i just picked up a 2" tiger oscar for my 125.. theres about 15 other fish in there right now about his size.. now, i know he's going to get bigger and eat everyone but im not going to worry about that just yet, ill cross that bridge when i get to it. right now im wondering how the territory problem is going to be, i've kept oscars before but by themselves so idk what im in for. i also have 3 convicts in the tank, they haven't paired up thou, they more or less just follow each other randomly and aren't playing favorites yet. what sort of a mess am i in for when A. the oscar grows up and B. the convicts pair up. again, its a 125 with plenty of chase fish around and ones that are pretty territorial already. the definite male convict is the same size as the oscar and the two others are a bit smaller.
how territorial are oscars?... and convicts...
- Thread starter Fishbert
- Start date
No way to say for certain what will or won't happen with that particular stock in a 125 . But IME a breeding pair of Convicts can be highly aggressive even towards much larger and stronger fish. There's a chance that a breeding pair can take over a large section of the tank every time they have fry. This happens a lot. You could also end up with a pair that only defends a small area and leaves the rest of the tank alone. Your Oscar may not eat your Cons. People keep Cons with much more aggressive cichlids with little to no problems. Only time will tell. You may end up having an Oscar very tolerant of tankmates. If this stock was in a much smaller tank you would have more to worry about. Just keep an eye on things and be prepared to remove some fish if things turn bad.
Yeah, as long as the other cichlids in the tank are bigger / more aggressive, the cons should be fine... My male con is a beast and super aggressive, so I think I might have the one con who thinks he's a full grown dovii. Good luck though! Should be fine!
My oscar was good with plecos, convicts, and jack dempsey. He wouldn't tolerate pictus cats though and I eventually had to reduce the number of convicts to 1 because they took over the entire tank. Unless you've got a really mean one I'd imagine it should work out good for you, other than maybe having to remove a few cons.
alright cool, if they do end up pairing up soon, would a similar sized oscar be able to hold his own? or at least know to stay away until he grows a little and can?.. any other cichlid tank mate ideas besides the two species that are in there now?
My oscar couldn't hold his own against the mated pair of cons. They were much quicker than the oscar and would gang up on him and after a few weeks the oscar was all beat up and would just sit in one corner and not move. Mating cons can be nasty.
ill be sure to have a divider ready and a cycled 20 for the fry. i have a rainbow shark that chases the cons when they get too close to his little rock pile, would that give them enough stress not to breed? its on the right side of the tank but he's usually not too interested in protecting it, maybe one in a half an hour he'll chase someone to the other side of the tank
heres some pictures.. heres the oscar compared to my finger 
this is the full 125
heres the rock pile everyone loves so much
and heres him and the male convict
i'd love to have more plants, but theres a couple marbled crayfish in the tank, and that dosen't go over too well with them.. any ideas on how they would hold up agains the convicts?
this is the full 125
heres the rock pile everyone loves so much
and heres him and the male convict
i'd love to have more plants, but theres a couple marbled crayfish in the tank, and that dosen't go over too well with them.. any ideas on how they would hold up agains the convicts?