Help with Oscar tankmates

[Lynsey]

Here is my setup:

75 gallon long (5 feet long x 1.5 feet wide X 16" tall):

1 Albino Oscar (10" including tail)
1 Blood Parrot (5" including tail)
1 Sunshine Pleco L-14 (8")
4 Silver Dollars
2 Fluval 404 canisters, 1 Maxi-jet 1200, weekly water changes. I have not tested my ammonia or nitrites in a while, but my nitrates are never above 10ppm.

I posted about a month ago about my Oscar chasing my BP around (they were fine together for a little over a year). There has been no damage, but my BP gets a little stressed out. I recently added the silver dollars and rearranged the tank hoping that would settle my Oscar down. It worked for about a month, and now I have seen my Oscar start chasing my BP again. I think I might have to take out my BP. Is there anything I can do to make them happy again? If not, and I take out my BP is there anything I can add to the tank? like maybe a firemouth? or convict? or any other type of non-cichlid. I know my tank is pretty full already, but I am very diligent with my tank upkeep. If not, I guess my Oscar will have to live solo.

[scott]

If you are pulling out the BP I would think a Firemouth would be okay. Or how about another Oscar? Two Oscar's with some Silver dollars would be fine with weekly water changes, you have plenty of filtration. If you didn't want to take anyone out I have had success by smothering with dithers. Add so much distraction that they don't know what is going on. Giant danios (six or seven) work great for this as they don't produce that much waste or take up significant territory. Not that I am by any means an expert this has just worked for me.

[GEV83]

Theres not much you can do with it already being overstocked. I would just suggest you leave the oscar solo. Oscars do well by themselves and you dont want to leave any fish in there if its just going to be stressed.

People here no arguement's about BP please. To many people leave this forum because of the arguement's about the BP and FH and the person in need gets left hanging and just never return.

[GEV83]

I was replying when scott was. Do not put another oscar it will be way to over crouded I would be afraid to put a firemouth if the oscar is chasing the BP what makes you think a firemouth would be any differant. I would just remove BP and leave it as it is.

[Lynsey]

I can't add giant danios (I had some) and my Oscar just chased them at night and eventually ate a few. They were full size. what about a medium sized Jack dempsey (and removing the BP). I am concerned that it might be too aggressive for my Goldie/Sunshine Pleco (which is my favorite fish). Or do Jack usually leave plecos alone?

[CoCoFiShY]

Oscars can live with any other south /central american cichlids as long as it cant fit in the oscars mouth it will be ok


My Fish:

3x 7inch oscars
1x 5inch Jack dempsey
2x 3inch convicts
1x 7inch common pleco
1x 3inch Green terror

[GEV83]

With the way her oscar is acting with her bp I would be strongly against it. A 6" FM wont stand a chance with a bad tempered Oscar. I would play it safe and leave the Oscar solo. Not only that the tank is to small even though youll be removing the BP if anything why put something else in just to keep the bio-load where its at just leave it and youll have nice more thankful fish.

[scott]

Having it solo is definately the way to go I was just thinking if you really wanted another fish you could put in another oscar, I've read plenty about people with 75's and two full grown oscars (I guess I didn't really think about the size of the silver dollars, I apologize). I would think if you did have two oscars or an oscar and firemouth etc the silver dollars chance of becoming full grown would be limited however.

[dbcb314]

my friend has a 75 gal tank, and he has 2 tiger oscars, 2 albino oscars, catfish of somesort, and an arowana. in time, it will become crowded for even the arowana, but it looks cool right now. his oscars leave the arowana alone, but they sometimes bully the royal pleco

[ChilDawg]

Four Oscars in a 75 might be pretty crowded almost a month after their purchase, and the Aro needs at least a 135.

I would suggest to your friend that the 75 be the final home for only one oscar and the Royal.

[dbcb314]

true true, but it will probably take longer than a month though, hes had them for about two weeks and they havent grown a whole lot yet. i read they grow fast, but these havent. ive never had the fish, so i wouldnt know

[GEV83]

If feed proparly they grow fast. A 75gal is not big enough for 2 oscars. Plus the person who is asking for info has other fish as well that would be to much of a bio-load. 4 Oscars in a 75gal what was he smoking when he did that setup???

[dbcb314]

the more i think of my friends tank, the more i think that it is bigger. im beginning to think it may be 150, but i pretty sure its 75.

im pretty sure he was smoking nothin:)

but, those 4 oscars are fed properly (live food, veges, oscar pellets) and it will probably be a while before he has to SELL a couple of them. and when he sells the oscars and the arowana, he will be able to buy a bigger tank.

dang, yall are quick with the insults... i like it

[Lynsey]

Sadly, I decided to remove my BP. I watched the tank for a while today, and my Oscar just won't leave my BP alone. I took my BP back to my LFS (which happens to be a good one) and I ended up getting a 5-6" Jack dempsey. I was expecting all heck to break loose when I put the Jack in the tank (especially since my Oscar hasn't had any cichlids in the tank except the BP which he grew up with). But to my suprise, nothing happened. I put a lot of pellets in the tank right before I put in the JD in hopes of distracting my Oscar. To my suprise, the JD swam right out of the net and started eating all of the pellets. My Oscar has given him a bit of a chase here and there, but he is a much much better swimmer than my BP, and easily avoids my Oscar. As far as the pleco is concerned, the JD took a peek at my pleco, and the pleco came shooting out of his hiding hole and smacked the JD in the face. I guess that took care of that. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully they will be ok together.

I am very diligent about my tank upkeep. I will probably take the silver dollars out in time, but for now I think they are fine. I think that with my tank upkeep and my filtration I can get away with the one Oscar, JD, and my Goldie pleco. Plus, my tank is a foot longer then the standard 75 gallon, so I feel that it gives the fish more room to establish territories. This is the plan, assuming that the Oscar and JD get along. If not, my Oscar will be a solo pet.

[dbcb314]

i wish i had a lfs that would trade somethin for somethin else of somewhat equal value. mine ripped me off one time. but, thats a story for another time...

[GEV83]

I traded a 5" buttikoferi once for 2 5-6" oscars. I ended riping him off. I would keep a close eye on your tank and maybe move tank decore around so they have to establish new territories giveing the other fish a chance to have territory.

[Lynsey]

Well, it has been four days, and not a single fight. The Oscar chased the JD a bit the first hour or so, and the JD just swam away and the Oscar gave up. The JD is never hiding. I have a lot of plants (the fake ones with the rocks attached to the bottom so they don't float when my Oscar decides to move them), a huge piece of bog wood with a few hiding spots that the Oscar can't get to and a smaller pot that the Oscar doesn't fit through anymore. I thought the JD would hide in the pot alot, since most JDs I see like to hide. He has plenty of hiding spots if he wants them. He comes right up to the front when I walk in the room and does a feed me dance just like my Oscar. He seems to be a very nice fish, not the terror that I thought he would be. So far so good. I hope it stays that way.

I think the problem with the BP was just that he couldn't really swim very fast so he couldn't really get away from my Oscar. My Oscar seems too lazy to chase my JD.

[GEV83]

Well thats good. Hope everything stays alive and well in your tank.

[dbcb314]

cool, thats good to hear.

oscars are bullies, they only mess with what they can catch and wont fight back. by friends oscars always bully the pleco or the catfish