The beautiful cichlid Rocio octofasciata from Mexico is still known by many older people as Cichlasoma biocellatum. But all over the world young and old know him also under the popular name “Jack Dempsey”, although you have to be quite old to have experienced this legendary heavyweight boxer still in his active time: Jack Dempsey’s fights for the world championship took place in the 1920s.
R. octofasciata got its popular name from its combative nature. However, one must keep in mind that in the 1920s a 60-cm aquarium was considered quite large. In such small tanks, many cichlids actually behave very aggressively against tankmates, because they claim the entire space as their territory. In today’s common, much larger aquariums the Jack Dempsey can be classified as rather peaceful.
In the photo tank, we had used one male and four females for this session; after all, the real Jack Dempsey was married four times. One of his wives was silent film star Estelle Taylor, considered one of the most beautiful women of her time. And the cichlid females are really very fancy, too. Hardly in the aquarium, they dyed themselves almost black and fenced a hierarchy among themselves, while the well double so large gentleman observed the happening unimpressed and drew measured his courses…
Rocio octofasciata is an open breeder with parent family. Breeding usually succeeds without problems with a harmonizing pair, which is best found from a group.
For our customers: the animals have code 657002 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.
Text & Photos: Frank Schäfer
