How many is too many?

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arowanaoscar

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 29, 2008
122
1
16
saintmartinville, La.
I have a 125 gallon oscar tank with six - 3 inch oscars.Is this alright to have 6 when you are trying to find a mating pair? and how big do they have to be before they start pairing up? Oh by the way there are 2 reds, 2 albino tigers,and 2 tigers.any info would help thanks.:confused:
 
"Buy six to get a pair" is the age old concept... This will give you an extremely good chances of having both males and females... but if they pair up, that's simply up to the fish.

In my experinece Oscars start showing an interest in mating a bit later than most other Cichlids. But my experinece in creating pairs of Oscars is quite limited. I will say 8" is normal/common, but smaller is definately possible.

Peronsally I do not do the 'buy a group to form a pair' approach, as I like to take extra steps to avoid sibling pairs, but that's just my thing. Many others will agrue that this is unnecessary and even at times a good thing. I don't refute that, but simply share at other times it's a bad thing.

It's possible for a single pair of Oscars to produce all three morphs you mentioned if their genetics are lined up just right... so it's possible yours are siblings, but I'm not sure what the typical Oscar breeder/supplier does to make morphs, and I'm sure different people use different approaches. So they also many not be closely related.

In the long run I believe it is extremely unlikely that all of these fish will get along in your 125, but it doesn't sound like that is your plan, so no worries there.

Good luck!
 
you are either going to have to get rid of 2 or 3 soon or get a bigger tank :( hope all goes well
 
thanks for the info.. Very helpful.........
 
le patron;2593847;2593847 said:
you are either going to have to get rid of 2 or 3 soon or get a bigger tank :( hope all goes well
So La Patrone you wouldn't recommend letting them get 8 in till i get a mating pair i do have other tanks to seperate them.
 
Any other suggestions i have 2 different opinions.............
 
I had 3 oscars, albino tiger, red, and a tiger oscar I raised them together from 1 1/2" in my 125 with some other small cichlids they grew very quickly and always stayed close to each other, then one day my tiger oscar flipped and killed the other 2, I have been told that when oscars get large and mature that they can get very territorial towards other oscars as is the case with mine, I have another red oscar that I raised in another tank that is about 10 inches now, the other day I tried to put him in with the tiger oscar and and the tiger instantly went nuts on him I had to quickly net the red oscar back out but the tiger seems not even to notice the other cichlids in the tank.
 
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