Unidentified American Cichlid

[CopperNightShade]

Okay, I rescued this little guy from the 'sorted american cichlid' tank at the evil Walmart. I have no way of posting a picture, so I will try my hand at a description.

He is roughly 2'' in length right now, but I think he is a juvenile.

In the store aquarium he was jet black with just a few blue speckles on his sides. Now that he is in quarentine he is light grey with dark grey vertical stripes, a darker grey lateral line running down his side and a dark grey spot at the base of his tail fin. He has the faintest hint of orange on his dorsal fin, but none that I can see on his tail.

What is he?

[Patrick Long]

There is estimated between 1300 and 3000 different species of Cichlids.

Such a vague description like this, will be very hard to identify.

[CopperNightShade]

IDed as a Jack Dempsey by a local fish keeper.

[9Catsz]

Any pics?

[TheShortBus]

jacks are awesome cichlids! they can get quite large. if i were you id get a few more and get a 55 gallon for them. they can be very aggressive to other fish as well, but have seen them do great in groups of the same species

[accidental777]

Sounds like a Jack dempsey to me as well. They color up very nicely, if you ever catch them when they are out of hiding lol. I actually have a breeding pair right now. They aren't wusses, but they don't really try to domineer the whole aquarium either. It seems like everybody starts out with a dempsy

[kellysballs]

I aquired 2 large 6''ish jack dempseys and 3 huge red parrot cichlids from a guy and they lived in a tank with other cichlids. I put them in with a smaller parrot, some yellow labs, a peacock, an elecytric blue hap, a few assorted cichlids, plecos, red tailed cat and some gouramis in a 125. They have not shown any signs of aggresion towards the other fish and every one seems to be getting along.

[icygirl]

We have a bunch of baby/juvenile Jacks here. I took some pics for you to be sure. Sorry I couldn't get a good side shot, these guys are ALWAYS looking for food!!

Notice the black spots on the sides of their bodies.



When they get bigger they sex differentiate I think. We have a couple small, dark fish that we think are the males, they look like this:


We got these fish completely by surprise - my boyfriend's dad's fish had a TON of babies awhile back, and we happened to have an unused fish tank here. We threw together this tank for them. When we got them they were about a quarter inch long. These guys are hardy, eat everything you give them, and grow fast! Good luck and hopefully you have a big enough tank for when it's an adult. (I have no idea what we'll do with all of our guys when they start getting big... we'll have to figure something out.)

[tylersweeney22]

im pretty sure the pic on the bottem is a convict cichlid id have to see from the side. if it is and you have 2 of them the female will have a orange color tho the bottem they breed alot and will kill anything that gets close to eggs. i know the pic on the top is JD'S i used to have some then i switched to piranhas.

[accidental777]

The first picture has some nice juvenile Jack dempsey (Roico octofasciatus), and the second is indeed a convict (Amantitlania nigrofasciatus). As mentioned above, you can sex the convict but whether or not there is orange coloration on its stomach. Convicts are very prolific if they are given a chance to pair off. In regaurds to their aggression towards other fish while mating, it depends on the tank size. I have had offspring in a 55gal-210gal with our too much trouble. A few nipped fins are bound to happen, but death of fellow tankmates is rare I.M.E. with a properly stocked tank.