These fish is a large and magnificently colored South American Cichlid. It is stocky and compact in shape but can grow to almost 10 inches (25 cm) in length.
A mature Jack Dempsey is a beautiful fish, but It it takes over a year for the full coloration and patterning to develop. The adult will have a dark purple-gray background contrasted with iridescent light blue, green, and gold spangle spots all over its body. Male Jack Dempsey's tend to have more of these brilliant spots than females, and also present bright red edges on their dorsal and anal fins. In addition to the baseline coloring, many captive bred color varieties have also been developed and are available today. One of the most notable and exotic is the Electric Blue Jack Dempsey.
The names of this cichlid, both scientific and common, all have a story. When first introduced to the aquarium hobby this fish was considered quite ferocious, though today it is known there are quite a few other cichlids which are far more aggressive than the Jack Dempsey. However, because of this perceived hyperaggression its common name became "Jack Dempsey" after the 1919 Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. Its genus name Rocio was named after the wife of the describing author, Regan, and its Spanish interpretation means "morning dew," an allusion to the sparkling scales on the cheeks and sides.
This cichlid is a very attractive show type fish. It will do well if provided with adequate space and compatible tank mates. It likes to burrow and have plenty of places to hide, so provide a tank bottom of fine deep sand and use rock and sunken driftwood decoration to form caves and hiding places.In addition, it likes to have a floating cover of live plants to help diffuse direct lighting and to swim among, though it will also tend to pick at and eat any live plants in its tank. Providing it with some lettuce and blanched cucumber can help ameliorate this tendency, however it is still recommended to always keep an eye on the status of any live plants in the tank.
Although the Jack Dempsey is certainly an aggressive fish, it is not nearly as combative or aggressive as some of the more recently identified cichilds, such as the Red Devil. Theycan be kept singly or in large groups, though if you plan on keeping more than one it is easier and safer to keep them in large groups rather than in pairs. If keeping a pair for breeding purposes, it is recommended they be kept in their own tank. They will not tend to do well with other fish and should either be monitored closely in a community tank of similarly sized and aggressive cichlids or kept in a species specific tank.
Feeding
This Cichlazoma is a predator, so you should feed is with live feed: brine shrimp, blood worm, tubifex, though thawed and milled seafood will do as well. However, you shouldn’t forget about plant additives – these may be finely chopped lettuce, cabbage or blowball leaves.
Difficulties in keeping
It’s quite simple to take care of Rocio octofasciata, since it’s not demanding, so it can be kept by the beginners. However, you have to keep in mind that this is an aggressive fish that get’s on well with other cichlid species while it’s young, but as the fish grows it becomes more and more aggressive, so then it’s desirable to keep it without any other tank mates or only with large fishes.
Keeping in a tank
As a majority of Central America cichlids Rocio octofasciata doesn’t have any special requirements as for the tank conditions. Nevertheless, the tank water should be clean, i.e. with zero level of ammonia and nitrite, and nitrate concentration shouldn’t exceed 40 mg/l.
Nowadays, all these can be reached by means of strong biofiltration and regular water renew. Rocio octofasciata tank size capacity should start from 100 liters (26,42 gallons) for a couple of adult fish.
In fact, this species aggressiveness to a large extent depends on the fish tank size. In small tanks (up to 250 liters or 66,04 gallons) an adult couple of Rocio octofasciata, as a rule, can’t stand any tank mates around, unless it be some catfish or very small fish and juveniles.
In small tanks also there may be fights between the fish male and female. If this happens, you should immediately take the female fish away from the tank.
Keeping the fish couple for 3-6 month together and then for 1.5-3 month or more apart, is considered to be ok if you keep Jack Dempsey fish couple in a small tank (in a big tank the female fish just swims to its other side and usually the male fish doesn’t chase her).
Also the fish isolation from each other is a way to decrease the number of their spawning, since doing it too often isn’t healthy for the fish, especially for Jack Dempsey female fish.
Quite often this species inhabits in rather poor conditions due to their careless owners and seem to show rather high vitality. However, this plainness is rather nominal.
Young Jack Dempsey fish can actually inhabit in tank water polluted with nitrogen compounds, however, very few of the fish live to the age of 4 years old. Negative influence of toxic substances accumulates and then when the fish becomes an adult it shows in the form of hexamitiasis and other diseases.
Meanwhile, provided with proper care lifespan in a tank is about 7-10 years and more.
When the water temperature becomes lower than 24°С (75,2 F) the fish tends to stay close to the heater. Therefore, we can consider water temperature 26–27°С (78,8-80,6 F) as optimal one for Rocio octofasciata.
Credit :
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/dempsy.php
https://meethepet.com/jack-dempsey-fish/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydYydToBSp8
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น