Big decisions.

[powellmacaque]

If you want to see that many fish in the tank at once buy 300g or bigger. These fish are more prone to aggresion in smaller spaces. Say you do buy them very small , they will be ok for about a year then the fights will start( notice I said will start). Now you could be lucky and they eventually settle down, but then comes the problem of filtering a high bio load to water ratio, which is much harder to keep clean. The reason being is because there is less water to dillute the wastes, and if you have kept cichlids before you will know they are messy eaters. Ok if you dont mind the 40% water changes every thrid day( you will need them ) do you have a hospital tank to treat you fish when they get stessed out get diseased? Jmo but go for one nice cichlid or buy the bigger tank.

I was planning on doubling up on the filteration, and changing the water 10% every other day. I plan on getting a hospital tank. I was thinking on trying 2 and 2 in a 75, and then if it doesnt work out, I was going to buy a 55 for the JD... If this is AT ALL possible, I am willing to try it, no matter how much filteration/water changes needed. I am very dedicated to my pets. If this is 100% guaranteed to fail, then please say so.

The only reason why I think this is possible, is my LFS has the same setup in their display case (and I trust the LFS very much, very clean tanks, good advice, honest, etc) and they said that they have had no problems with aggression, but they change water quite frequently.

 

[TONO]

ya know, I respect oddball~'s advice, but if either money is a concern or if you just want to watch some very exciting discovery channel stuff in your home, there is an alternative...
From my experience, you could put an Oscar and a JD in a 20 and they'll be fine (so long as you don't put two JD's that start spawning, good times). However, if you want them to be a little more peacefull and grow bigger, put them in a 50 or even the 75 if you have the money and you can have a nice setup with a few JD's (providing they have enough territories, aka caves, on one side of the tank, which is simple) and two Oscars comfortably. Just make sure that you buy small Oscars (like $5 a pop) and small JD's all together so they grow up comfortable with eachother.

:troll:


I wouldn't take this guys advice just think of it this way. Would you rather get new fish every six months because they die or get killed. Or have fish that would last you a decade.

 

[JosephMCorbett]

I kept one Oscar, 1 Jack D., and 1 Marble Sailfin Pleco in a 55 gallon for 3 years. I started with 3 JDs, but they always fought. It started out that 1 of the 3 was dominant and terrorizing the other two. So I gave him back to the LFS. Then 1 of the 2 left became dominant....he went back to the LFS. So I ended up with just the one. The Oscar and Jack were 3" when purchased and the Pleco was 12". At the end of the first year, the Oscar was full grown at about 10" and the Jack was only around 4". Jacks are very, very slow growers and Oscars are very, very, very fast. At first the tank had some decent decor in it - with large lava rocks, fake plants etc. After the first year, I had to all but strip the tank to make decent swimming room. Also, the Oscar just refused to let any plant stay where I put it. At about 2.5 years, the Oscar started to terrorize the Pleco and the Jack - who he left alone and lived in piece with for 2.5 years!. I let this go on for about 6 months, trying to rearrange the tank and doing different things to stop the Oscar from ruling the tank. Unfortunately, he would not stop, and the Pleco and Jack couldn't come out from hiding even to eat. My tank got uglier and uglier because the Pleco stopped cleaning the glass and he actually started getting a fungus on his fins. So, bye bye Oscar and Jack. Hello community fish. It took the Pleco about a week and he had the tank nice and clean again and one month later no fungus. Since then, I have also moved everyone over to the 125 and shut the 55 down. On filtration, I only had a Penguin bio-wheel 330 running. I would do rigorous gravel vacs. and 30-40% water changes weekly. Also, I only fed once every other day; otherwise the Oscar would just blow the food through his gills and crud up the tank faster...keep 'em hungry and he eats when he's fed. Just my experience with keeping Oscars, JDs, and Pleco's in a 55. Hope this helps.

 

[Oddball~]

:troll:


I wouldn't take this guys advice just think of it this way. Would you rather get new fish every six months because they die or get killed. Or have fish that would last you a decade.

I wouldn't take this guy's advice either. He tried to prove me wrong!

 

[ashdavid]

I was planning on doubling up on the filteration, and changing the water 10% every other day. I plan on getting a hospital tank. I was thinking on trying 2 and 2 in a 75, and then if it doesnt work out, I was going to buy a 55 for the JD... If this is AT ALL possible, I am willing to try it, no matter how much filteration/water changes needed. I am very dedicated to my pets. If this is 100% guaranteed to fail, then please say so.

The only reason why I think this is possible, is my LFS has the same setup in their display case (and I trust the LFS very much, very clean tanks, good advice, honest, etc) and they said that they have had no problems with aggression, but they change water quite frequently.

It is possible to do what you say you want to do. If you were going to try 2 JD's and 2 O's in the same tank I would start with them really small so as they can get used to each other from the start.Problems arise when you try to add fish later when they are bigger, but if the fish you are adding are small enough then your original fish wont consider them a threat. Like I said before you may have to remove some of the fish as they get bigger.

In my experience male JD's just won't tolerate another male in the tank if there is not enough room to run away when being attacked, on the other hand O's can be quite tolerable of their own kind. Contrary to what violatorjf said a tank of 18 inches in depth is not sufficient for a full grown oscar, an 18 inch high tank may be the absolute limit, I would suggest 24 inches although. Bottom line it is not impossible to do and you will probably get few years enjoyment before fish tanks have to be upgraded , but I would try to think of what the fishes needs are when they are full grow. If you havent got the tank already try to get something close to 100g , it is not much to go from a 75g to a 100g (money is separate problem) your fish will be happier and look better in the long run.