# Female Jack Dempsey?? ID this fish! [pics]



## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

OK, first of all, Im very sorry about the quality of these pics. We just bought a brand new digicam and it totally sucks. If you ever see a Palaroid PDC 5080 and you think "wow, 5 megapixels, thats a great price" - think again, its a piece of crap.

Anyways LOL I bought this fish about a month ago out of my LFS's cichlid tank where they usually keep Firemouths, JDs, Convicts, etc. I bought it thinking it was a young Female JD, to go along with my older male. However, the more I look at this fish, the more Im starting to wonder what I really bought...

The body shape is just WEIRD for a JD, or at least what I know them to be. I know females are supposed to be more "round" shaped than males, but this is like a major difference. And her mouth isnt that roundish beak looking mouth that's typical of JDs - hers is way more pointed. Also, the dorsal fin makes no sense to me... it almost looks like a bluegill's dorsal (the way its all arched and spikey) - my male JD's fins look NOTHING like this. I mean, she _almost_ looks like a Texas cichlid the way her body is shaped. Also, her coloring is somewhat strange. She has a greyish/blue undertone with some black stiping/spots, and metallic light blue'ish green flecking. Her eyes also look weird; they are like solid pumpkin orange. My male has brown undertone with dark eyes.

Needless to say, this fish looks NOTHING like my other jack dempsey, who is definitely the most beautiful fish I've ever owned, and he's still young  So can you guys help me out here a lil? LOL


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## 247Plants (Mar 23, 2006)

Just my guess here.....Id say texas cichlid....not a cichlid guy myself tho..


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## raven_wilde (Nov 16, 2005)

I'm pretty sure that is not a female Jack as until recently I had one of each (decided to give the female to the LFS to avoid aggression issues in the tank)... not sure what it actually is though... you might want to post these pics over on cichlid-forum.com/. Somebody over there will probably able to help you out.

As for getting your male JD a girlfriend this is probably a bad idea unless they have a tank to themselves... when Jacks start to do the mating dance they get _extremely_ territorial... it's been said that they will kill all their other tankmates. This is why I gave my female up, after having the both of them for almost two years they were starting to reach 'that age' and judging by the increased aggression in their behaviour I could tell that bad days were ahead unless I got rid of one of them or cleared the tank out for their comfort... as it turns out I'm not a fish breeder and have no inclination to become one, so off to the LFS with the female... I did get some nice plants in exchange!


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## zzospreyzz55 (Apr 17, 2006)

That's definately one of the "Texas" species (Carpintus or Cyanoguttatum)


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