New fish!.. um.. can they go with the stingrays?

[zekni]

I just set up a 150 gallon, with a 60 gallon sump yesterday to move my stingrays into, when another local hobbiest (finally) agreed to sell me the yellow oscar I've been pestering him for for the last few months. When I got over there to pick up the fish, I couldn't help but talk him out of a large gold severum as well. The oscar is probably about 8" and the sev about 6". I put them in the 150 for the nonce, as I'm in the process of shuffling fish and tanks... but.. can I keep them in there? The stingrays that are moving in are a male and female motoro, both about 10-12". Bare bottom tank, minimal decor (I'd at least give them their own hiding spots, but I was going to leave it empty when it was just rays.)

Should I expect problems, or should I shuffle fish around until they have their own space?

The stingrays:

And the new arrivals:

 

[Oddball]

Test, Test, and Test again. Rays really need pristine water conditions and a fairly high O2 percentage. Adding these large messy eaters are going to create the need for alot of additional maintenance to keep the water right for rays.

Really nice looking fish, though.

 

[OhNoBarracuda]

BEAUTIFUL FISH MAN!!! love the rays . Im not the best with fw rays and info seeing as how they are illegal here, but the oscar i had about that size was an @sshole to all my other fish including a red devil which i didnt expect. i think you should be okay but if you notice any agression i would move the oscar to another tank if possibe. theres my 2c i hope everything works out for ya

 

[zekni]

The previous owner stated it's a pretty mellow oscar, and since it was in with a bunch of silver dollar sized tetras, I wouldn't think it was real aggressive.

As for the filtration, while the 60 gallon is cycling, I also have two cycled AC500s on the tank. I have my test kits handy, but I can always throw an extra AC500 (my favorite HOB filter) on there if neccessary.

I was more worried about getting "NO! Don't put an oscar in there! They just won't go!"

I'm actually more worried about the stingrays damaging the fish, as the beheaded a 6" balashark once. This is a bigger tank though. Hm. Guess I'll have to make sure everyone stays well fed.

 

[Honda12]

I have seen both fish in with rays before. So it should work.

My main concern would be with the rays. My male ray was so fish aggresive I couldn't have any other fish but rays with him or he would eat/kill them. He ate a 6in jag I put in, and tried to kill a 20+in marbled pim and he was only 9in in diameter. Plus ate many various other fish I put in the tank.

 

[redtailfool]

The severum would do good but id watch the oscar. If its a mellow one, then there shouldnt be any problems. Nice motoros btw..

 

[KJP]

The oscar mellow or not still would scare the hell out of me. But if you are going to try watch very closely fish and water quality.

 

[zhuangsw]

give it a try, but i think the rays might attk the 2 fishes instead. haha, well try and monitor it..

 

[zekni]

Well, I just added in some hiding spots for the fish, and added in the stingrays... so far so good.. but I'm nervous enough about it that I think I'm going to at least move the oscar... although at this point none of them really have much interest in each other.

<sigh> decisions... decisions. Eventually the rays are going to have to get along with fish... and vice versa. Im in the planning stages of a 900 gallon display tank, where I kind of wanted rays and fish in the same tank. Hmm. This wouldn't be nearly so hard if they all weren't such expensive fish.

Can I just clarify...? The problems with oscars usually stem from thinking the rays' eyes are snails when they're buried and attacking them? If that's the case, it's a barebottom tank. Or is it just because they're typically too aggressive?

 

[radiom]

great looking motoros bro.... the new fishes shouldnt pose a problem but nevertheless do keep a close watch and be prepared to remove them if they start to "fight" with the rays...