Poly for Oscar tankmate?

[Citrinellus]

Polys and oscars work well together.

If you follow some simple advice. Neither one can be considerably larger than the other. If one has to be bigger, make it the poly.

I've kept senegals, my ornate, lapredei, delhezi, and palmas pollis with oscars with no issues at any time.

I followed the same advice I give today and was glad I did so. Either species can eat or bully the other one to death depending on their temperament given a large size difference. Some fish are just mellow, and well, others are not.

I also suggest sticking with either some senegals, delhezis, or an ornate for your oscar. Get larger polys than your oscar. IME polys typically don't grow as fast as oscars do. Polys are funny in that regard, some grow really fast, and others grow very slowly. My first delhezi went from 4" to 7" in 6 months, my two delhezi I'm growing out and got a 4" are now only 5" after 6 months. At this rate they will go to the poly tank in another 6 months or so.

Thanks, I'm still considering to pick up the 4-6" sens from the lfs or get a nice 11" ornate.

i think ornates go really well with oscars, i had an ornate with mine i had them as fry together and the oscar may have tried to ocasionally snap at the ornate but nothing happened at all. anyway now my ornate is 15" and a fatty at that lol. so yeah oscars would do just fine with an ornate. they dont seem to be bothered about bottom dwellers.

I think i'll try the senegals. I don't think the 11" ornate would be that happy in my 55g for a 2-3 months

IME Oscars and Polys go together just fine.. And really its up to you which one you like most. You are better off sticking to the smaller species, - Senegal, Delhezi, Palmas Polli, Weeksii etc. Its just a matter of what you like and what is available in your area. Ornates are nice, but they tend to be meaner of the poly species.

Let us know what you do.

Thanks, I'm going to go with the senegals. So I can get two, and watch them turn into monsters.

 

[Citrinellus]

Well, after a months wait i can finally say i'm the happy parent of 2 senegals! It took forever for them to order them in and they ended up being labeled as "palmas" and they were $20. But, I have them. They're currently in my 10g quarentine. They've already eaten some frozen blood worms. I can't believe how active they are. Heres some pictures of them.

 

[GarNiac]

why not keeping them separate from each other; eventhough you'd notice them get along each other, you could still losing one of them one day.

 

[Citrinellus]

why not keeping them separate from each other; eventhough you'd notice them get along each other, you could still losing one of them one day.

Uh... from what i've heard and read (thanks to stickies by beblondie and cohazard ) they prefer groups. I've also seen a lot of people keep them is groups. There was like 15 in the tank at my lfs. Unless you mean the german ram pair i have with them. I don't mind if they get killed. After 8 unsuccessful spawns and me not having enough time to artificially raise the young, i gave up on them.

 

[GarNiac]

well its totally up to you, its your fish, but truly although others may say that they are OK together, but oscar is an aggressive fish compare to bichirs, again its up to you

 

[Getsumphish]

i have kept my 5" oscar with a 9" senegal and it worked out fine, the senegal sometimes nipped at the oscars fins but never anything serious.

 

[Citrinellus]

well its totally up to you, its your fish, but truly although others may say that they are OK together, but oscar is an aggressive fish compare to bichirs, again its up to you

I'm going to let them grow out before going into the oscars tank because he has grown in the past month probably an inch.

The bichirs just ate a large hikari gold pellet that i soaked and sunk. I'm constantly going and watching them go and swim around. I've actually gave some thought of giving them my 40 gallon and maybe making it an african biotope.

 

[bizbomb]

congratz on your sens. Soon enough you will only care about polys .

 

[Citrinellus]

Thanks, I'm already constantly finding myself go to their tank and watch them. I might need to change from madness to poly madness.

 

[RLHam3]

i have a 4in senegal bichir with a green terror and 2 JD's about the same size as your oscar. they completely ignore him. Just make sure that its a farily large bichir. Your oscar will grow much faster than your bichir and you don't want it to become a snack.

You probably won't have to worry about that too much though. if you introduce the fish while the oscar is still young you have a chance that the oscar will consider it a "friend." I've kept an 8in oscar with two 1.5in upside-down catfish without any problems. i just introduced them when he was young and he sort of adopted them.