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I just saw another post with a pic of a Jag.....OMG...he's huge! We bought a Jag about a month ago, he's OBVIOUSLY a juvie. I was wondering just how big they get, and how fast do they grow? He's 3" now. He has quite the personality. He is aggressive, which we knew he would be, but he is also very tame. He comes right to me every feeding time, he wiggles his tail fin in excitement. If anyone could give me any insight as to what this little guy is going to be like, I would appreciate it. His name is JAG...how appropriate......

females usually average 8-11 inches
males 12-14" but 15+" is possiable

Originally posted by Thorsmom
I just saw another post with a pic of a Jag.....OMG...he's huge! We bought a Jag about a month ago, he's OBVIOUSLY a juvie. I was wondering just how big they get, and how fast do they grow? He's 3" now. He has quite the personality. He is aggressive, which we knew he would be, but he is also very tame. He comes right to me every feeding time, he wiggles his tail fin in excitement. If anyone could give me any insight as to what this little guy is going to be like, I would appreciate it. His name is JAG...how appropriate......

Depending on which source you believe, Jag will end up at between 12 and 16 inches. As far as growth speed, I recently "babysitted" a Jaguar for a friend that owns a LFS. In the three or four months I kept him he grew about an inch, so I'm thinking about a quarter-inch per month. However, I have read claims of up to an inch a month, so your mileage may vary. The word to describe his adult personality would be "ferocious". He will own his aquarium. However, I read in several places that their personalities are similar to Oscars in that they are different from specimen to specimen -- some are quite aggressive, even attempting to attack people and pets outside of the aquarium, and others quite benign, keeping to themselves and hiding a lot. The little feller that I had for a while was pretty calm. There's a couple of commercial websites that say Jaguars can be kept in 55 gallon tanks, but consensus seems to require 150 gallons or more per fish. My personal opinion is 150+, because of not only their size but their body shape -- they are like torpedoes, capable of huge bursts of speed. Seems to me they would bonk their noses against the glass at speed quite often if kept in small aquaria. With the strength that they have at adulthood, I wouldn't be surprised if they cracked the aquarium glass, similar to stories I've heard about Pacu. Finally, forget tankmates -- they will either be food or killed out of meanness. But I think Jaguars are one of the prettiest of all the Cichlids, so if you have the facilities and the knowhow Jag will make you a great long-term pet. --Mark:cool:

Thanks Mark....much appreciate the input. He certainly is a beauty. He is not only cute, but a HAPPY little guy. He loves his brine shrimp, krill, and cichlid flake. He will eventually be moved to our 1300 gallon, indoor pond (tank) that hubby is going to build in our new house. He will be housed with a 2 foot Red Tail Catfish....I'm sure it will make for some interesting entertainment. Bytor the cat is a gentle giant, who will eat whatever is in his home, so I'm hoping that he and Jag will be friends..... Anyway, thank you very much. I love this site, I get alot of excellent advice and go no place else when it comes to my beloved cichlids!! Chow.

Originally posted by Thorsmom
. . . our 1300 gallon, indoor pond (tank) that hubby is going to build in our new house. . .

WOWSERS!! THIRTEEN HUNDRED GALLONS!!!! DANG!!!!!!!!! --Mark:cool:

My jag (that i recently returned to the LFS) was about a foot in length. He had the aquarium for a little while, and was laying around, i thought he was sick. He snapped out of that after I added a 8" jack dempsey. The dempsey would always be behind the rocks where the jag could not catch him. So I went out and bought a full grown 12" oscar, a 6" black belt, 5" convict, 6" green terror, and 5" blue acara to try to split up the aggression. The oscar was single out right away, the jag was nipping at him for about 15 minutes until the oscar tried to bite back, when he did that the jag locked on the oscars mouth and swam/pushed the oscar to the bottom of the tank ::thud:: the oscar stayed in the corner the rest of the day. My convict was later killed, after that, i returned the jag to the pet store and took home a 9" jag (new home, might not think the tank is his" he got along with all the fish and even swam with the oscar. That lasted about, 3 days, tops. The 2nd jag soon claimed the tank and every other fish would not come out, so i had to return him too. Two different jags, both hyper aggressive and very territorial. This was in a 125g tank (6ftL, 1.5ftW) and just like your baby jag, he liked me (swam over to me all the time, etc etc) but showed no aggression towards me. Just an idea of how yours will probably turn out to be. Altho in 1300g's of water i dont think it will matter if theres 1 other fish in there.

Here's my Jag... he's about 13 inches long. He shows different levels of agressiveness. Hes not agressive to me as I feed him everyday. But he likes to take it out on my son whenever he passes by the aquarium. The Jag will actually dart and chase my son and hit his head on the glass whenever my son would put or show up on the other side of the aquarium. Of course I already advised my son not to agitate the big guy. He sees to get along well with the 2 5-insh janitor fish I put in. .. Although he ate the 3-inch janitor when I forgot to feed him for a day and a half.

A site mantioned that they can mix well with big and rowdy cichlids... but not with another Jag. So I plan to put in my flowerhorn when he hits about 8 inches (gulp).

WOW...beautiful fish!!! Ours is still a baby, but growing everyday. Cant wait til he's bigger.....

Jags are nice fish. I've heard of them growing to 17"! But I don't think that's normal.