What to add with tiger oscar(URGENT)

[Unthinkable]

Right now I have a baby 2 inch oscar with a irise shark(catfish) Now my fiance would like to know if she can add a silver shark to the tank because the irise shark lays dead 3/4s of the time and she never sees the fish swimming..can i pu them together??? O r what do you guys suggest I put with the oscar..(oh ive had my oscar and the other fish for 3 days now and ive been feeding him him only guppys, will he be more agreesif)

[Optimist]

What sized tank do you have? Also, silver shark is a pretty broad term, could you be more specific as to which species it is?

[Unthinkable]

The silver shark is black tiped fins(thats what she wants) I already have a irise shark dark silver big eyes all he does is play dead..The tank is 25 gallons this is till i find a 120 right now all the fish are under 2 1/2 inchs

[Unthinkable]

I see that your catfish in your display pic has sand in his tank could i do that with my oscar i know there messy

[Optimist]

I have never heard of an Irise shark either. Could you be a little more specific on that too. As far as I know, the silver shark you are talking about is a Bala shark. You could probably do sand with an oscar. In my opinion its the best looking substrate. It requires a little extra mantainance but is well worth it. I would recommend pool filter sand. Its more dense and tends to stay at the bottom rather than fly into the filters.

[Unthinkable]

1. what did you mean by broad term...And the only thing i can tell you about the cat fish is that I got it at walmart hes dark silver, plays dead...

[Optimist]

1. what did you mean by broad term...And the only thing i can tell you about the cat fish is that I got it at walmart hes dark silver, plays dead...

I mean that there are lots of fish out there that could be reffered to as "silver sharks." Look up Bala shark on images. Does it look anything like that? As for the Irise shark, it might be Irridescent shark. Try looking that up as well.

[Unthinkable]

yes its a Irridescent shark and the one shes wants is a bala, So do you believe its a good idea to have them with the oscar? I got them all small so that they would grow accordingly to my oscar..ifnot what do you suggest i put in the tank with him?

[Optimist]

Just a warning...Irredescent sharks get very large. It will probably outgrow even a 120 gallon. As for the bala, it should be fine with an oscar as long as you upgrade to a 120+ gallon. They get large as well and are usually kept in schools. Personally, I would ditch both kinds of "sharks" and add some real catfish such as synodontis, pictus, or raphael. They would probably suite your tank better. If you do that, you could probably add another large cichlid as long as its in a 120 gallon.

[Oddball]

Do you mean iridescent shark?

[santoury]

I think you need to hold off on all new fish. Iridescent sharks do NOT lie around normally. I think something is very wrong with your water quality. Iridescent sharks normally are always on the move.

[Unthinkable]

The guy who sold me the shark said 12 inchs for the Irridescent shark. That will out grow 120 gallons?

[Optimist]

Don't believe what they say at wal-mart. I personally don't get fish from walmart, petsmart, anything with "mart"... since they tell you stuff like that just to make a sale. Its unfortunate because many fish end up cramped in small tanks.

[balton777]

IMO you should wait. Don't add anything else with the Oscar in the 25 gallon tank. You're going to need that 120g very soon.

[Oddball]

The iridescent shark is Pangassius hypopthalmus and can attain 36" in length. Look it up yourself. But, you'll soon discover that a large portion of lfs workers don't scat from a Scatophagus.

[Unthinkable]

Thx alot guys

[Optimist]

Glad to help. Keep us updated if you get that 120 gallon.

[balton777]

Don't believe what they say at wal-mart. I personally don't get fish from walmart, petsmart, anything with "mart"... since they tell you stuff like that just to make a sale. Its unfortunate because many fish end up cramped in small tanks.

I agree. I was at Petsmart one day and was listening to the fish dept workers talking. One was saying that she didn't think the other girl gave good advice to the customer she had just helped. The girl who gave the advice said, "I don't care. We need to hit $800.00 in sales today." Meeting their sales objective was more important than giving the customer the real scoop.

[cichla1004]

Never again will I buy a fish from Petsmart. I bought a juvie oscar from there and within days he popped up with ich and hole in the head. Horrible place for any living thing. I wish they would stop selling livestock all together and maybe just stick to adopting cats.

[BrtnBoy449]

You're gonna need a big fish tank foe the silver tip, oscars, and irise shark

[Gothyc_samurai]

ok i think the guy means that hes got a columbian shark cat, and that he wants to put a silver shark in, these get 18 inches.

[gar b3ar]

take out that shark!! my oscar ate it!!!

[Nabbig2]

If you mean Bala Sharks, yeah, those get enourmous. But I think that it should be fine with your little oscars.