Oscar tank mates
- Thread starter Matty6477
- Start date
I would only keep one of those species with the oscar. The firemouths i would keep as a pair. With the convicts i would start out with a pair or one male with two females. The convicts will breed anyway, so if you separate the fry from the oscar you can raise some more on your own. Same is with the firemouths, but it is a little bit harder. But one thing i woul take a look at is that you buy your firemouths/convicts allready as adults. The oscar would otherwise grow a lot faster and dominate the firemouths/convicts.
I was considering getting the Firemouth/Convict fully grown as I have heard how fast the Oscars grow. If I decided to go with the 1 x M convict and 2 x F Convict, will the male only attempt to breed with one of the females, or happily breed with both? Is it better to get the convicts/Firemouths first and let them settle before getting the Oscar? Or introduce the convicts and Oscar at the same time?
I think the convict male will breed with both ones, but not at the same time of corse. I don't think it would make lot of a difference when you place your fish in the tank, i just wouldn't put the oscar in first. The oscar will take the space that he needs anyway, so the convict will have to adapt.
I would recommend to place something for every convict in your tank where only the convicts can go in, and the bigger oscar not.
I was thinking about getting some caves for the Convicts to call their territories, where the Oscar can't fit into. Also got some bogwood which I'm going to soak ready, to go into tank as well. I'm planning on getting the Convicts first before I get the Oscar. As I'm going to be getting the Convicts as fully grown adults, what size Oscar would you recommend getting? Would you say a juvenile or one that's around 3-4"?
I don't think that the size of your oscar is important, i just wouldn't buy an adult one. Just get yourself one that you like.
I wouldn't recommend a pair of convicts. They get incredibly aggressive especially when breeding, and you may very well end up with a dead Oscar. Firemouths are better, but I think keeping a pair of anything in a 4' tank is going to be tricky with tankmates. If you go with the Bichirs, you could do just the Oscar alone and a couple of those, they go well with cichlids. If you don't do the Oscar, there are plenty of options, but you don't want to get anything too aggressive for a 4' tank, unless it's going to be alone. Some reasonable choices for a 100g community would be green terror, jack Dempsey, severum, chocolate cichlid, A. Lyonsi, nicaraguense. Those are some options, putting every one of those together would be too much however.
JD should work. My mother had an O with a JD, a red tailed shark, a gourami of some sort and a pleco together for probably 8 years with no problems except that my father overfed the tank once and killed the gourami. The red tailed shark has a long story, and was probably 15+ when it died, the O and JD were traded in at the lfs for mollies, and the pleco lived for years after in my 55 (poor thing - it didn't fit in the tank)
