Jack Dempsey Cichlid

Question
I have a 60 gallon tank. I had South American Cichlids. I had the following fish, black/white convict, green texas, managua,severum. orange midas, yellow snook and a jack dempsey. For the most part, all of the fish got along rather well. I got two real bad cases of ick and the only two fish to survive, were the snook and the dempsey. Recently the snook died. Since then, my dempsey has been displaying very disturbing behavior. I have a rock wall type structure in my tank that has an air stone in it. My dempsey keeps ramming himself into the small openings which have left two indents in his head. My dempsey is approximately  6 inches long. When I had the snook, they had their moments. They would go after each other, not too bad as they wee about the same size. My question is, since my dempsey is the only fish left, could he be lonely? I don't want to get rid of him and I can't put smaller fish in with him because I fear he will attack them, but I don't want him to continue to hurt himself either. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you.

Answer
Hi Paul,
 Fish seldom get "lonely" so that is not likely the issue.  Do you have other places in the tank for the dempsey to hide?   Consider adding a bunch of flowerpots with the bottoms knocked out, plus some plastic plants.  You could also add some large pieces of wood or rock to make caves. Cichlids do not like to feel "exposed".

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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