So I've purchased a 150g aquarium and set up my filter and am going to leave it running for 5 days to assure proper cleanliness. Now, I bought this tank because tiger oscars fascinated me. I then wanted to purchase a severum, and I have that arranged as well. Now my first question is, should there be more fish? One store clerk told me having an uneven number assures a lack of a dominant fish in the tank; which makes sense. But I wanted to make sure they had plenty of room and clean water, therefore only two. Again though, if I SHOULD have more than two, I'll do that. My second question is, what else can I put in the tank fish wise? I heard algae eaters are okay, specifically plecos and cory-catfish; true or false? To be honest, I'll accept any tips in general regarding these fish, I'm a total noob besides a 30g goldfish tank!
Question on tank population?
- Thread starter Rykershot101
- Start date
you sould add a jack dempsey or green terror. as for the odd number thing that only works whens theres one fish however I think three fish over two will spread out aggression but if one fish wants to be dominant it wont care how many fish are in the tank even number or odd. youve chosen pretty docile fish though so aggresion shouldnt be a big problem. and make sure to keep water clean with plenty of water changes. welcome to the wonderful world of cichlids.
I agree. At that tank size, you could add more fish if you would like to. Both fish you have chosen, in general, are relatively peaceful and calm. I like the idea of a Jack Dempsey also. They wont get as big as the other two, they handle themselves well, they get a very nice blue color, and they are readily available. Good luck with your tank.
A 150g will give you some good options. I agree w/ the others and some other good choices would be firemouths and convicts. A pleco would be a good choice but cory cats wouldn't. Oscars and JDs will eat the cories. This could kill either cichlid, because cories have a spine on the dorsal fin. If you do get an algae eating pleco make sure you feed it algae wafers or veggies. They can't survive on tank algae alone. Good luck w/ the new tank.
I have never heard of the uneve number theory but I have heard of have several whether it is 5,6,7,8,9,10, etc. Plecos I think enhance any tank. There are a list of other fish that you can add.
Oh! That's very good to know about the cory cat fish, the store clerk told me they'd be a good choice, but by seeing how small they got I wasn't very sure about that, a pleco would have been my choice. And also knowing you DO have to feed them food on top of algae is very helpful, because that was another question of mine on algae eaters in general. I do appreciate all the tips and choices, I looked up all of them and they jack dempsey cichlid is a beautiful fish!
You could add another med-large cichlid if you choose to, but you by no means HAVE to. As far as Oscars and Severums being peaceful fish, they may be less aggressive, for the most part, than some of the highly aggressive new world cichlids, but it's going to vary from fish to fish. I've owned extremely aggressive Severums in the past and have heard stories of extremely aggressive Oscars. Personally, I'd add maybe two more cichlids that stay in the 5"-8" range, like a salvini, sajica, centrarcus, cutteri, convict, etc.
As already stated JD's, Firemouths, Convects are all good choices and you could add more than one of them if you wanted. I really like Lyonsi and they would fit in nice too or maybe a Bocourti as well, these two get bigger than the first three I mentioned. Plecos are nice, but they create more waste than people think... just saying. I keep busy nose plecos in my tanks... they do a good job with algea and only get to about 5" or so. The common pleco most people pick up in lfs's get to 2' and people don't know they get that big. I'm unsure about the whole uneven/even thing. I keep corycats in my small tank with my grow outs, but would bever put them in with the big guys. Welcome and good luck.