55 gallon tank with oscar and green terror

[Gruff Master]

First thing. I do not want to get grilled for these questions.

I just got a 55 gallon tank and I want to get an Oscar. Doing my research every where that I went sent to get a 75+ tank. A couple of days ago I decided I wanted a green terror as a tankmate. I know that 55 gallons is too small for one Oscar and very small for a green terror + Oscar.

So here the question. Can I buy a small (2-3) Oscar and a small green terror and put them in a 55 gallon tank? Then about 10-12 months down the road get a 125+ tank for the both of them?

Or I could skip the whole Oscar thing ( really dont want to) and get different cichlids to put in my 55 gallon tank and noth worry about getting a bigger tank.

Thank you.

The option of keeping other cichlids in your 55 would be best IMO. There are many cichlids that could live long and healthy lives in a 55 without the need to upgrade. As it has been mentioned by others, healthy and well-cared for Oscars will grow quite fast in a 10-12 month period. I personally wouldn't subject one to a 55 for that amount of time. Check out the SA/CA cichlid profile sticky in this section for more stocking ideas. If you do decide to get both an Oscar and a GT with plans of upgrading in the future, make sure that if you plan on adding even more fish with them that your upgrade will be suitable for that stock too.

 

[alexanian]

And your statement about feeding it less so it grows slower so that you can keep it longer is asinine. It results in unhealthy fish. Feed your fish the appropriate amount. Be responsible, and don't get a fish if you don't have the means to supply it with an adequate home.

Any way you look at it, I don't see how you can recommend him to put an Oscar in a 55 with a GT when he doesn't have another tank ready to go. A lot can happen with CA/SA cichlids even as Juvies. One could get beat up if they don't tollerate eachother in which case he'd need another tank quickly. And being that he's obviously new to this, I say it's pretty evident that he shouldn't risk it because he probably won't notice the signs quick enough.

But by all means.....Keep recommending people to overstock their tanks when they don't have back up tanks ready to go.

If he doesn't have another tank to put it in when they outgrow it someone else will. You know there are other fish keepers in this world that would gladly take a fish someone else can't house anymore and there is also this thing called Local Fish Store where you can take them and they will house it, sell it or find it another home.
Also i never recomended overstocking, the question was if he could keep a small oscar and a small GT in a 55 for a certain amount of the time and the answer to that question is yes and it is not overstocking as I specifically mentioned that at one point he will have to get rid of the oscar, stating that i traded mine afer 6 months. So no matter how bad u wanna be right you cannot accuse me for recomending overstocking

And about the lesser feedings I wrote a NOTE in between ( ) that by that I do not mean to starve the fish but simply not overfeed it and get it fat and big quickly like high protein fish conditioning fish breeders do. Just feed the normal amount of food so again my statement is valid since I noted that by no means should one starve the fish hence the fish will not be unhealthy.

Oscar and GT will in most cases not beat up eachother and specially not as juvies. Oscar is more peaceful then GT and grows larger faster so it will stand it's ground. I know this cuz I HAVE kept them together. Adding cover will also help. So Oscar and GT will be good tankmates in most cases. i say MOST cases cuz there is also some cases of individual agressivness in some cichlids but if that happens and caves don't help, he can always put a divider in the tank till he finds one of them a new home.

Bro nothing I said here can in any way harm any of the fish the OP intended on keeping at the size he intended on keeping in a certain period of time. So stop trying to make it look like I am giving a bad advice. Just because you keep 1 fish in a 240 doesn't make you a more knowledgable and more responsible fish keeper then the rest of us.

 

[burzumaske20]

I had to upgrade to a 125 gallon tank in less than a year, since I had the Jack Dempsey,Oscar,Green Terror,Severum in the 55 gallon.Luckily the only one that was growing fast was the Oscar and everyone started to get much larger in the 125 gallon.

 

[rwaden]

getting the 75 gallon tank is the way to go with one oscar and one GT, but eventually when they get to a size like 10 inches or so, might consider even a bigger tank, so each will have room and a territory for both of them. That's what I think anyway.

 

[oscaroo]

you could get a persli chiclid and a medium sized pleco. i just got a 6 incher today and he/she looks ausome. they are not very common so having a persli whould give you something to brag about they are also not verry expensive. i got a 6 incher for 30 bucks! they are milidly aggressive. I saw him atacking the glass at the fish store but he was with fish that where a little smaller than him. i also have a 14 inch oscar and he is pretty cool. I think oscars are great fish if you keep up with the mantence you can get 1-2 medium sized catfish with a oscar or persli in a 75 gallon tank. but I whould not consider putting an oscar and a green terror in anything less than 90 gallons only because of aggression. there are thousands of cichlids out there to choose from choose what you like. but make shore that your tank is not to small. if you like persli chiclid and oscars get persli chiclids and oscars choose what you want. not what other people think you want this thread is ment for sugggestions not choosing fish for other people. there are lots of options out there. choose what you want! sorry for any spelling mistakes. hope you like this advice

 

[RareExoticFish]

Tell you what
That might work as long as you don't over feed and you must get the new tank in 7 months.
Since oscars are very territorial he may kill the green terror over space. But another
issue is that the green terror might fight back causing injury and even death.
So over all it's a bad idea.
In my opinion i wouldn't even get an oscar or the green terror basically because they are not very entertaining.
You are better of getting some oddballs such as
Mormyrids
Knifefish
Rainbow snakeheads
Peacock bass
Gars
eels
etc
But you need a large tank for most of these fish a 500 + gallon tank should do it
A great site for these fish is www.AquaScapeOnline.com

 

[seedubs1]

Yeah.....a guy is asking about 55 and 75 gallon tanks. Let's go and recommend he gets some p bass and a 500 gallon tank.....idiot.

 

[HokieFish]

Yet another thread where good information and recommendations are clouded by people going off on tangents and making asinine remarks.
So happy Al Gore invented the internet so now people everywhere can spread complete and utter B.S. without being concerned that someone might believe them.