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[Gatorxxx420]

Id go with a JD male, FM, and several Convicts...nothing against the Oscar but they are abit too messy for me

I also agree with this, if it were a bigger tank I'd say a couple Oscar's, a Firemouth and a couple Convicts is better for a bio load than adding them in. You'll have far more life in the tank while still having a bigger fish. Try and make sure all of them are males if you can. Convicts, look for the ones that are about 2"'s or so that do not have orange on their belly. Jack Dempsey's, look for the ones that have spangling down the body and no blue splotches on the face. As for FM's, I'm not 100% on how you sex them. But with no breeding in a tank you'll be far better off.

 

[FuzzyHead]

Fairly new tank. It was salt water, but I had some problems with it. I finally decided that I was going to just switch to fresh water because of cheaper fish, water changes, etc. It's been freshwater for about 3 1/2 weeks before I added fish.

I typically cheat with all my tanks and make sure to rinse out filters and reuse water from other tanks to start a new tank. So far all levels look decent. This week, I'm going to try to setup on of the algae scrubbers that have been discussed in the DIY forum.

 

[Gatorxxx420]

I'd stick with the fish you have right now for a few weeks until the beneficial bacteria is very well established before adding the other fish. Just keep tabs on your parameters to make sure you don't have any ammonia or nitrite blooms. After a few weeks you should be good, or get you some Seachem Stability and that'll help speed up the process a bit.

 

[FuzzyHead]

Yeah, I'm watching parameters now. I've had a few tanks over the years. My first was a 55 gallon with an Oscar. Then I had a couple of 10 gallons through the years. When I first got married I had a 2 1/2 gallon tank with a betta. I'm pretty familiar with how to cycle a tank. I really think rinsing an established filter into the new filter makes a HUGE difference. Plus using part of the water from an established tank can help. I've always had small cycles when I do that, but they've always been a lot of shorter than when I first started keeping fish.

I won't plan on adding fish for a least a few weeks and I certainly won't be adding a lot of fish at once. I think the next addition will be a smaller JD. I've considered dropping the firemouth and adding a Green Terror, but I think he will absolutely be the last fish added. I will also pray that he is not psychotic.

 

[Sarah88]

i actually think your chances are higher of getting a psychotic dempsey than GT, every GT i've had has been a pansy or were tough enough to stand up for themselves but were never outright aggressive, the big male JD i used to have was a lot meaner, also make sure to pick your GT carefully especially if you are getting it from petco/petsmart or some other large chain store like that because these guys can be prone to parasites and bacterial infections so make sure to get a nice healthy one that is eating well