Jack Dempsey

The Jack Dempsey cichlid reaches about 20 cm standard length and carries the name of the American heavyweight boxer, reportedly for its strong facial features and pugnacious nature. It comes from the Atlantic slope of Central America, from the Río Actopan in Veracruz, Mexico south through Belize and Guatemala to the rivers of western Honduras, and it is an ecological generalist there: coastal drainages, slow lower river reaches, man-made canals, drainage ditches, lakes and ponds all hold it. Aquarium releases have since founded feral populations as far apart as the United States, Russia, Australia and Thailand.

An adult pair needs a base of at least 120 by 45 cm, roughly 243 litres. Young fish can be grown on together but turn territorial as they mature, and a bonded pair will be peaceful with each other while staying hostile to other cichlids and to anything of similar shape. A community is possible if every tankmate is too large to read as prey, though housing this species with other cichlids takes a much bigger tank. Water quality matters more than decor: these fish are sensitive to deteriorating conditions and should never go into a biologically immature aquarium.

Keep the water at 20 to 30 °C, pH 6.5 to 8.0 and 5 to 20 dGH. Use soft sand with a flat water-worn rock or two as potential spawning sites, dim lighting, and driftwood or roots for structure. Rooted plants get dug up, so attach java fern or anubias to the decor instead. Feed a varied diet of sinking dried food, frozen daphnia, mosquito and chironomid larvae and prawn. Spawning is biparental on a substrate, so a settled pair will guard eggs and fry together. An electric blue strain sold as EBJD turns up occasionally and tends to stay smaller.