Mated pair of Dempsey's

[fishguy420]

very nice looking jds the blue comes out real nice in them

[eltylT]

At certain times or when the light hit her just right the female is REALLY blue . I just love the way the males dorsal and anal flow almost to the end of his tail AWESomE
I'll try and get a pic of that next , if my digital camera ever charges up . I think you will like those . May even enter it into POTM.

[Northerly]

For the last 1.5 yrs. they have been alone but prior to that there was a pleco in with them. He has been rehomed and the other 3 JD's didn't make it passed the first year 1 passed because of stress from those 2 . one of them dissepeared (I think the pleco ate it also because it was the runt and the 3rd one was befriended by a neighbor} I think I have spoiled them.It seems like they don't want to eat anything unless it is alive.( crickets or worms).I suppose I'll have to try and train them to eat pellets before winter gets here . I hope I can do it.I hope this pic is a good one . It was taken by my phone. I'll have to learn how to post more than 1 pic at a time.

A good way to train fish on a new food is to fast them(spread out feedings by a few days) and only feed the pellets or whatever you want to train them on. This doesnt mean starve them though! just give them a little more... incentive to eat the foods you want:)good luck.

[eltylT]

Thanks for all the replies . I will try the bit on letting them not feed for a coupla' days and see how that goes . Thanks again and I'll let you know what happens. Oh and by the way they havn't spawned in quite some time any IDEAS on how to maybe induce it ? Or should I just let them do it when THEY get ready?

[Rocksor]

For cichlids that big, you do have to use starvation. A couple of days is not long enough. You have to crank up the heat to about 84f and speed up their metabolism. Then the only thing you feed is pellets for 10 days, cleaning up the pellets after 1-2 hours.

You might also go through several brands before they actually bite. Sometimes you'll have to soak the pellets in vitachem or garlic guard to soften it up. They like soft food. The thing that worked for my finicky JD was cichlid sticks. He didn't care for round shape pellets

[Northerly]

For cichlids that big, you do have to use starvation. A couple of days is not long enough. You have to crank up the heat to about 84f and speed up their metabolism. Then the only thing you feed is pellets for 10 days, cleaning up the pellets after 1-2 hours.

You might also go through several brands before they actually bite. Sometimes you'll have to soak the pellets in vitachem or garlic guard to soften it up. They like soft food. The thing that worked for my finicky JD was cichlid sticks. He didn't care for round shape pellets

Listen to this guy; he knows whats up lol. My experience is with malawi and smaller(younger) new world cichlids.

ALSO: not sure if this is the same for JD's but i've heard that, with new world cichlids, waiting for a thunderstorm and then doing a 50% WC (replacing the water with SLIGHTLY colder water) during the storm could result in some spawning behavior. You should wait until they are eating right, comfortable and all is well before expecting anything of that nature though.

[eltylT]

I hope 1 week of no food will be long enough . If not i'll go one more day then I guess its back ti fresh worms and crickets . I just can't stand to know they're hungry. Thanks guys I'll let you know how it goes.

[eltylT]

I've gone as long as I can stand it .They still won;t eat the pellets so I'm going to try the sticks for the next 3 days and if they don't eat I guess I;ll just have to stick with worms and crickets. Thanks for the advise . I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me Luck . PS although they don't seem to want the manmade food they are still active and seem happy,