150G Stocking Help - Oscar + what?

[duanes]

You have not mentioned what your water parameters are yet?
If you have done "research" you should know, JDs (and other Central Americans, are hard water , high pH species,
and severums and oscars tend to be soft water, low pH species.
Not that they will immediately kick the bucket if parameters aren't perfect,
But if you put oscars and severum in even moderately hard, high pH water, as they age, they tend to get HITH.
Or if you put Central Americans like JDs or others such as Vieja in soft water, they tend to to bloat as they age.
What your tap water parameters are, could have a bearing on what species you should mix together in the same tank,.....or not.

 

[Roger Mcfish]

Hard to tell by pictures, but is this a 4ft tank or 6ft?

 

[jumpingjack]

It is a 5ft tank. 150cm x 60cm x 60cm - 140G (540L)

 

[jumpingjack]

I am based in Melbourne - our water is relatively soft with PH of ~7

 

[Roger Mcfish]

Just my personal opinion, id do just the Oscar with the pleco OR the green terror with the silver dollars (considering they are the smaller species). The "true" parrot can reach up to 16 inches and is a definite hit or miss with aggression towards others especially in a tank that small. I'd leave the JD out noting that they are higher pH thriving cichlid that come from hard water unless you themed a central american cichlid tank and had to add buffers, etc.
5ft tank may seem big, but once these fish gets to full mature size they will look cramped and uncomfortable and will/may swing your water quality out of control.

 

[HUKIT]

You’ve received some good information here from some great hobbyist. That’s simply too many fish in a small tank. I’ve had dozens of ocellatus so in addition to the advice you’ve already received, I would never keep them in a rimless tank with no lid. This was my last pair, the male was around 14” and the female was 12” and my wood floors would be soaked during feeding, ended up having to put towels down first. I’d literally have to chuck in the food and close the lid as fast as possible as they smash the pellets like a freight train.

 

[jumpingjack]

You’ve received some good information here from some great hobbyist. That’s simply too many fish in a small tank. I’ve had dozens of ocellatus so in addition to the advice you’ve already received, I would never keep them in a rimless tank with no lid. This was my last pair, the male was around 14” and the female was 12” and my wood floors would be soaked during feeding, ended up having to put towels down first. I’d literally have to chuck in the food and close the lid as fast as possible as they smash the pellets like a freight train.

View attachment 1564762

Thanks! I plan on building lids for my rimless 150G before putting any fish in the tank.

I have 20 african cichlids in a 300L tank and have had experience with them jumping! So by default I have lids now on all my rimless tanks. Also just helps so much with evaporation and water spillage as you mention.

Also - agreed. Thank you all for your fantastic advice. I have done a lot more research since my original post and now do not intend to go with that stocking strategy.

My thinking now is more aligned to:

OPTION 1:
- 2x Oscar

OPTION 2:
- 1x Oscar
- 1x Nicaraguan Cichlid (understand they are CA - but have seen many people be successful with them in SA tanks)
- 2x Severum (maybe only 1)
- 1x Pimelodus Ornatus