EBJD update

[fatpuffer]

EBJD and JD parents:

BGJD Fry (hmmm...no barring yet):

Corona my synspillum:

[Guest Master of Puppets]

You gonna sell me some ebjd fry there jonah?

[fatpuffer]

THe fry are not ebjd...they are blue gene jack dempsey. They carry the trait but do not express it. I will have to breed it back to an ebjd or bgjd to get any ebjd fry.

Jonah

[Guest Master of Puppets]

So are they just same ol' jd's?

[fatpuffer]

Appearance yes, but remember they carry the EBJD gene; some say bgjd have more spangles but it is not a consensus. BGJD are more sought after than the actual EBJD as they are the one that will produce the ebjd. Some say breeding two different bgjd line is better as they can make for more stronger EBJD.

BGJD are very "protected" by the breeders; I've tried to purchase some but either they want to trade BGJD or 150 plus for one and I was not ready to dish the kind of money.

Js

Edited September 26, 2009 by fatpuffer

[Guest Master of Puppets]

I still dont really know what a BGJD is.

[Sean Westle]

Here's a quote from a very knowledgeable person

"For those who have just recently been introduce to the beautiful Electric Blue Jack Dempsey (EBJD), here’s a brief introduction to the fish that was first introduced into the hobby in 1985 by Hector Luzardo from Argentina.

EBJDs are a color variant of the “regular” Jack Dempseys (JD) we’ve seen in the trade for decades. Regular Jack Dempseys are usually as aggressive as they are beautiful, with their spangled blue scales spattered on what is usually a gray-brown body. The EBJD isn’t as aggressive and its body is almost solid electric/metallic blue with spangles of black, and sometimes hues of gold or green. The aberrant hues of green and gold fade and the blue intensify with the fish’s age.

It’s generally excepted that this color morph has a genetic propensity towards health problems. These problems seem to manifest when they are younger. Under ideal conditions, meaning high water quality, good food, low competition they do well. They are most stressed when set up in a new tank. They are susceptible to internal parasites and poor water quality. Once they become established in their tank, after about 2 months, they seem to thrive and are as hardy as many other fish.

The blue color (Phenotype) is a recessive trait, which makes it rare, but it does occur in nature. Because the blue variant is also weaker than its regular JD and Blue Gene (Genotype) spawnmates, they rarely if ever survive more than a few weeks. This means that in nature the blue variant is nearly always carried by and passed on through what in the hobby we call Blue Gene Jack Dempseys (BGJD). BGJDs carry the gene for blue (Genotype), but because the gene is recessive, the BGJDs have the same appearance (Phenotype) as regular JD.

I’ve personally observed this natural selection process while breeding and rearing EBJDs myself. If the EBJDs are not separated from the BGJDs by about 4-5 weeks old, about 95% of the EBJD fry will fail to thrive and quickly be out competed for food and begin dying in mass by about week 7-8. The 5% EBJDs that seem to be able to compete with their BGJD spawnmates, about ½ thrive at about the middle of the spawn, as far as size and aggressiveness goes and the other ½ will gradually be out competed and likely eventually die if not given extra attention.

If you want to try to your hand at producing this beautiful Dempsey, you need to know a little bit about how to produce a recessive, blue phenotype fish (EBJD), from a regular JD. If you can skip any of the steps along the way you will save more than 1 year per step.

To begin, you have to get an EBJD and raise it to adulthood, about 12-14 months. You also need a regular JD of the opposite sex. There seems to be a much higher ratio of male EBJDs to females. Anyway, you need to spawn these two fish in order to get BGJDs, remember these are the fish that carry the gene for blue. 100% of the fry from this spawn will be BGJDs.

Next, you raise these BGJDs to adulthood, another 12-14 months. Once you’ve produced your adult BGJD, you breed it to an EBJD. Of the resultant spawn 50% will be BGJDs and 50% will be EBJDs. If you start with the average sized EBJD found at your local fish store (LFS) or the size found online, which is about 1 ½”, it will take about 2 ½ years for you to produce your own batch of 1 ½” EBJDs.

[robin]

kewl

[fatpuffer]

Hope that helped.

Couple more pics.

[Bluecan]

wow that male is nice ......!! im jealous..