Jack Dempsey or Jewel Cichlid

So my friend has a 55gal tank full of cichlids, with a few pairs of different species. His black ones that were sold to him as jeweled cichlids have spawned, and I was able to rescue about 20 fry. But my concern is that after scouring the interwebs pictures I have been unable to locate any information indicating that its a jewel, as most have a red tint (I also just got what I know for certain are.jewels for free yesterday). The closest picture I could find of what the fish looked like was of a jack Dempsey. The fry are striped black and white though. I will have to wait to upload pics until I get to the library.

Are there such thi gs as black jeweled cichlids? What other cichlids produce striped black and white striped fry?

I currently have the fry in a 1gal critter kreeper that I do 50% water changes daily. I am assuming that they would eat my smaller gourami fry food f I put them in the 10gal with them, am I correct? What is the best thing to feed them? I have some white worms I got from BillHN that I am trying to keep a culture of, but they seem too big to feed them. So far they've gotten a mixture of betta micro crumble, decaps brine shrimp, and the concoction of mixed powder I feed the gouramis.

First bites by Hikari, or by NLS. It is a powder, you mix a bit in some water and pour into the tank. The fry will at this and this only for about 5 weeks. Then you can start to feed them pellet food crushed up into a crumble, or crumble up flakes and feed them that.

As for type of fish, it would be best to get pics of the parents. Just because you see something on line that resembles the parents, doesnt mean thats what the parents actually are..

Okay, I have some hikari first bites mixed into my gourami fry food. I will start feeding them that from now on.

I am going to his house in a few and will get some pics, though like I said, it will be a while before I can even post them. Is there such thing as a black jewel cichlid?

CrazedAce wrote:Okay, I have some hikari first bites mixed into my gourami fry food. I will start feeding them that from now on.

I am going to his house in a few and will get some pics, though like I said, it will be a while before I can even post them. Is there such thing as a black jewel cichlid?

I don't believe so. you may be on to something with the jack dempsey's as they are jewel like in shape when they are small, and can be a dark blackish color with blue pearls when stressed / spawning. I could see someone mistakenly calling them a black jewel.

something like these very dark jack dempseys:

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or this

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both have similar shapes to a jewel at these smaller sizes

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Is anyone able to view this link? I tried posting it as img but it didn't work. Anyone ever use SkyDrive before?

If not, the fish looks almost exactly like the ones posted. The fins are identical, though the shimmer is green instead of blue.

Yup, thats a jack

JD.

Woot! Well I am going to continue to do my best at raising these guys. Looks like they cannibalized one of their own today. I'll try white worms tomorrow, see if they show interest or not. I'm not sure how old they are, anyone ever breed these before?