More Jack Dempseys, Octosaciatum octofasciatum, with pictures

	More Jack Dempseys Several Jack Dempseys with comments

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If you want specific Dempsey info, go to Jack Dempsey. LA Nine-inch close to overgrown Dempsey. Large overweight guys or gals like these are not good prospects as potential breeders -- not really interested. He's going on a low carb diet today. Fins not totally erect. Tail clamped. Plonking on bottom. Hungry dempseys are up and active -- not loafing on the substrate. Probably a male (high spangle count). You can't always rely on males sporting longer dorsal and anal fins. That's a general rule with lots of exceptions. A few scale wounds but not many. Dempseys are good healers. Color? Dempseys are not really green. They look blue under regular aquarium lights. Penn Plax Aquarilux™ fluorescent tubes are heavy in the blue spectrum. The camera flash overrides the blue so these rascals that appear blue in real life look green on camera. Try to remember that these are all blue fishes. LA Pic Even sadder looking nine-inch fatty here. Probably a female (low spangle count). If you viewed this gal from the top, you could see how wide in the body she really is. The dark substrate usually causes Dempseys to darken up a lot. LA Pic Only four-inches long but looking much better than the preceding monsters. Tail a little clamped and his body's at an angle making him look foreshortened, but this guy/gal looks to be a potential breeder. Erect fins and clear eyes are also good signs. By the way, Dempseys in breeding condition or fighting stance also darken in color. Little dempseys kept with African cichlids stay black regardless of condition or substrate color. LA Pic At three inches, she has little spangle development yet. Nice shape and fins. Red trim on dorsal adds a nice touch. Cichlasoma octofasciatum means eight-barred cichlid. We probably need a new name for a fourteen-barred cichlid. These bars come and go depending on the Dempsey's mood. Spangles on the adults pretty much obscure the bars. LA Pic Here's what were looking for in a five-inch specimen -- good fins, good body, good color. If you want to get real anal, you could count off for the uneven spangle/scale pattern. But this would not matter unless this guy was being judged against a perfect specimen. And they are out there. Has anyone practiced selective breeding on this species? Or does everyone let the fish pick their own partners. Most breeders select for spawn size rather than beauty. LA Pic Another guy at five inches. Compare the two specimens to find plusses and minuses. Torn dorsal fins can result from fights but more likely come from poor moving technique. When you catch a cichlid in a net, most erect their dorsal and anal fins to make them harder to swallow. Those erect spines can catch in your net and result in tears. They can also stab your hand pretty good and punch holes in plastic bags. If moving your Dempsey to a show, capture him in a one-gallon ice cream container. Push the bucket against the glass, then slip the lid over the top, and move him to your transport container -- preferably a five-gallon plastic bucket with just enough water to cover them. LA Pic So fat he just plonks on the bottom waiting for someone to deliver an anchovy pizza. Plenty of healed wounds on his sides. This guy may be too old to recover. What a lump. And he's just under 10 inches long. LA Pic Same length but in so much better condition. Note how his spangles/scales run in nearly even stripes. Probable male. Still needs to eat less. Good fins. Tear in dorsal and tail fins. Nothing non-healable here. Photos 6.7.04. Now we want to sort thru some of our other tanks and add them to our Jack Dempsey line up. Most of these others are smaller than the first batch. LA Pic Three-inch specimen over light gravel. He's also by himself, so he has no incentive to darken. A half-dozen or so in a 55 are all very dark. They're in with similar size cichlids plus much larger catfishes and a six-inch convict. His pinkish base is black on the others. Can you see his octofasciatums? Or do you see more? Tail display's just okay. LA Pic You usually don't see the bars on large specimens. At nine-inches, this guy looks whupped -- lots of what looks like healed scrapes along his side or maybe they're just irregular scales. Dempseys that plonk on the bottom make a less than perfect impression. In his defense, he's only been in this 10-gallon tank for one day. He came from a 150 and probably hates his new neighborhood. LA Pic By color we'd assume this is a female. Red trim on dorsal adds to her allure. You can see her bars -- all eight or so. We have a winner... I guess you really need to pickle these guys to bring out their bars. Hopefully, pickled Dempseys taste as good as pickled herring. LA Pic Another specimen showing its bars. Probably a mood thing. This gal was just moved. LA Pic Four-inch specimen in a bare tank. Unpainted glass on bottom with light coming from below causes this guy to bleach out. You can see lots of bars, limited spangles, and unappealing finnage. No injuries. He just needs a better tank. LA Pic Three-inch specimen in a bare tank with a black bottom. Note how the black bottom darkens his body colors. LA Pic Another three incher over a black bottom. Black substrates really darken them up -- even if it is only painted glass. LA Pic Four incher over unpainted glass. Even the bars are faded. LA Pic However, a bleached out four incher like this guy has a lot of potential -- no obvious flaws other than the easily corrected light color. LA Pic Three incher in a cichlid community tank. The smaller guys and gals look better than the larger specimens. This guy seems to have eight bars. Tail's a bit frayed due to the other bity cichlids in this tank. LA Pic Five incher in same community tank. Interesting color pattern. His eight bars are light colored. Tail and fins are all chewed. LA Pic This six-inc matriarch (older males develop a slight bump as opposed to this cranial dip) of the tank sets a bad example. Not overweight like the specimens at the top, she still looks stressed. Her light color makes her "eight" bars quite visible. For some reason, the smaller Dempseys color up better in this tank. LA Pic One of the three inchers in the tank shows his bars. LA Pic And here's a 4.5-inch specimen showing his bars. Can you see how crossing this guy with a red devil would result in a flower horn cichlid? Photos 9.5.04. Here we see three new Dempseys just arrived. We probably should have waited a week or two to give them time to adjust. Maybe we can shoot them again later. LA Pic Nice color. Probable male. Tank needs cleaning. LA Pic Torn and bitten fins. Light colored body. LA Pic Not a poser. Had to push him out with a net handle. Not adjusted yet. Judging Standards. Perhaps you can look at some of these comments as ways to judge fishes. Static pictures fail to take deportment into account. Some of the smaller guys had to be pried out of their lurking sites. Others were in your facers. And, you can see that size is not really a decisive factor on its own. Photos make size neutral because all these specimens from two to nine inches look the same size because of the way the photos were cropped. One photo does not make a good standard. All species are on a continuum -- actually, several continuums. Last Word? Perhaps we can add more to this Rogue’s Gallery later. We’ll see what develops. Maybe we can revisit some of the lumps we’re putting on a diet. Photos 9.30.04. Alright, here’s a couple new dempseys. LA Pic Male with teeth. LA Pic Lotsa spangles. Lotsa fins. Hefty bod. LA Pic Female less colorful. Fins just as long. Thinner bod. Shyer. LA Pic Same female (right) certainly stands up for her rights. LA Pic 02.27.05. Just when you thought you'd seen the last of the white Dempseys ... LA 12.27.05. Gold ones look better. Male on left. LA Female here. Male not cooperative at all. Good six inches long. Regulars look better. LA. © 2004 LA Productions 3600 Sixth Avenue Corner of Sixth & Euclid Avenues Des Moines, IA 50313 515 283-0300 Home Fish Other Stuff	Anabantids Betta Leaf Betta Breed 1 Betta Breed II Betta Info Betta Housing Betta Pla Kat Choc Gourami Climbing Perch Gourami Pix Kiss. 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