseys". |
| Thur, 2/23/06 It's been over a week since I last made note here of the activities of my world of Jack Dempsey�s. That�s because not a heck of a lot is going on in there. They are all eating like little pigs and getting along very well. The adults display the courting moves every day but I don�t think they�re ready to spawn yet. The juveniles are getting very large and enjoying a wide variety of food that I offer. These guys will eat just about anything I toss in the aquarium. The male has become very active these days and I enjoy watching him in the evening patrolling the entire space and watching all others scurry out of his way. He�s not been aggressive with the juveniles but on occasion he does chase the female for a minute or two. I�m feeding more food than ever before and water changes are more often. The water rooted plants are doing fantastic with roots filling the filter and some in the aquarium. There must be plenty of nitrogen for them to absorb although I have only a trace of Nitrate and 0 Nitrite and Amonia. Wednesday, 2/15/06 I find it difficult to understand why the adult male and female are so tolerant of their 7 juveniles still occupying the 20 gallon aquarium with them. They aren�t as large as they might be if I had put them in a large tank to grow out but they are still growing. I often find them resting right along side the large male out in the open. Ever since the last batch of fry have all gone, the adult male seems more at ease and tolerant with the �Lucky Seven� every day. The adult female spends a lot of time out of her cave and with the male. But he still doesn�t seem all that interested in spawning right now. I wonder if maybe he�s losing interest in his mate. She is so much smaller than he. She has grown some but much slower than her huge mate. He�s about 7 inches long while she�s only 4 inches at best. The juveniles are very active and do a great job keeping the gravel clean. The large Jacks are very messy eaters, as most Cichlids are, but the little guys forage for food all day and eat most of the little bits and pieces that the adults spit out. I�m once again considering removing these juveniles and let the male and female do their thing once more. In the future, I�ll probablyremove the eggs once they appear so that I don�t find myself with a tank full of baby fry again. Saturday, 2/11/06 Since my last entry on Tuesday, the female has become more flirtatious with the male. He still resists cooperating much but he is tolerating her more each day. Her colors are darkening and she�s almost at those very dark parenting colors once again. The juveniles are growing and growing and chasing each other all over the place. There are 2 very aggressive juveniles that bully the other 5 around all the time. In fact, they often will turn and dart at the mother when she�s approaching them from behind. I don�t see contact but it�s obvious that these little guys will soon dominate her. I suspect they�re both males. After 14 weeks I can see some differences in the 7 fry. I believe I have 3 males and 4 females. The adult male and female are almost a year old now. I believe they were both born sometime late February or early March of 2005 based on their size when I purchased them. They spawned in July of 2005 and I still have about 30 of those offspring in the basement aquariums. Several of them have spawned but the eggs were eaten almost immediately by the others. It�s only a 70 gallon system total and that not very much water to house 30 Jack Dempseys that are almost 7 months old. Some of them are almost as large as my adult male. It�s very interesting to watch how they all get along so well in the small confines of a 20 gallon and a 40 gallon aquarium. I will write more about those first born very soon now. Tuesday, 2/7/06 (I wrote this log entry last Tuesday, saved it but then I never posted it here. Better late then never.) The last few days the female has begun to come out of her cave more often and cruse around the aquarium. On occasion she�ll push the male around till he tires of her and chases her back into the cave. The juveniles are actually getting a bit aggressive with the female on occasion. If she crowds them too much, they�ll turn on her and chase her for a few seconds but then everything calms down quickly. She displays no aggression at all towards the �Lucky Seven�. As I type this entry, I see that the male and female are getting cozy with each other. It surprising that the female wants any part of the courting ritual so soon after her experiences with the last hatch. She was so drained after that I thought I wouldn�t see her out of her cave all that often for a few weeks. No longer is the male going after her but he�s not cooperating very much with her playfulness. The juveniles seem to want to hover around the female when she�s making her advances towards the male. This is just too interesting to watch; I think I�ll leave the juveniles in the aquarium for a bit longer. Thursday, 2/2/06 As predicted, the female spends most of her time in her cave and the juveniles come and go as they please. Neither of the parents act aggressively towards the young. Occasionally the adult male will dart in the direction of one but always stops well short or continues straight on when the juvenile scurries out of the way. It�s not really a chase but sort of a �Get out of the way, I�m coming through.� type of aggression. All are eating well and I�m offering a diverse diet of Cichlid Sticks, (Tetra) Frozen shrimp and blood worms, Freeze dried krill, Freeze dried tubifex worms, Spirulina flakes and my own frozen food mix. My frozen food mix contains ocean shrimp, white fish, clams, frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, spinach, peas, algae wafers, Spirulina algae, vitamins, carrot, bakers yeast, garlic, Cichlid sticks and granules along with assorted flake foods. All my Jack Dempsey Cichlids have taken this food with much enthusiasm. If your interested in the exact recipe simpy email me. Monday, 1/30/06 As I predicted, the adult male has started chasing after the female and bulling her around. The juveniles are, however, sort of a barrier to him at getting to her all the time. The female actually hangs in the group of juveniles a lot of the time and the male will not attack her when she�s in the mix. The juveniles are only half the size of the female but the male is still giving the offspring of his a lot of leeway. I set up the females cave so that the male could not enter. She now shares it with her 3 month old kids. She�s eating well, in fact they�re all eating very well and the water chemistry and clarity are perfect. She needs to stay out of the big guys way for a few weeks now to get her strength back and I believe that the young fish will help to take the pressure of her. I guess they�ll be around for a bit longer. SATURDAY, 1/28/06 Friday was an uneventful day in my �World of Jack Dempsey�s� and today is much the same. The female looks terrible after such an ordeal. She�s pale and not very responsive to food. She is, however, hanging out with the male a lot and not even going into her new cave located in the same corner. If things go along as usual, the male will soon get very aggressive with her and she�ll retreat to the depths of her dark cave and stay there for a few weeks until his attitude changes. I think I�ll leave the �Lucky Seven� (3 month old juveniles group title) in with them for awhile to see if that doesn�t change the usual habit of the male to attack the female. Those 7 have just about taken over the tank and are actually pushing the female around just a bit. She could certainly put a stop to that in a flash if she wanted but she�s in her �FUNK� right now and doesn�t much care about anything. THU, 1/26/06 THE 10 DAY STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVEL HAS ENDED 12:00pm� I noticed the female over in the males cave. I was almost certain that it meant that all the baby fry had been eaten. I checked the female's cave and sure enough, 3 of the older juveniles were in there looking for any remaining fry. There was non to be found. They made it through 10 days of constant attacks from the 7 juveniles. I give all the credit to MOM and very little to DAD for keeping them alive that long. 4:00pm � Major tank cleaning this afternoon. I pulled all the rocks and slate out and cleaned them. I thoroughly cleaned the gravel and the filter. Water change of about 7 gallons. The two pumps and tubes need a cleaning also but I�ll do that another day. At 5:30pm the water was almost perfectly clear and the fish settling into their NEW caves. A new episode starts Friday and I just may take out some or all of the 3 month old juveniles and leave the adults alone in their �World of Jack Dempsys. I may also close this log but I�ll let everyone know. WED, 1/25/06 2:00pm � Once again the baby fry are out and about but there are far fewer of them. The adult male is taking a more active role in protecting those that are left but it�s too late pop. The fry have obviously been undernourished for they don�t seem to be swimming as strongly as they should. The 3 month old juveniles are swimming very strong with rounded bellies from all the live food they�ve been getting lately. 8:00pm � The female and her young are back in her cave tonight but I don�t know how many survived the day. I can see a few so I know there are more. They�ll probably not survive the day tomorrow. (Thur) TUE, 1/24/06 2:00pm� The tiny swimmers have left the cave and are swimming around the area of the cave. Despite both parents watching over them, the 3 month old juveniles are able to catch one here and there. It�s obvious from their extended bellies that they are eating quite a few. There seems to be around 40 to maybe 60 of the swimmers. (more than I thought). 6:00pm� The swimmers are back in the cave but I�m unable to get an accurate count of them. The adult male is back in his cave but sharing it with one of the young juveniles. I imagine that when it�s light again tomorrow, the young will again emerge from the cave and the same thing will happen again. I don�t believe that any of these baby fry will survive. It�s simply a matter of how long it will take the 7 juveniles to wipe them out. It�s strange that the adult male doesn�t attack these juveniles and kill them. Everything I�ve read about this situation indicated that the male and female couple would attack and kill any other fish in the aquarium when they were ready to spawn. This would certainly happen in a small 20 gallon aquarium. Although the male did kill about 8 of the juveniles a few weeks back, he stopped the attack and left 7 to live on. Even now he could easily kill them but he doesn�t. Very strange. Monday, 1/23/06 11:00am � I didn�t have an opportunity to check deep in the cave on Sunday so I never saw the fry. This morning I could clearly see about 40 swimming fry inside the cave. The female has removed most of the gravel right down to the glass and I could easily see the little critters swimming over their reflections in the glass. For some reason, the adult male has parked himself outside the cave near a back entrance that only the 3 month old juveniles could enter. This is the point where they would enter to snatch a fry from the group. Four of the juveniles are hovering all around the adult male, probably looking for an opportunity to dash into the back of the cave. The female looks much better now that she has the fry back in the cave. She�s obviously less stressed and her colors aren�t quite so dark. I changed another 5+ gallons this morning and cleaned the gravel. This make about a 10 gallons I�ve changed since the fry hatched one week ago. The gravel was relatively clean given that I�m feeding so much more now. The 7 juveniles are doing a good job keeping it clean. 7:00pm ... Fed blood worms but the juveniles didn't seem all that enthusiastic as before. I then saw why. The baby fry are swimming out some of the small openings to the cave and the Juveniles are gulping them down as they swim out in the open. The adult male has stationed himself right outside the cave but he can't stop all the juveniles all the time. Their bellies are bulging with fry. SAT - 1/21/06 5:00pm � Sometime during the afternoon, the female moved her babies to a deep hollow in the gravel just outside her cave entrance. I don�t know why she exposes the fry to the older juveniles like this. She is very stressed as she attempts to keep the 7 juveniles away from her fry. I can�t estimate the numbers too well but I think we�ve lost another 20 baby fry. The male continues to linger at the opposite end of the aquarium. He doesn�t do very much but every now and then he shovels out some gravel and piles it up against the front glass. It seems as if one of the 3 month old juveniles has taken over the adult males cave and chases all the other juveniles away. Why the adult male doesn�t go in the cave is a mystery to me but I can�t imagine that this tiny juvenile has bullied him to stay away. 10:00pm � The female is constantly chasing off juveniles and seldom has an opportunity to rest. I�m concerned that this stress may have a negative affect on her with time. Both adults have been very healthy with no diseases. This time of night, the 7 juveniles are much quieter and the female will get a chance to rest. I turned off the lights 2 hours before I usually do so FRI 1/20/06 Water Temp = 79F ... PH = 7.0 ... Nitrates = 20ppm 10:00 am � The female has kept the wrigglers deep in her cave since the power outage on Wednesday. I got a close look at them this morning and I estimate that there are between 40 and 60 of the little guys still wriggling around. I dropped a few cichlid sticks right into her cave so that she can eat for herself and get some food to the fry. She seems to be keeping the cave very clean but I�m not sure how much food the wrigglers are getting. The hatchlings should be swimming by the end of the day. In previous hatches, I would see some swimmers as soon as 48 hours after hatching. I assume as these become swimmers, some will stray from the cave without being spotted by the female. Of course, they�ll be consumed by the juveniles outside. The juveniles are approaching 3 months of age now. The juveniles are a smaller than previous 3 month olds but that�s due to the fact that I�ve kept them in the same aquaria with their parents for this long and haven�t fed them the way I would if I was serious about raising them to full adults. But, I guess now, they will probably survive any assaults on them by the parents and I�ll be adding them to the 70 gallon grow out system in the basement fish room. I never thought that I would have survivors reaching this age in the same aquarium with the parents, especially having another clutch of eggs. Now I�m stuck with 7 3 month old Cichlids that I really don�t want. Thur, 1/19/06 9:00 am � The wrigglers remain in the cave where I can�t see in well enough to estimate how many are left. I think we�re down to maybe 50 to 75 but I�m really not sure. I could be way off either way. With the male still acting like a lump on a water log, the juveniles seem to have the run of the place. The male doesn�t even visit his cave and the Juveniles just stay away from him because he will strike at them if they get to close to his face. The female is very stressed. She doesn�t venture out at all. If she does, the juveniles know to dart in one of the other small openings and have a snack. I have to feed her through an opening in the top of her cave for she will not leave to get food, only to chase a juvenile away who�s wondered into the cave entrance. WED, 1/18/06 Water Temp = 77F ... PH = 6.8 ... Nitrates = 15ppm 8:00 pm � Heavy winds here in the northeast caused many blackouts. I lost my power twice today. During the long outage of 4 hours this afternoon. The female moved the wrigglers to a hollow in the gravel just outside her cave entrance. When the lights came back on, I could see the little mass of dark gray wrigglers bunched very tightly in an area no larger than a quarter. Once the lights were on, the juveniles began to dart in at them. The female was frantic as she would chase one or two off only to have two or three juveniles dart in and feast on the babies. The male continues to loaf at the opposite end of the aquarium and I�m now wondering if there is something wrong with him. He�s very pale and sluggish and just sits close to the bottom with hardly any movement. The female quickly moved the wrigglers back into her cave where she can guard them so much better. The juveniles bellies are bulging and I can only guess that they probably got around 30 to 40 wrigglers for lunch. I�ll try to get a count on the wrigglers later. TUE 1/17/06 11:00 am � The female has pushed the wrigglers deep into her dark cave. I have one tiny peephole to see in there but there but it�s too dark to get a count. I can see maybe 20 little bodies wriggling around but I�m sure there are many more. The 7 juveniles linger all around her corner cave like hungry wasps hovering around a honey bee hive, just waiting to dart in and have a meal. The female rockets out of the cave every so often in an attempt to chase them off. This has to be very stressful for her. The male doesn�t go near the entrance but stays at the opposite end and is very still. I wish he would help her keep the Juveniles away but he�s totally uninterested this time around. With the first and third clutch, the male was absolutely devoted to caring and guarding the eggs and the hatched fry � why not this time, I wonder 5:00 pm � I finally got a peek into the females cave with a flashlight and I could see at least 100 wrigglers. The female stays hidden away with them as the male cannot get into the cave very easily. All around the cave those pesky juveniles hover, waiting for her to leave the cave for food. I can�t easily see if any of the juveniles are successful in their attack on the newborn fry. I gave the gravel a thorough cleaning and changed 8 gallons in the process. The male�s colors are vivid most of the time and I see that he now is beginning to dart at the juveniles when they come too near him. The female looks okay but she seems to be getting a bit thin. Leaving the cave for food is risky for her. MON 1/16/06 NEW EGGS 10:00 am ... The status is much the same as it was yesterday except that the male is spending a little more time over or near the eggs. I noticed him chasing one of the juveniles once this morning. The female is constantly chasing off the 7 juveniles as they are getting very aggressive at attacking the eggs. When one juvenile is being chased, one or two others dash in to snatch up and egg or two. About 25% of the eggs are now bad and the nest looks very fuzzy in some areas around the edge. I suspect the juveniles, in an attempt to grab an egg, damaged them but didn�t detach them and they �fuzzed up�. I expect those eggs that are good to hatch sometime later today. 6:00 pm .. The male is spending more time near the nest of eggs and helping chase the juveniles away. He doesn�t chase with the same gusto as the female but it does take a little of the burden off the female. The bad eggs have fuzzed up much larger and effecting good eggs. It�s close to hatching time so I don�t think it will spread enough to cause a wipeout. 6:30 pm .. Upon close examination I can�t see that any of the eggs have hatched yet. The female is exhausted and I�m over feeding the 7 juveniles just a bit so as to take some of their interest off the eggs as a food source - seems to be working. ~~THE EGGS ARE HATCHING! ~~ 8:00 pm � The first wrigglers are popping out of the eggs. The female is moving the hatchlings into her cave. When she leaves the nest site for a few seconds to move the wrigglers the older juveniles dart in and grab and egg or a hatchling off the flat rock. The male is making more of an attempt to chase them off but he isn�t doing all he could to protect the nest. 11:00 pm � The last of the eggs have either hatched or have been eaten by the 7 juveniles. The flat rock has hardly a trace of anything left on it for the juveniles have cleaned it thoroughly. All the wrigglers are inside the female�s cave and I can�t see very well inside. I see movement, maybe 20 or so but I�m sure there are many more than that. Moving the fry into the cave was a very smart move on her part. The male and female can guard that site better than any other location in the aquarium. The male is too big to go in there comfortably so he�s spending time at the entrance and keeping the juveniles away� at least he does this sometimes. When the male moves off to the other end of the tank, the juveniles begin to poke around at various openings to the cave. I guess they know that there is a delicious meal in that cave if they get the opportunity to get in there. The female hasn�t left the cave and I don�t expect she will except to grab some food. I�ll examine the cave with a flashlight tomorrow but for know I�ll leave her alone with the new family. She�s very stressed and exhausted from protecting her nest for three days with very little help from dad. SUN Jan 15 NEW EGGS 9:00 am � This morning the male is spending a little more time over the eggs with the female. There are even fewer eggs around the edge of the flat rock this morning but we still have around 450 to 500 eggs. The juveniles are staying out of the way now for the female is chasing them vigorously and hurting a few. The male�s colors remain normal and not the dark intensity I�m accustomed to seeing when he�s guarding eggs and young fry. I�m not sure what all this means but I�m guessing it has to do with 7 juveniles still populating the aquarium. It�ll be interesting to see what happens when the eggs hatch on Monday and there are wrigglers to watch over. 7:00 pm ... Everything remains the same. The female is guarding the eggs, the juveniles make an occasional attempt to eat an egg and the male only occassionally visits the eggs. The female is constantly attacking the juveniles, even as they hover at the far end of the aquarium. About 20% of the eggs are bad and I'm sure there will be more that die by Monday morning. SAT, Jan 14 NEW EGGS 10:00 am � This morning the female was hovering over her eggs but wasn�t fanning very much. This could be due to a double stream of water squirting straight down on them from a spray bar just at the surface. There seems to be fewer eggs out at the edges of the flat piece of slate, probably from the juveniles snatching them when the female wasn�t looking. The male continues to be uninterested in the eggs nor does he display any of the usual aggression he did when guarding previous clutches. 4:00 pm � I noticed two of the juveniles feasting on the eggs while the female was in her cave and the male was hovering at the opposite end of the 20 gallon aquarium. The female finally rushed out and chased them off. She is chasing the juveniles often now and they are hiding for most of the time to avoid her. The male is doing nothing but hanging around the other end of the tank. I see about a dozen eggs that have turned white but I expected more. FRI 1/13/06 EGGS LAID FRIDAY AFTERNOON Water Temp = 81.5F ... PH = 7.1 ... Nitrates = 10ppm The Cichlids were fed Frozen Blood Worms around 10:00 am this morning and of course they devoured them quickly. I checked on the aquarium around 4:00 pm to find that the female had laid eggs (about 600) on a flat rock on the bottom of the tank. The 7 juveniles were hovering all about and the female would dart at them when they came too close to the eggs. Something was different and after watching for a few minutes, I observed that the male was staying away from the eggs and seemingly uninterested. He wasn�t even chasing the juveniles away from the eggs as the female was doing. The job of a male cichlid at a time like this is to guard the clutch from other fish while the female fans the eggs. This is a very different behavior on his part than before. He usually stood close by the female and the eggs and assisted in fanning the eggs often. I�m wondering if he fertilized the eggs since I wasn�t witness to the clutch being laid. 8:00 pm ... The female is still attending to the eggs but neither the male or female display the intense protective aggression that I�m used to seeing from them when they have eggs to guard and wrigglers to care for. The male isn�t spending any time near the eggs and the female seems to have a �ho-hum� attitude about caring for the eggs. The female is the only one protecting the eggs from the juveniles. The male hovers at the other end of the tank or in his cave and only occasionally visits the clutch. When he does swim over, the female takes full advantage of his visit and shoots off while he fans the eggs for just a few seconds and then leaves. The actions of the two parents lead me to believe that the hatch will be small and the wrigglers will either be consumed or not cared for. Jan 10, 2006 Five days have passed since my last log entry here but there has been NO change in the status. I still have 7 juveniles left swimming around at their leisure with the parents. The male is displaying his darker breeding coloration more often now and he and the female spend most of their time together. I�m doing a 20% water change every other day (4 gallons) and cleaning the filter every 4 days. This is in an attempt to encourage the adults to breed once again. I�m also feeding them a more varied diet which includes Tetra Cichlid Sticks, O.S.I. Spirulina Pellets, Freeze dried Krill (med.), Freeze Dried Tublifex Worms, Earth Worms and Frozen Shrimp. If this gourmet dinner doesn�t encourage them to spawn, I don�t know what will. I�m wondering just how long the adults will tolerate the 7 juveniles once the eggs are laid. The male just might do away with all of them once they begin to clean a piece of slate to lay them on. The last time the adults cleaned off a space for eggs, the male killed off 8 juveniles in a 5 day period. So far I haven�t witnessed any such cleaning activities, just a whole lot of wriggling and shimming by both of them. I�m considering getting a larger tank for these two adults. At least moving up to a 29 or maybe even a 55 gallon aquarium. Jan 5, 2006 Much to my astonishment, I still have 7 juveniles, swimming, eating and having fun with their parents. I can�t imagine why the male Jack Dempsey hasn�t killed/eaten these �Lucky 7� but he doesn�t seem to be interested in doing away with them now. This is surprising considering that he devoured 8 of the fry in just 4 or 5 days. I�m very curious to see how this plays out. The female is in her brilliant mating colors again after a day or so of being very faded. Her body is basically dark grey to black and her blue spots and gill trim is an electric blue, very striking. The male, however, remains a pale grey with a faint blush of redness under the scales. His blue spots are a brilliant blue however and he�s very attractive to look at. He�s not too active as he and the female rest together side by side. They don�t bother with each other all that much but they are getting along, most of the time, that is. I�ve begun a water change schedule that changes 3.5 to 4 gallons every other day. That may seem to be a lot for a 20 gallon system but it�s convenient for me to do it so why not. The gravel gets a bit of a cleaning each time also. The juveniles have sort of coaxed me into this water change schedule for my first priority is the health of the two adults. The adults still back off the food I drop in the aquarium until the babes get their share first. The only exception to this is when the adults a very hungry in the morning. Consequently there is a lot of food dropped into this aquarium every day. The gravel needs to be cleaned. I usually change the blue filter pad in the filter once a week but I�ll probably begin doing that twice a week. MON, 1/1/2006 Juveniles are 2 months old The new year has kicked in and 8 of the 15 fry have kicked out. I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't know when or how. During the past 4 or 5 days the large male (getting larger all the time) has eaten 8 of the 15, two month old young. I'm down to 7 juveniles left. The adult female is much too small to gulp one down and hasn't really bothered them. She's been in her mating colors (very dark with iridescent blue spots) for about two weeks now and the male goes in and out of his mating colors. I believe it's the youngsters that are holding him back from the mating call. He takes them in one swift gulp and it's GONE... just like that. The other young are not trying to hide or stay out of his way at all. I suppose it's because he doesn't chase them around the tank like he would a feeder fish. I seen him take one of them and it was only when the juvenile swam up to his face that he just opened his mouth and sucked it in. The male hardly moved at all. A few scales came out of his gills and it was over. The others probably never knew what happened. I read in several articles that this would happen so I'm not surprissed but I am a bit sad. These little swimmers have given me a lot of entertainment as I watch them and their parents interact over the last 2 months. However, the aquarium is still alive with activity The young continue to swim all around the male, having no fear at all. I can easily watch the 7 juveniles from across the room. They've grown to about an inch or more and that's without any special foods. Their 5 month old siblings that are in the 70 gallon grow out system were "POWER FED" for months and grew at a very rapid rate... much more so than these new babys. The 25 that I have left range in size from 3.5 to 5 inches. I do have one little runt that is only aobut 1.5 inches but the others never ever bother it at all. It's amazing to me how peacful they excist with each other. I'll soon write an article about them. They'll be around for awhile, I'm sure. TUE, 12/27/05 Well, Christmas has now passed and life starts to regain normalcy once again. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the little guys for some days but on Monday I had to break the tank down to move it. New furniture arriving and all that. So the 20 gallon tank was emptied of all but about 7 gallons and then moved around as needed. After 6 hours the two adults and 15 juveniles were very stressed. The water temp dropped from 77 down to 73 during those 6 hours. I finally got it set back up and in the process there was a 50% water change and gravel cleaning. Today, the fish looks great, the water is almost clear and the two adults are once again courting and cleanning off a new egg site. So far, the adults have not been aggresive with the fry at all but they are growing very big now. I'm not sure what to expect from the adults as they clearly want to start a new family once again. Maybe the juveniles will prevent the adults from mating or maybe the adults will soon do away with the little guys. Whatever happens, you'll be sure to know if you check in. THUR, 12/22/05 The juveniles are doing great. At this stage they should be seperated from the adults but I don't have room anywhere to put them. The adults are doing some serious courting now and I'm sure the female will be laying eggs again within a week or so. She is displaying her dark mating colors but the male hasn't darkened up yet. Neither adult has anything to do with the juveniles and are becoming a bit more aggresive with them when food is placed in the aquarium. There hasn't been any contact that I have seen at this point but the female comes very close to slaming into a juvenile when both are going for the same piece of food. The adults are together all the time now and there is no aggresion by the male towards the female at all. As I'm typing this, I noticed the male's colors have darkened up. The action is getting HOT and HEAVY tonight with those two so maybe they'll be spawning sooner than I expected. MON, 12/19/05 The male and female are showing a great deal of interest in mating again. I noticed just today that the male is not holding back at feeding time to let the young get the food sticks first. He darted at several young to intimidate them as they began to eat a sinking Cichlid stick. He did not hit them but I feel he soon will. It's very interesting to watch him struggle to break the bonds with his young as nature begins to pull him away. I've read that once they lay eggs again the adults will no longer tolerate the young or most any other fish for that matter. FRI, 12/16/05 The baby Jack Dempsys are getting quite large now and yet the male still watches over and tolerates them with great care. The female obviously wants to mate again but the male shows very little interest. She stays away from the young and displays a degree of intolerance for them. I'm sure if I removed the juveniles the male would give in to the females prompting very quickly. The juveniles have been ripping apart the large Cichlid sticks I feed the adults and I have been adding more so that the adults don't go without. As the young mature, it's going to be harder for me to watch them being attacked by the adults when they eventually begin to mate again. I should dispose of them but I can't bring myself to do it. I still have about 30 young Jack Dempseys from their first brood. They are about 5 1/2 months old now and are growing out in a 40, 20 and 10 gallon aquariums. I will soon post a diagram of their set up down in the basement of the home. I have them on a central filtration system for ease of cleaning. More about this set-up later on. TUE, 12/13/05 The diagram of the fry tank is finally finished and posted for viewing. As of today I've received over 3 dozen emails asking questions about this. I hope the diagram is clear enough but please email me if you have other questions about this setup. The fry are growing ever larger. They continue to pick at the males body, obviously finding some type of nourishment there. He is very tolerant of this as I observed 5 or 6 picking at him at the same time. He tolerates this for 5 or 8 seconds and then shakes them off only to have them return very soon. The female ventures out more often and seems to want the males attention. She may want to lay eggs again but the male is too busy parenting the fry and doesn't seem to want anything to do with courtship at this point. She is getting more aggressive with him but he simply doesn't respond to her advances and then chases her back to the cave when too annoyed. FRI, 12/9/05 The past few days I've notice more of the young picking at the males body. Usually they pick from mid-body back. They also pick at the dorsal fin and tail. The male will quietly hover for up to a minute before shaking them away and swimming off. This is usually observed when the fish haven't been fed for awhile. Performed a major cleaning of the entire system today. Changed approx 12 gallons in this 20 gallons system. The gravel, rocks and large external filter were cleaned and scrubbed. I'm going to attempt to draw a diagram of this aquarium and it's external filter that holds approximately 4 gallons of water. I built this glass filter many years ago and it was then, designed for a mini-reef salt water aquarium. I've had several emails asking me questions about the tank arrangement and it's filter. Look for this diagram very soon. TUE, 12/6/05 Fry are doing great and growing fast. Although I don't feed the fry with anything specific, they are now large enough to chew up the Cichlid sticks and other pieces of food that I put in the tank. The male no longer grinds up food for them to eat. When I feed the adults the male will dart at the chunks of food rapidly, however if he sees that one of the juveniles is going to grab that piece of food before he gets to it, he'll stop dead in his tracks so as to let the young have that food. This is so unlike Jack Dempseys but is just another fascinating parenting trait of this agressive fish. I've noticed several young picking at the males body (female is still tucked away in her cave most often) and the male is very tolerant of this. I guess they find tiny specs of food stuck to his body but I can't see anything at all. SAT, 12/3/05 Nothing has changed except for the size of the fry. They seem to have had a growth spurt this week. I've been feeding the adults more variety in their diet and I guess it agrees with the fry. I still have sixteen healthy little ones swimming rapidly all over the tank from the surface to the bottom. They continue to pick constantly on tiny particles clinging to the roots of the Philodendron plants. Now and then the adult male will pull hard a root strand if it gets in his way and often a piece will break off. The female is eating well but still remains in her cave most of the time. Some days the male is very aggresive with her and other days it seems that she can push him around until he gets tired of it.. TUE, 11/29/05 FRY ARE 1 MONTH OLD So whats to tell? The fry are growing and we still have 16 of them swimming all around. The female is still spending most of her time in her cave but she is venturing out more often and the male isn't so quick to chase her back. She is coming up to the surface to feed from my fingers when I hold a Cichlid stick over the top of the cave. The fry visit the surface more often now in search of any thing to eat. They pick on the root system of the Climbing Philodendron and also find shelter within it's maze of tiny roots hanging down to the bottom of the tank. I found out recently that the Philodendron plant is toxic but I've had these roots in this tank for months and it hasn't had an adverse affect at all. The climbing plants are doing excellent in this aquarium water and have grown about 2 feet since they were 3 inch cuttings placed in the water last July. Both these adults have been exposed to these roots since then as well as these fry and their first brood of babies. I still have about 40 of that original hatch and they all look splendid. I've been slowly giving them away as they attain the 4 inch length. This first batch were born in a 10 gallon tank in which I first placed the parent fish. SAT, 11/26/05 Water Temp = 81F ... PH = 7.0 ... Nitrates = 10ppm The fry are doing very well despite my not offering them special care. They like to hang out among the roots of several house plants that I've been growing in the aqurium water for about 6 months. They pick at the tiny hairs on the roots and I assume there is some kind of nourishment in that for them. The male continues to care and feed them but the female is a prisoner in her cave. If she leaves it for just a few seconds, the male is all over her. I have very course gravel in the tank and it's interesting to watch the fry wriggle their way into the crevices in search for a bite of food. There are still 16 very hardy fry left. WED, 11/23/05 The fry are doing fine but the adult female seldom comes out of her cave. The male is very aggressive with her now and will damage her if she doesn�t seek shelter as soon as he begins to chase her. The male is still demonstrating good parenting behavior with the fry and is usually with them. He occasionally grinds up some food for them but the fry are eating larger chunks of food now at 3 weeks old and will do fine without the parents assistance eating. MON, 11/21/05 FRY ARE 3 WEEKS OLD The fry count is 16 and those that survived being sucked into the filter look very strong and healthy. Of course, it's survival of the fitest when presented with conditions that I placed on them. I built a cave for the adult female that only she can enter. The male is very aggressive now and attacks her frequently without provocation while at other times they get along fine and the female nudges him around the tank. The male is the primary guardian of the fry now and grinds up much of his food for them. SAT, 11/19/05 Sometime overnight the screen was knocked off the siphon tube and many fry got drawn into the filter. We're now down to about a dozen fry. The male is getting very irritated with the female now and I imagine that his chasing her during the night is how the screen was knocked off. (there is a night light in the room) She's hiding qite a bit and I may have to build a cave just for her to access. Once before I had to build a cave for her that the larger male couldn't enter. THUR, 11/17/05 The population is now down to about 35 fry. The parents do not hover over them as before but when food is presented to them, the parents become very attentive and feed the young. The female spends much more time with them but the male is very good at sharing his food. When I approach the aquarium, it's the male that becomes aggresive towards me and if I persist, the female will then join in. WED, 11/16/05 The fry are doing great and getting large, as is their appetites. The parents are giving more of their food to the fry so I have increased the size of each feeding. I wasn't going to increase the food for the fry but I don't wish to see the adults go undernourished, and they have been. I'm feeding two large feedings and two light feedings per day. FROM HERE ON, LOG ENTRIES WILL BE MADE EVERY FEW DAYS MON, 11/14/05 Water Temp = 81F ... PH = 6.9 ... Nitrates = 10ppm The male is spending less time watching over the fry and is hiding away in cave or just hovering on the service of the gravel. Still fewer babies today. There are no more than 50 babies now. When I feed the adults, the female has to poke and prod the male to feed the youngsters. Almost half his size, the female gets very aggressive with him from time to time, pushing him all about the tank with her mouth wide open against his side. He never strikes back and simply gives in to whatever she's trying to get him to do. SUN, 11/13/05 I changed approx 8 gallons and cleaned as much gravel as possible given that the fry are everywhere. Two hours later the water was very clear once again. The PH had dropped to 6.7 but has now risen back to my target of 6.9. The fry look very strong but again the numbers have dropped noticably. Some have been sucked into the filter where they are then drawn into the pumps. I cannot do anything about those few who have the misfortune of wondering through filter material to reach the external sump where the two pumps are working. Today I made up some home made gel food. I used all fresh ingrediants and will post the recipe in the "FEEDING" area of my website. When I fed the adults they scattered it all over the babies. Once again a mini feeding frenzy took place. It's fascinating to observe the energy and drive of these little specs of life to survive. They pick over each grain of gravel and up the sides of slate and even on mom and dad's body as some particles stick to them occasionally. I wished I could keep them all. TWO WEEK SUMMARY Sunday, November 13, 05 Fry are two weeks old. My intention right from the start was NOT to make any special effort to keep these young fry alive. I do not have the resources to raise them for I still have 35 juvenile Jack Dempseys from the very first batch. They take up all my spare tank space. (and my food) As of Sunday morning the population of fry has dropped to approx 50 to 60 fry as near as I can estimate. The strong are surviving and look healthy but I detect weak fry daily and assume they die and are consumed by the natural process of nature. I have seen the adult male eat a few fry that were just floating with not much control and soon would perish anyway. He would nudge them a few time, even taking them into his mouth and then blowing them back out. Observing no movement, he would then swallow them. Both the male and female have done a good job of chomping up food and dispersing about the area that the fry have congregated. Once a day I do grind up some Cichlid sticks and disperse it in the water. The fry go into a feeding frenzy for this and their stomachs swell. I should be doing this about 3 times a day at least but I have to refrain. SAT, 11/12/05 Water is noticably hazy today. The gravel needs cleaning and a water change is due tomorrow (Sunday). Fry look fine but their numbers are dropping. I'm tempted to feed them more specific foods but that would only lead to another large group of juveniles that would be hard to find homes for. I'm still housing 4 month old JD juveniles from the first brood by these adults. FRI, 11/11/05 The fry are doing well despite my not feeding them foods specifically for them The parents continue to chomp up food and spit out much of it for the babies. I noticed two fry that were very weak and just floating around with the current. I suspect that the weaker fry are dying off from lack of proper nutrition... just speculation on my part. I'm feeding the adults cichlid sticks, flake food and one feeding of frozen shrimp daily. THUR, 11/10/05 The fry are now 13 days old and the population seems to have stabelized. Their growth is not what it should be for I'm not going out of my way to provide special foods in the volume necessary for rapid growth. I'm estimating that I have around 150 fry swimming about in this 20 gallon tank with the parents. The male is close to 7 inches in length and I would estimate he's 8 or 9 months old. The female was purchased from the same aquarium, (probably siblings) and she's close to 5 inches and probably the same age. WED, 11/9/05 I noticed the pump has slowed some so I removed it and not only cleaned the pump but all the associated tubing that is attached for the returns. Lots of sludge buildup in the plastic tubing, more than I could have imagined. The pump is back to full capacity now, really sitrring things up in the 20 gallons world of these Jack Dempseys. It seems that the fry deal with this stronger current just fine, as always. I also changed about 4 gallons of water with aged water from the Sunday water change of 8 gallons. TUE, 11/8/05 The Parents seem to have calmed down these past two days. I have to tease them in order for them to become anoyed and charge at me. The fry look strong but again I think there are fewer still today. The gravel is getting a bit dirty but I'm hesitant to do too much cleaning in there. Water is only slightly hazy from the overfeeding I've been doing. I'll cut that back a bit. MON, 11/7/05 Baby fry look good but there are fewer now. I have seen two dead and one dying and it seems to be a natural process. Maybe I'm not providing enough nourishment but those that are surviving look very strong. I've increased the amount of food I place in the tank by about 20% but I'm not going to do much more. SUN, 11/6/05 Changed 8 gallons of water and used a gravel siphon to clean about 75% of gravel. I had to carefully work around the fry but I don't think I sucked any up in the siphon. As I stirred the gravel up, the fry went into a feeding frenzy because of all the particles of food now suspended in the water. As with my first hatch from this pair, I'm doing nothing special to maintain the fry. I am adding a bit of crushed up flake food to help mom and dad feed them but beyond that I'm doing nothing more than I would be doing for the adults. The fry look good and the parents are very active and entertaining in the "parent mode". SAT, 11/5/05 Average day for fry. They race from one end of the 20 long to the other and all the parents can do is watch them. It is impossible for the adults to group the fry where they want as they did a few days ago. Their school often breaks up into two distinct groups with many straglers that roam everywhere. Most often they hudle in a wide group in the middle of the tank (front) from the gravel to the surface. More than not, they stay about 3 to 4 inches from surface. Parents take any food I offer and grind much of it up and spit it out for the fry; a common practice of most Cichlids. FRI 11/4/05 The fry spent the night huddled in a tight mass at the back of the aquarium. About 10 minutes after light was turned on, fry began to dart out of the mass and race in every direction. It took about an hour for the entire population of fry to organize and become a school once again moving about the aquarium as a group. It was interesting watching the parents try in vain to keep the fry confined to the back area where they spent the night. Fry look good and strong and mostly hover in the front and center of the aquarium. Parents are chopping up 1/2 their food to spread over the fry. They eat enthusiastically, as one might expect. THUR 11/3/05 Water Temp = 80F ... PH = 6.8 ... Nitrates = 10ppm The fry are very strong swimmer and are roaming all over this 20 gallons aquarium. The adults are still trying to keep them grouped together in one area but it's hopeless. The fry do tend to school and stay grouped mid water but many straggle off to far off places, making the adults scurry off after them in an attempt to keep the fry as tightly grouped together as possible. Parents are becoming very aggressive when I approach the aquarium now. I'm feeding a lot of ground up food to help nourish the fry. They look VERY good. WED 11/2/05 At 6:00pm I NOTICED THAT THE BABY FRY ARE FREE SWIMMING AND ROAMING THE ENTIRE RIGHT SIDE OF TANK. The parents are frantic trying to regroup them back in the rear left corner where they've been housed for 2 days. I'm surprised how mobile they've become considering that they hatched only 3 1/2 days ago. This is the strongest batch of fry I've seen from this pair. They have had 4 other hatches since I purchased them back in May of 2005. I kept the first hatch (still have about 30 of them) two other hatches died off very quickly and I think it was the adults were not in stable water conditions. TUE 11/1/05 Fry still being housed in back left corner. Parents seem comfortable with this location although it is unusual for JD parents to keep fry in one location this long. I can't see why they don't move them to the other location. On all other hatches by this pair, they moved the fry constantly. MON 10/31/05 Dempsey fry are still being housed in back left corner. Both parents are out and watching over them carefully. Babies look strong and are wriggling out of the shallow but parents continue to suck them up in their mouth and blow them back into the shallow. SUN 10/30/05 Babies moved back to front right corner in AM. Jacks taking any food I put in the tank and chopping it up for babies. Late afternoon they moved them again to back left corner. I'm adding more food so that parents can chop, grind and feed. Babies look good and parents very caring. Adult male is getting very irritated with me when I move close to the aquarium. EGGS HATCH SAT, 10/29/05 1:00AM SAT 10/29/05 FIRST WRIGLER HATCHED ABOUT 1:00am SATURDAY MORNING. BOTH PARENTS EXCITED AND ANXIOUS FOR MORE TO HATCH. SAW ONLY 2 OR 3 It seem that by 9AM most all of the eggs have hatched and I can only estimate that there are about 200 wrigglers swarmed in the shallow. Parents look good and caring for babies. 9PM babies moved to new location in back left corner. The adults are showing the usual dedication to caring for the fry that one expects of Cichlids. FRI 10/28/05 About 25 eggs are bad but approx 200 look okay as of 5PM Friday, 48 hours after being laid. Female is very attentive to eggs and male is roaming tank. He keeps her company most of the time and only occasionally fans eggs. They ate a small serving of frozen shrimp this morning and 1 or 2 sticks that I dropped in. BABY tank got another 10 gallons change. Large green heater is not working so the small 75-watt heater is doing the job. THU 10/27/05 Temp= 81.8 (W/C 6 gal ) CLEANED GRAVEL ALL OVER THANK... moved Egg Rock with no apparent ill effect. Female seldom leaves the eggs. Male occasionally assists at the prodding of female. If he will hover over the eggs, the female will dart to the other end of the tank, maybe looking for food. She always quickly returns to the eggs and male then moves away to hover nearby or he often leaves, going back to the cave. The male is much LESS interested in the eggs. Both are eating Cichlid sticks. WED 10/26/05 I observed the female lay her eggs this evening starting at 7:30 PM and finishing around 9:00 PM. Approx 300 but could be more. Female is fanning eggs constantly with male helping fan on occasion. Tank water is clear after changing about 18 gallons of water over Monday and Tuesday. Gravel is clean also with clean filter. Good thing I did all this. I didn't realize they were so close to laying. FIRST EGG AT 7:30 pm 10/26/05 Water Temp = 81F ... PH = 7.0 ... Nitrates = 15ppm BACK TO TOP |
| PROGRESS LOG OF NEWBORN FRY |
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| 10 WEEKS OLD |
| OLD LOG ENTRIES FROM Oct 26, 2005 TO May 7, 2006 |
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| May 7, 2006 AFTER ABOUT 1 MONTH THE LAST OF THE JD FRY HAVE BEEN FED TO THE ANGELFISH. THEY EAT ABOUT 20 FRY EACH EVERY DAY ALONG WITH OTHER FOODS THAT I PROVIDE. I NOW HAVE 2 SPAWNING PAIR OF JACK DEMPSEYS AND THEY WILL PROVIDE ME WITH HUNDREDS OF FRY EVERY MONTH. THEY ARE BEING FED A DIET THAT IS HEAVY WITH EARTH WORMS FROM MY BACK YARD. THAT SEEMS TO BRING THE FEMALES TO THE LAYING STAGE QUICKER THAN ANYTHING I KNOW. I'M WATCHING THE ADULT PAIR NOW DOING THEIR SPAWING DANCE. I BELIEVE SHE WILL LAY WITHIN 10 DAYS EVEN THOUGH SHE DROPPED EGGS BACK AROUND THE 4TH OF APRIL. I HAVE A SECOND PAIR OF YOUNGER JD'S SPAWING NOW AND THEY WILL BE ANOTHER 3 WEEKS OR SO BEFORE DROPPING EGGS AGAIN. THIS WILL BE THEIR 3RD DROP. THIS WILL BE THE DESTINY OF ALL FUTURE JD FRY. IF YOU'RE NOT AN ANGELFISH FAN, YOU'LL PROBABLY FIND LITTLE HERE IN THE "FISH LOG" TO INTEREST YOU. I WILL STILL CONTINUE TO BRING JACK DEMPSEY INFORMATION TO THE SITE. APRIL 13, 2006 OUR NEWBORNS ARE 5 DAYS OLD NOW AND THEY LOOK VERY GOOD. BOTH ADULTS ARE DOING A GOOD JOB OF PARENTING THIS TIME AROUND. FOR YOU REGULAR READERS, YOU REMEMBER HOW THE MALE SO TOTALLY ABANDONED HIS RESPONSIBILITIES AS A CICHLID FATHER THE LAST TIME THEY SPAWNED. WELL, HE�S BACK TO HIS OLD SELF ONCE AGAIN. HE�S AGGRESSIVE AND VERY PROTECTIVE OF THE KIDS BUT NOT NEARLY AS AGGRESSIVE AS BEFORE. THE FEMALE HAS BECOME VERY AGGRESSIVE WITH HIM AND PUSHES HIM AROUND LIKE HE WAS HALF HER SIZE INSTEAD OF THE OTHER WAY AROUND. THEY GET ALONG VERY WELL AND WORK GOOD TOGETHER AS PARENTS GUARDING OVER THEIR YOUNG. AS FOR THE BABIES, THEY�RE SWIMMING NOW. THERE ARE SO MANY THAT THE PARENTS CANNOT KEEP THEM BUNCHED THE WAY THEY WOULD LIKE TO. I WOULD GUESS THAT TODAY, (THU, 4/13) THERE MAY BE AS MANY AS 450 YOUNG SWIMMING ALL OVER THIS 20 GALLON AQUARIUM. I�VE TRIED TO PUT A TIGHT FILTER PAD AROUND THE SIPHON SCREEN IN THE TANK BUT I CAN SEE ABOUT 12 OR 14 BABIES IN THE FILTER. TOO MUCH WORK TO GET THEM OUT BUT SOME MAY SURVIVE TILL THE NEXT CLEANING IN A WEEK. APRIL 8, 2006 OKAY, SO I'M NOT ON THE BALL ABOUT SOME THINGS. I'M TALKING ABOUT THE BABY HATCHLINGS FROM MY ORIGINAL PAIR OF JACK DEMPSEY'S. I WAS VERY SURPRISED TO SEE WRIGLERS THIS MORNING WHEN I WAS TOSSING IN SOME FOOD. I HAVE TAKEN OUT THE 6 JUVENILES THAT WERE SHARING THE 20 GALLON TANK WITH THEIR PARENTS ABOUT A WEEK AGO. SO NOW, THE PAIR WON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH HUNGRY YOUNGSTERS EATING THE WRIGGLERS. THE LAST BATCH LASTED ONLY 10 DAYS BEFORE THE JUVENILES FINALLY GOT PAST THE MOTHER AND ATE THE LAST OF THE BABY FRY. I WON'T BE DOCUMENTING THESE FRY LIKE I HAVE OTHERS IN THE PAST BUT I WILL LET YOU KNOW OF THEIR GENERAL PROGRESS. IT LOOKS LIKE AN AVERAGE NUMBER FOR THIS PAIR... AROUND 350 TO 400 WRIGGLERS. (VERY DIFFICULT TO COUNT) THE COURSE GRAVEL HIDES THEM WELL. MORE TO COME IN A FEW DAYS. APRIL 3, 2006 It's been about 6 weeks since I last made a log entry here. Up until now, there has been very little if anything new to write about. But, alas, I have made some changes and I�ll begin to log the results as I go along. I have removed the �Lucky Seven � 1� from the 20 gallon aquarium they shared with their parents. (Yes, one of the seven just disappeared one day.) I did this over this past weekend. The large adults were so often appearing to be ready to spawn only to back off after a few days. The constant activity by their offspring was, I�m sure, very distracting. The young Jack's had also undergone a growth spurt that was putting a heavy strain on this 20 gallon system. For these reasons, I decided to transfer them to the basement fish room with their brothers and sisters from two other spawns. This is a 75 gallon system that is comprised of 2-20 gal tanks, 1-15 gal and 1-10 gal tank. They are connected to a 12 gallon sump filter that has a large Rio Pump (692 gph) cycling the 4 aquariums and a separate pump (160 gph) pumping water from the sump into a Bio-filter. The bio-filter is an old Ehiem canister that the pump stopped working years ago. I filled the canister with ceramic material and raised it above the sump. The water flows down through and is mixed with the air. The material is not submerged at all. The outlet sprays the water over the surface of the sump aerating and releasing a lot of CO2 in the process. This system is ideal for the 20 juvenile Jack Dempsey's that I have left and also another spawning pair of Jack Dempsey�s. This is NOT a system you want in your living room or den but it's a dream system in a fish-room. I will be expanding on this as time goes on and for good reason. So, I�m hoping that the original pair AND the new spawning pair of Jack�s will begin having eggs and more eggs for my next project you�ll soon be hearing about. I�ll be raising another member of the Cichlid family. But I first need to solve my water hardness problem. I think an RO (Reverse O |
