Will they get along

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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Columbus, ohio
:scratch: Hello, I am setting up a 90 gal.tank for 2 oscars,it has been 7 years since I kept fish, and I have forgotten much. I always start with very small fish and grow them untill things get crowded and then sell them unless I'm real attached. Would I be able to put a small Jack Dempsy in with my oscars, and raise him with them?
 
yes. eventually he may be beaten up though. oscars grow wicked fast, and from my experience with dempseys, they dont grow as fast. since its a 90 gallon though, shouldn't be a problem, just get a dempsey thats a little bigger than the oscars.
 
No

I would say no for the reasoning that within a year or so that tank will be too small for just the oscars. The JD wouldn't stand a chance against one territorial oscar let alone two.

Oscars grow at least twice probably three times faster than JD's.
Just thinking about how slow my broods of JD fry grew before I could sell them.......geez they grow slow. It took forever. Meanwhile oscars get into those growth spurts and before you know it the fish is 9 -10 inches. So even a decent sized juvenile JD will be dwarfed very fast by the oscars.
 
Size doesn't matter. As long as the JD is big enough not to be swalled it should be fine in there. Oscars are big pushovers anyway. Just make sure there are some caves in the tank. JD's usually swim at lower levels of the tank, whereas Oscars stay in the mid to upper level. I would add one.
 
The JD should be able to hold its own easily. When we bought our Jaguar a JD half its size was keeping the Jag in a corner. Oscars are big on show, but they aren't very agressive as it goes with new world cichlids.
 
I had an oscar and a JD the oscar was eight inches long and the JD was five inches long and I came home one night and my JD killed my oscar so your JD will be fine with the two oscars
 
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