This is my first post here. I hope to become a regular, as I'm just getting really into the aquarium hobby and would like a place to enthuse!
Anyways, I recently got an Oscar. I read up a bunch about them beforehand, and one thing I read was that although they often do well alone, that convicts can make good tank mates for them because they are too big to eat at adult size and they are aggressive enough to hold their own against the larger oscar.
I work at Petsmart, so I bought my favorite of our current oscar brood, a small 3/4" albino tiger oscar who instead of the normal white with red spots was pink all over. I guess its probably an albino red oscar, but we were selling it with the albino tigers.
I also bought two convicts, one of which was about an inch and a half and the other about 3/4"s of an inch. I tried to get a male and a female, but I'm honestly not 100% sure.
It's been about three weeks, and the oscar is now 2-3" long. The convicts have not changed size at all. I knew oscars grew fast, but I didn't realize quite that fast! I'm starting to get afraid the oscar might get big enough to eat the convicts before they even get a chance to grow at all!
They are definitely eating, they just are not growing nearly so fast as he is.
Should I be concerned? Honestly the convicts seem a lot faster and smarter than the Oscar, so it could be they could just avoid him. He mostly just swims at the front of the tank wildly begging for food while they explore the tank, nibbling at my driftwood and such. Still, I'd rather not wake up one day to find them gone from the tank, since I've grown attached to them, especially the small one (who I suspect might not be full convict. His body is a little stubby, and he has really big eyes, like a parrotfish, but he doesn't have any other deformities like the mouth or the hump.).
I don't really have another tank to put them in, unfortunately. I have a 30 gallon but it has axolotls and african clawed frogs in it who would gobble them up in a second (they eat bullfrog tadpoles whole! No, this was not intentional.) Plus it is unheated right now, although in theory I could add a heater as the axolotls and frogs would do okay in the low or mid 70's.
Anyways, I recently got an Oscar. I read up a bunch about them beforehand, and one thing I read was that although they often do well alone, that convicts can make good tank mates for them because they are too big to eat at adult size and they are aggressive enough to hold their own against the larger oscar.
I work at Petsmart, so I bought my favorite of our current oscar brood, a small 3/4" albino tiger oscar who instead of the normal white with red spots was pink all over. I guess its probably an albino red oscar, but we were selling it with the albino tigers.
I also bought two convicts, one of which was about an inch and a half and the other about 3/4"s of an inch. I tried to get a male and a female, but I'm honestly not 100% sure.
It's been about three weeks, and the oscar is now 2-3" long. The convicts have not changed size at all. I knew oscars grew fast, but I didn't realize quite that fast! I'm starting to get afraid the oscar might get big enough to eat the convicts before they even get a chance to grow at all!
They are definitely eating, they just are not growing nearly so fast as he is.
Should I be concerned? Honestly the convicts seem a lot faster and smarter than the Oscar, so it could be they could just avoid him. He mostly just swims at the front of the tank wildly begging for food while they explore the tank, nibbling at my driftwood and such. Still, I'd rather not wake up one day to find them gone from the tank, since I've grown attached to them, especially the small one (who I suspect might not be full convict. His body is a little stubby, and he has really big eyes, like a parrotfish, but he doesn't have any other deformities like the mouth or the hump.).
I don't really have another tank to put them in, unfortunately. I have a 30 gallon but it has axolotls and african clawed frogs in it who would gobble them up in a second (they eat bullfrog tadpoles whole! No, this was not intentional.) Plus it is unheated right now, although in theory I could add a heater as the axolotls and frogs would do okay in the low or mid 70's.
