Jags

Hey all,
Lets set the scene: I am visiting a friend of mine one afternoon and as I walked into the lounge I saw hugee jaguar cichlids (3) in his show tank that he recently moved out of the fish room and into the lounge... I fell in love:love:
He says that he is trying to breed them and I would like to steal some fry from him, the only problem is that I know nothing about keeping these fish, and the biggest tank that i have avalible is a spare 50 gallon.
So I would like to know if that tank would do fine for a growout tank and if so then for how long?
& lastly, can someone give me a quick rundown on how to keep these fish, I would really appreciate it!
Jords.

 

Good Question! They are beautiful fish, but believe they need a proper sized tank and grow to be quite big.

 

Just as a grow out until I have the funds for a large enough tank.
He lives down the road do I will be able to get these fish tiny!
Jordan.

 

Grow out tank wont last long bud...as with most of the bigger cichlids, they grow exponentially big within the first few months. Reaching 50-70% of their adult size within a year of birth, only after that does the growing rate decrease until they reach their adult size.

So within a matter of let's say a year you gonna sit with what...15-20cm fish. Which will have stunted growth if your tank aint big enough.

I was in the same boat with my oscars...so waited a few months till I could afford it and bought a 2meter tank for 2 x 6cm red oscars. Within a year they where over 20cm

 

Hi Jordan

See this is a few months old and i have not been around for sometime, just a few basic tips.. make sure what your getting in to do a lot of reading and prep work..

As JAX said they can grow quick but that is also to do with u, what u feed and how often also the tank setup etc.

From the word go know what u want, if u get a few babies u will land up with only a paid or a single male... then deside how u want to play it out as here is where things get really good. At 20cm + u will need a 700L+ tank to keep him and a tank mate if u go that route.

Jaguars will ambush there tank mates and take big part of the tank in some casses even beyond the limits of the tank. u have a 50/50 that he will play nice, if not u will have a bad ass on your hands not bad thing as u can keep him as a center piece as i did with my zonatus...

Note: stay away from live food if u can..

Remember small tank bigger aggression..

 

Yep, my Jag grows about 1CM a week atm. He is in my large tank (see link in sig). Everyone knows Oscars grow fast if fed right... my Jag is following the same pace. I got him three months ago at less than 5cm in size, he is now 19CM. That means if you feed it like you are supposed to then you will need a new tank for a Jag within three to four months to.

I feed my fish all kinds of things, 90% cichlid pellets, 5% frozen like shrimp / bloodworm and 5% live like roaches etc. The Jag typically does not touch live food while the Oscars love them. I was lucky, so far he is fine with all my other fish in the tank and they don't fight. He even comes out to me every time I walk past my tank, where as in the past I had Jags who would always just hide until its feeding time.

 

That is a really good growth rate your jag has, my one got to 21cm but got killed by my 18cm vieja zonatus.. i added a oscar with them and it put the balance off in the tank, vieja beat the oscar with in a ins of his life then all was good two days later all hell broke loose destroyed my jag the started going after the oscar. pulled the oscar out and kept the vieja by him self but ya... i only use tetra and hikari pellets and frozen foods. but i love my large cichlids great fun and great wet pets..

 

this was more then a year back,zonatus got to 30cm +-