Replacement For Oscar in 75 gallon

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 8, 2022
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I was supposed to be buying an Oscar today. My nitrates were a little high and I don’t have adequate tap waters I have to go to my friend’s house 35 mins away. I love Oscars but my current frequency of water changes is just not cutting it. I have now decided to do 25% every week. I have a full grown silver dollar, I am not getting rid of him. But I have rescued 2 10”+ plecos and their bioload is just too much. I then have came to a conclusion of getting rid of one or two of the plecos, and flipping the tank into a small/medium cichlid community tank. Any suggestions for the cichlids? I have an idea of 1 Jack Dempsey, a pair of Acaras, and maybe some African butterfly fish which my sister had had success with. Any suggestions for bottom feeding fish and/or smaller cichlids that won’t drastically increase the bioload. I also have a decent sized amazon sword, a big Java fern and I just bought an absolutely gigantic El Niño fern today. So some fish suggestions would help. I am very tired rn so if this is worded poorly then my apologies.
 
Butterfly also wouldn’t last long with a Jack. Butterfly wouldn’t go well with any medium to large cichlids.
Fwiw, I’d make the acaras the centerpiece to the tank. Far more peaceful and will give you much more options for tankmates.
With even one 10 inch pleco, that reduces options a lot so I’d get rid of both and opt for a smaller species like bristlenose.
 
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So would it be possible for me to get rid of 1 or two of the plecos, and make water changes 25% every 2 weeks, and have an Oscar and Jack Dempsey and/or other cichlids?
 
No Oscar should be in a 75, especially with other fish.
25% water changes are also not going to be inadequate, you should be aiming for 70-80%, the goal is to pull as much nitrate out of the water as possible.
 
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Even for any of the fish you mention,(if you mean in your 75 gal) a single 25% water change every 2 weeks is not going to cut it. That leaves 75% of the nitrate still in the tank for days on end being added to with fish waste.
Most cichlids need much more pristine water conditions to stay heathy, to ward away chronic diseases like HITH.
JDs are no less susceptible to low water quality than oscars
Where JDs come from in the Cenotes of Mexico, nitrate remains almost undetectable, because upwelling ground water replaces the total Cenotes water daily, constantly, and the jungle vegetation and algae that covers almost every surface, and that feeds off nitrate eats nitrate as fast as the fish produce it.

The video below is JD natural habitat. A strong flow was constant from below, note the green and red algae that constantly grow on the substrate, note the terrestrial plant roots that extend from the jungle into water, sucking out nitrate
Eden2
 
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Ok so would one Jack Dempsey and a Senegal and 1 pleco be ok with 25 a week water changes?
 
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