Set up for EBJD

Hi there!

A pet shop near me has many EBJD's in stock and I'm thinking of picking up a couple as the primary fish for my new 46 gallon bowfront. It's cycled and mostly decorated, although I already put in tons of rock caves because it was initially going to be a mbuna tank of yellow labs and acei. But now I'm stuck on the idea of a JD or EBJD pair.

Can you guys help me with stocking ideas? I was thinking of doing an EBJD pair, but I understand that they are difficult to sex and even then, would not produce viable offspring. Given how expensive they are, this gives me pause. Alternately I could do an EBJD/JD pair and get into EBJD breeding, which would be cool, but not sure yet (as in buy one expensive EBJD of either sex and several JD's and hope that the EBJD pairs off with one of the JD's and then re-home the remaining JD's since they are inexpensive. I'd then go through the process of selecting some BGJD's from the offspring, sell the rest, and set up a new tank with a new EBJD/BGJD pair and breed EBJD's and sell them and their BGJD brothers and sisters locally.)

If I got an EBJD pair or EBJD/JD pair, could I also add dither fish to the tank? I was thinking a school of giant danios. And what about some bottom feeders, like maybe clown loaches? Would this type of group maybe get along if all bought as juvies (I know with cichlids there are no guarantees)? Or would the breeding (EB)JD's eventually kill the others?

Another thing to note is that I accept the fact that I'll eventually have to move up to a larger tank, and have several tanks going, and may rearrange my stocking as the fish grow bigger. I dream of having an oscar pair some day too, so bigger tanks are definitely in my future!

So, if you were me, had 46 cycled gallons to work with (for now) and was attracted to JD's/EBJD's, what would you do?

The other idea I was contemplating was getting several CA/SA cichlids, but to do an all male or all female tank, with one of each species. Not sure how viable this is? Like if I did a female JD, a female GT, etc. and skip the breeding altogether?

SIGH - I can't make up my mind!

Just saw this post after your greeting. My 2 EBJD are about 3-3.5 inches now and I have them in a 75 with 6" pictus catfish, 8" pleco, 4" tin barbs, 1.5" orange barbs, 4" bala sharks & one retarded little 2" convict. I can feed them french style string beans by hand.

The whole breeding thing gets complicated and the potentially 50% blue fry are like the weak runts. I read up a bunch on it and decided for myself that I am not going to bother.. just enjoy them.

If you do get them, look very close for defects in the eyes and the body shape. Less of a parrot shaped head is more attractive if you plan to breed.

Thanks for the reply!

My other idea is to maybe do a tank of multiple SAs but just one of each. Like one EBJD, one firemouth, one green terror, one convict, etc. I'd love a school of dithers too, for visual interest, like maybe some rainbows or giant danios.

Is this a feasible idea, if I don't want to breed? I've researched but can't find much info about mixing one off SA's like this so not sure how to interpret that - either it's common for people to do this or it's a recipe for disaster I imagine that one of these would kill off the others, but then I think maybe not, if you take breeding out of the equation and provide lots of cover?

I've researched the heck out of africans, but am just venturing into SA's because the JD's and EBJD's caught my fancy in a big way.

TIA!