jack dempsey tank mates.

Does anybody know how well a jack dempsey will get along with a silver dollar and a tinfoil barb? Or have any suggestions on what are good tank buddies for one?

How large is the Dempsey? I have Dempsey's and as long as they are with fish of similar size, they pretty much keep to them selves. They usually become the dominate fish in the tank. Again, depending on tank mates. If your Dempsey is around the same size as your silver dollar and barb, the Dempsey should leave them alone. If you want to add mates to the aquarium, I would suggest anything with a little attitude. I have Red Devils, Urothalmus, Jags, Loiselli, Carpintis, Convicts, Salvini, Flowerhorn, Green Terror, Xiloaensis, and Hogaboomarums with my Dempseys. All of these fish can have an attitude. Some more than others. But I feel that if the aggression is spread out, and the fish grow up together, they tend to tolerate each other. And it makes adding others a bit easier. The only problem I have when adding a fish is if the dominant fish in the tank feel threatened they will attack the new addition. So I do have fights at times but it is usually against fish of similar size. My pecking order is my Hoga male & female, then my Red Devil male, then the Loiselli, Dempsey, female Devils, Salvini, Flowerhorn and Carpintis are even, Xilo, Uros, Cons, etc....... My jag is still small so it holds its own.

Thanks for help! Right now the dempsey is less then two inches where as the tin foil is a little over three and the silver dollar is about two and half inches. I was looking at a black convict as well but I wasn't sure on how well they'd get along. I really want to get a big tank with a bunch of ciclids but I don't know which ones get along.

1"-2" is the perfect size to start. They all will get along to some extent while small and will begin the pecking order as they mature. I have been keeping Cichlids for a long time, and I always force feed my species. Basically I put them all together and force them to get along. You will have casualties. The weak fish will not survive. But in my experience, I have not had any issues with getting them to co-exist at a young age.

When they pair off and begin to spawn then they get more aggressive. Then you may have issues. But that wont be for a while, so you will learn a lot before that time comes. I have 40 different Cichlid species co-existing, if you have any questions feel free to PM me any time.

I have just started to raise the tank killers. I have recently picked up 4 Dovi(wolf cichlid), 4 Umbees, 5 Red Tiger Motaguensis. The Dovi and Mota's are still about 1.5" while my Umbee's are 3"-4". As soon as the Umbee's get comfortable, I will introduce them to my big boy tank.

I had my dempsey in with a green terror... they got along fine.... this is along time ago.... but they worked well in a 55gal surprisingly. I know now that is too small of a tank, but I was a newb.