AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

i want it to be may so bad . i just went to a local store a walmart (before you say it they take pretty good care of the fish) and they have in american cichlids i saw 2 JDs a fire mouth a bunch of pink things and a green terror. im getting a 55g in may and i was going to put in a JD and a firemouth or 2. but i have to wait. i sat there and watch the firemouth flare up at all the other fish over and over it was so adorable.

Wow, you must live near the one and only Walmart that does take care of their fish... thanks, no doubt to one of their employees taking matters into his or her own hands. :)

I can't wait for it to be late April, my wife are planning to go back to FL for vacation. In addition to doing a bit of deep sea charter fishing, we will be doing some "shelling". Our 29g sw tank should be well cycled by then, so we might just end up comming home with a new tank inhabitant, or at least some new real decor.

I wish my local wal-mart carried Firemouths. I'd love to have a pair. My LFS sells some really nice JD's though. The Aquarium in Knoxville, TN carries a large stock of Electric Blue Jack Dempseys that are absolutely beautiful.

Some wal-marts really do take care of their fish. I've known wal-mart employees that are extremely responsible fish keepers and do everything they can to accurately inform newcomers to the hobby and take care of the fish that are in stock.

A JD and firemouth combination sounds awesome. I've got my eye on a large 10 " jack dempsey at my LFS. He's absolutely beautiful. He's even started his color morph.

Any idea what the minumum tank size and/or dimensions for a jack dempsey are?

iddo a minimum of 55g. but thats a pair of jds and a pair of smaller fish as dithers and a bottum feeder catfish.

but im only doing 1 male jd and some firemouths cause i dont want to encounter breeding behavior (american cichlids get really agressive durin breeding and after . heard of a pair of 4 inch convicts killing a 1 inch oscar for attacking fry)

i worry less about the firemouths

a 10 " dempsey is pretty much maxed out . ima grow mine from 2" juvies alongside the firemouth juvies

and i hear blue dempseys are very fragile and dont do water conditions well

if it makes you feel any better the first JD i ever had we kept in a 20g aquarium and never did water changes .

this was before i cared about fish he was just something left behind when my wifes moms ex bf moved back to kansas city mo and she moved to somewhere in boston with her now ex husband. so we kinda kept it over in a corner couldnt tell wat it even was algea and water was so bad. but hey it lived for like 2 years like that. i know better now but i never asked for it we ended up giving it to somebody who knew what to do with it. but that was like 5 years ago.

So not.. :( 55 gallon is a minimum for 1 Jack Dempsey. A pair, some dither fish, and a bottom feeder would need a minimum of 90, but 125 gallon is prefered.

i think this all comes down to opinnion cause like i said earlier ive accidenally but successfully cept a jd in a 20g. and im sure sooner or later someone will pop up and say "120g is bare minimum for a single male betta but only if its got plenty of live plants!"

based on the idea male jds on average get 6-8 inches and females useually get 5-6 inches. and yes there are monster jds that get 10- inches but its not something normal.

considering people keep tanks wich seem overstocked to even me when reguarding african ciclids of the same size on a regular basis my origional answer would be fine for an exsperienced aquarium keeper who will keep up with water changes.

on other websites i hear people say things require amazingly oversized tanks . mostly cause the keepers want to consider themselves elite and dont want other people with the same fish (all because they have a ton of money to spend on aquariums) if your going to judge needed aquarium size judge a fish by its average max size x activity x swiming behavior x bioload produced.

but like i said its really just opinion cause theres no way for us to know how the fish feels about it, and if you go by minimum as what can it survive you could probably easily go with a 20g if you raised it from a juvie (although i dont reccomend that for the fish's sake)

You can NOT have a JD in a 20 gallon tank. It is not about opinions here, you are purposely abusing the fish. JDs grow huge, believe me, I have my own. Putting one in a 20 gallon tank is basically gonna stunt it's growth. They do grow averagely to be 10 inches. Maybe less for you because you already stunted it's growth in a 20 gallon!

now im starting to think your just looking for someone who will argue with you, ill let you kow its not going to be me. you want to twist what i say to make yourself look like a humanitarian go for it. for those who acctually read my post they will realize i was talking about something else with a 20g and i advised agaisnt it but i did say that one would survive in one (not be happy , not be healthy, i said survive.) you want to demonise me to make yourself look better go ahead but remember other people will acctually read what i wrote and not just make blind assumptions while skimming over.

if it makes you feel any better here "your allways right, and you are special, your the only person whos ever had a fish before." thats all you want to read anyways, anything else will just be grounds for arguing. mazza can you lock this thread before he ends up saying i said you should keep an arrowana in a fishbowl.

I'm not looking for anyone to argue with, nor do I want to. And you don't even know how I am, don't assume I want is this type of talk

I read over your post too fast, my apologies. Lock this post up whatever. FYI, I'm not a guy.

lmao. I keep my Oscar in an 80gal because I don't want anyone else with anything less possesing these rare fish :lol:.