Oscars........

visaliaipa

visaliaipa

AC Members
Jul 17, 2008
50
0
0
Central Valley (Visalia), California
In the process of setting up my tank and still battling over what fish. Its a 110 gallon by the way. I really love the look of Oscars but know they are agressice and will eat other fish. What can you really out with oscars that will get along a look good. my wife likes silver dollars, bala sharks, tinfoil barbs etc. I'm pretty sure these would not be compatible with Oscars. Any advice.......
 
Bala sharks could be with oscars, just as long as they are bigger than the size of their mouth... i wouldn't suggest silver dollars or tinfoils though... you should keep oscars with other south american fish like Jack Dempseys and other Oscars... They are not usually kept with schooling fish cause of the big possibility of it eating/killing them.
 
I housed 2 jacks with 2 oscars and a pleco in a 110 and never had any real problems, the oscars were more aggresive than jacks and allways got the feeder fish first but they left eachother and pleco pretty much alone, will need to filter the hell outa tank oscars are messier than even teenagers
 
IMO Bala sharks and Tinfoil barbs both get a little too big for a 110. They need schools, and 6 balas is quite a force to be reckoned with!
 
Iv'e got a JD, texas cichlid, red headed cichlid and plecos with my oscar. There are loads of other cichlids that could work with an oscar but be warned some oscars won't let you put any other fish in their tank with them.
 
Silver dollars can get quite big and can hold their ground against oscars. It also depends on what sort of silver dollars you are getting, the red hooks get pretty big (8 in) and could probably live in an oscar tank. Bala sharks also get pretty big, up to a foot in length; a school is more than a match for an oscar. Though your tank seems slightly small for a school of balas.
 
If you can supply a few good hiding places I think you would be amazed at what you could keep in with the oscars. I have 2 9 to 10 inch oscars in with 4 bichardi cichlids which are quite a bit smaller and I have no issues. I will say they are all in a 220. Much will depend on the temperment of the oscar. I have seen some that you can't keep anything in with it and others that couldn't care less about whats in the tank regardless of its size. Good luck!
 
large severums, large senegal bichirs.

a lot of it depends upon the character of the fish you get. all of them are different.
 
Hmmm - I had the opposite experience re: JD/Oscar. I added a 1.5x sized O to a tank holding 1 JD - JD shredded the O.

At any rate, whatever you go with, make sure you have plenty of structure and some visual barriers so they can hide from each other as needed and get all of 'em small. Let them grow out together and all should be OK.

If something dies prematurely, you may (or may not) be able to replace it w/o totally upsetting the pecking order int he tank, so you may want to go w/ one or two extra fish to start then cull if needed later on.

I'd probably try one O, 2 GTs or Sevrums and a JD. If they're all tiny to start, good. If you can'te get tiny ones, try to at least be close w/ the JD being smallest, O or Sevs being largest...

Later on, I'd use giant danios now and then as "disposable dithers".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom