Severum and cichlid community stocking help

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divemaster99 said:
I Went to my LFS an hour ago and they had what I believe was a zebra oscar. They said it was just an oscar and it got thrown in with an order. Anyways it was in a plant tank with all peaceful small fish until it gets to large. Fell In love with it after seeing such a small fish come up to the glass without fear. Would love to have it and also prevent some irresponsible keepers from getting it (which I see in there quite often). Would be willing to make an additional stocking lost for it (not getting rid of first one) but I can't change the fish I already have. I would be willing to sell the shark if necessary but would like to keep the danios if possible. Here is another idea for a stocking I had.
fish:
1 zebra oscar
1 green severum
6 giant danios
1 striped raphael catfish
1 sailfin pleco (until to large)
1 rainbow shark (if compatible)
1 four line pimelodus

what do you guys think? To much probably.
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Rainbow sharks tend to just be outright aggressive. They bully and bite their tankmates. For whatever reason they are fine until around 6", then most get really mean.

Oscars are super dirty fish. I would either get the oscar and rehome the pleco or skip the oscar an keep your pleco. Or get both and nothing else because the bioload would be just too great otherwise.

Oscars and severums can be compatible, but it depends entirely on the personalities of the fish. You may be swapping out one or the other until you get two fish who can stand each other in a 75.

Danios have a torpedo shaped body that is perfect for oscars to swallow. If you get the oscar, skip the danios. You don't really need dithers for these fish anyways.

Here is what I would change it to:

1 zebra oscar
1 green severum
1 striped raphael catfish
1 four line pimelodus

This stock is a heavy bioload and twice weekly water changes is recommended or once weekly changes with heavy overfiltration.


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Whoa, that's few fish for big maintenance (what should I have expected though. It's an oscar)! Not lazy (well kinda) but I think I'll go with my original stocking and skip the oscar. Thanks for responding though! I really appreciate feedback! And one last thing, I don't know if you saw my original stocking but could I swap out the firemouth for a salvini or is that to aggressive for the danios?
 
divemaster99 said:
Whoa, that's few fish for big maintenance (what should I have expected though. It's an oscar)! Not lazy (well kinda) but I think I'll go with my original stocking and skip the oscar. Thanks for responding though! I really appreciate feedback! And one last thing, I don't know if you saw my original stocking but could I swap out the firemouth for a salvini or is that to aggressive for the danios?
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Salvini will more than likely slaughter the danios.don't do it

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Ok. I thought I read somewhere that they were semi-reclusive. Guess that was a lie.
 
Ok I'll go with sev, con, firemouth, danios, shark, src, pleco, and pim. What order should I introduce them in in your guys opinions. I already have the danios and shark in the tank.
 
Your best chance is to introduce the cichlids all at the same time. Otherwise they will act territorial toward the new cichlids as you add them and you'll see more fighting that way. Buy them small, introduce them all at once, and let them work out their pecking order to get it over with.
 
Define small (2-3, 3-4, 4-5) want to introduce while small but don't want them getting hurt my the danios either which are about 1.5-2.5 inches now.
 
So it also doesn't matter when I put in the raphael and pleco from my other tank? And what about the pim.
 
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