I have a 55 gallon tank with an Oscar, Jack Dempsey, Green Terror, a large plecos, and 2 tiger barbs. My Oscar started going after my Jack so I went to my lfs and they told me to add another cichlid so I got my GT. After I put him/her in they both attacker it. Now it just stays in the corner and when my jack sees him he goes after him and the Oscar follows. I added the barbs this morning to hopefully give him a break but my Jack and Oscar already killed 1 soon after adding them. Out of the three the Jack is the smallest and the GT and Oscar are close to the same at around 3". I've talked to my lfs about taking back my GT but I'd rather keep him. I'm sorry for such a long post I just want what's best for my fish.
Help with aggression
- Thread starter MJak23
- Start date
Pick one of those three and that's it. A 55gal tank is tiny. You also picked 3 fish that can fail to cohabitate well. All three are totally a crap shoot when it comes to aggressive behavior. Sounds like all three are buttheads. You also have to think about the long term here. All the cichlids you have are gonna get too big for that 55 in my opinion. Oscar is no doubt gonna be too big within a year. Gotta go back to drawing board. Look at things like firemouth or convicts. Firemouth would be my choice since they tend to be less destructive than convicts.
Cichlid aggression is unpredictable. You could have all three in a tank for yrs with no issues and then all of the sudden its fight night.... or in your case they have issues from day one. With them being that small in a 55, sounds like a pecking order/territory dispute but all three of them will outgrow that tank in due time. 55 gallon is pushing it for a full grown oscar. Ive kept young cichlids together in grow out tanks and there is fighting from time to time, sometimes the growout tank didn't last as long as i wanted it to. As far as dither fish go, some people use silver dollars, ive never really used dithers. When i have, ive used schools of 8 or more... targets usually scatter into different sub groups and attacker can lose focus on a single fish. If you want to keep all three, I would get a lot of hiding spots. How is your tank decorated? If its open then fish will claim bigger territories and can see each other from farther off, if its got a lot of hiding spots or broken up by driftwood/rockwork/decorations it gives more ways for them to break of territory and can break up line of sight. The bigger they get the bogger their territory will become and most likely someone will take over the whole tank. Ill stop rambling now, hope this makes sense and helps, cichlids are always unpredictable which is why i tend to do species only tanks unless in the case of a growout tank, which my old growout tank was a 90gal.
Thank you for your help, I rearranged my tank and it's helped a lot. My GT is out and swimming without being constantly attacked. The 55 is only temporary they are going into a 125 as soon as I can get one.
Cichlid aggression is almost always due to tank size, being large enough. If the tank is too small, there will be aggression. A proper size tank for the fish you have, would be somewhere between 150 and 200 gallons, or larger to hold down aggression to a minimum.
To me the tank you have is only big enough for the GT, the barbs and a small pleco.
Or the JD, the barbs, and the pleco.
A 55 is too small for 1 oscar alone. The oscar will at some point, eat the barbs, unless they are speed demons.
To me the tank you have is only big enough for the GT, the barbs and a small pleco.
Or the JD, the barbs, and the pleco.
A 55 is too small for 1 oscar alone. The oscar will at some point, eat the barbs, unless they are speed demons.
I would stay with one of the three, for one 55 gallons (long term) is not large enough for those 3 cichlids-your Oscar will peak at 14 inches, GT at 12 (though they grow very slow) and Jack at 10 (though they also grow slow) Get rid of the Plecos, IMHO they add more waste than anything.
Pick one of the three like I said and enjoy him/her. You will be good with a 55 gallon for awhile but you may want to upgrade to a 75 gallon in the near future.
When you do upgrade, a school of Silver Dollars would be nice. For now stick with one cichlid and work on getting that 125 gallon.