[Jason_S]

Species Name: Archocentrus octofasciatum (formerly Nandopsis octofasciatum)

Common Name: Jack Dempsey

Size: ~8" for females and ~10" for males, but with proper care and tank size they could probably grow slightly larger

pH: ~7.0 to 7.8. This species is very tolerant and provided you properly acclimate them, they will accept a wider range of ph.

Minimum Recommended Tank Size: 40 gallons

Native Location: Central America

Temperature: 72-80F. This species is very tolerant of a fairly wide range in temp provided extremes are avoided.

Diet: Omnivore. In the aquarium, this species should be provided with a varied diet of pellets, food sticks and live/frozen/freeze dried foods.

Breeding: A pair will form at approx. 4-5". The female will guard the eggs/fry while the male will guard the surrounding area.

Gender Differences: Males will grow larger and have longer, pointed dorsal and anal fins. Males will also be more colorful and have colorful spangles (blue, green, etc.) all over his body. Females will have blue on the face and gill covers but she will not have spangles over the rest of her body.

Aggression: This ranges quite a bit from fish to fish. I've kept several different Dempseys and none of them were overly aggressive. Breeding pairs will be quite territorial though and will guard eggs/fry dilligently. You really have to judge from the individual specimen, but if you get a very small dempsey and keep him/her with other fish from a very small age they should grow up fine together. Keep in mind though that anything small enough to be eaten most certainly will be eaten. I have noticed though that all the male dempseys I've had did not get along well at all with male convicts.

Notes: Jack Dempseys can be very skittish in the aquarium. A smaller, schooling fish or floating plants may help if your Dempsey is hiding all the time.

There are 3 different color morphs of this species. One being the normal Jack Dempsey of course and there is also a Gold and an Electric Blue morph. The Gold Dempsey is virtually the same fish as the regular dempsey similar to how there are Black/striped Convicts as well as Pink Convicts.

Blue Dempseys are much more fragile, less aggressive and grow smaller than regular Jack Dempseys. In order to breed Blue Dempseys and get Blue Dempsey fry, it is believed you must have one parent that is a blue dempsey and the other parent must be a regular dempsey that is the offspring of a blue dempsey. Even if you are able to get such a pair, the survival rate of the Blue fry is typically very low.