rem8490

I have 2 Jack Dempsey Cichlids, a male and female, and I am having trouble understanding the female. When I first put her in the tank, she seemed to be the aggressor (biting him and chasing him), but soon after he took complete control and now she seems really scared or something. When I put live feed in he eats them all and if she even tries to, he starts chasing her and she just hides. She's been hanging around at the top of the tank by the filter or down at the bottom in what seems to be like a divot in the rocks that she has made. When she's down there, she just stays in one spot without moving for hours. He has pretty much doubled his size since I got him and she doesn't seem to be growing at all. Can someone give me some ideas of what I should do?

Shawnie

Hi rem..welcome to fishlore!!

Try putting mr jd in a bucket with some tank water for a lil while...re arrange the tank deco, then put him back in...sorta a time out and back to a new home see if that helps at all goodluck!

capekate

Hello and welcome to fishlore!
I also have a female and male JD. They are still very young at around 3 inches. My male, Jack does the same thing. Jill will hide out up behind the heater to get away from Jack. But its not as bad a situation as your two. But my Jack will chase the female away at feeding time too. But I make sure that I spread the food around so while Jack is busy eating, Jill can get some food as well. I have only introduced Jill four days ago and at first Jack was really chasing her and biting at her and she would swim away from him and hide. But after four days she is not so scared anymore and Jack is much more tolerant of her now and they eat side by side.
Shawnie has a great suggestion. If you take the male out for awhile and put him in a bowl ( with a top so he doesnt jump out) rearrange the tank set up, then when you put him back in he may not feel so dominate. My concern would be the fact that the male is growing much faster than the female. It can either mean she is not getting enough food, or its just the male is much larger than the female and growing at a faster rate.
I hope that you try feeding them by spreading the food from one end of the tank to other, so that they each can have their own area's in which to eat.
Good luck with them, they are wonderful fish and full of so much personality!

macroman

You don't say what size your tank is but if it is large enough
you could try putting a divider in for a while, this will give the
female time to recouperate and gain a bit more confidence,
it will also give her a better chance to get conditioned if
they decide to pair up and breed.

rem8490

thank you all so much for the ideas. I was trying allot of things, but none of them seemed to be working. I will try the rearranging idea and let you know what happens. Thanks again.

macroman

I hope it works out for you rem, keep us updated.

TaylormadeR7

Couple ?'s. What size tank? Any other fish in with the pair?

Dithers would help take attention away from each other. IE: tetras, giant danios or even a couple SA Cichlids.(firemouth) I have a pair that the male gets a little nasty with his mate after a spawn. I throw in a couple JD's from another tank to draw his attention away from her. They then defend their territory together and I remove the other JD's.You may want to try putting a couple more JD's in there and watch for a pair to form and remove the rest. Take them back to your LFS or find a home for them.
Males get larger then females so the size change to me is normal.

All this really depends on tank size and filtration. 55 or larger okay. Smaller I would reconsider my stock list.
Good luck, Rich

rem8490

Thank you for the tip Rich. My tank is 55 gal, and I have a Pleco, Iridescent Shark, and 4 Kissing Gourami in with the pair. I think I will try putting in another JD and see how that works. Thanks again.