Suspect things you see posted that turn out to be true!

[FINWIN]

Awhile back I posted about this guy who had a large Oscar in a tank filled with small fish like tetras and barbs. His claim was that his Oscar wouldn't eat the small fish. The video got lots of attention. My take was that he stuffed the Oscar with food then plopped it into the community tank for clicks. I wasn't gonna argue about it but still seemed suspicious to me. Until...

Over a year ago I took a risk putting rainbow cichlids and an even smaller honduran redpoint in with my O Brick. He could have them all for cookies, but shows no interest at ALL in eating them. He doesn't even threaten them...on rare occasion he might lunge but just to make them scatter. No follow through or chasing. If anything he's more tolerant of them in his area than larger fish. Go figure. So maybe the You Tuber was telling the truth. Oscars may be notorious for swallowing smaller tankmates but mine seems to be different.

Anyone else see a questionable setup posted that you've discovered actually works?

 

[tlindsey]

Awhile back I posted about this guy who had a large Oscar in a tank filled with small fish like tetras and barbs. His claim was that his Oscar wouldn't eat the small fish. The video got lots of attention. My take was that he stuffed the Oscar with food then plopped it into the community tank for clicks. I wasn't gonna argue about it but still seemed suspicious to me. Until...

Over a year ago I took a risk putting rainbow cichlids and an even smaller honduran redpoint in with my O Brick. He could have them all for cookies, but shows no interest at ALL in eating them. He doesn't even threaten them...on rare occasion he might lunge but just to make them scatter. No follow through or chasing. If anything he's more tolerant of them in his area than larger fish. Go figure. So maybe the You Tuber was telling the truth. Oscars may be notorious for swallowing smaller tankmates but mine seems to be different.

Anyone else see a questionable setup posted that you've discovered actually works?

I think feeding non live foods helps but all large Cichlid are not equal lol. Also let's say for example you put Neon's in the aquarium Brick probably wouldn't waste energy trying to chase them.

 

[Kingster]

Awhile back I posted about this guy who had a large Oscar in a tank filled with small fish like tetras and barbs. His claim was that his Oscar wouldn't eat the small fish. The video got lots of attention. My take was that he stuffed the Oscar with food then plopped it into the community tank for clicks. I wasn't gonna argue about it but still seemed suspicious to me. Until...

Over a year ago I took a risk putting rainbow cichlids and an even smaller honduran redpoint in with my O Brick. He could have them all for cookies, but shows no interest at ALL in eating them. He doesn't even threaten them...on rare occasion he might lunge but just to make them scatter. No follow through or chasing. If anything he's more tolerant of them in his area than larger fish. Go figure. So maybe the You Tuber was telling the truth. Oscars may be notorious for swallowing smaller tankmates but mine seems to be different.

Anyone else see a questionable setup posted that you've discovered actually works?

Kinda like a cat Ive noticed big personable cichlids like Oscars and Uaru tend to not feed on smaller tank mates when socialized at s young age and when fed properly. Ive seen Arowana kept nicely with neons, at the end of the day in my opinion any fish can be kept with almost any other fish so long as the right precautions are taken, right amount of stocking, right tank size, and get good individual fish

 

[jjohnwm]

Kinda like a cat Ive noticed big personable cichlids like Oscars and Uaru tend to not feed on smaller tank mates when socialized at s young age and when fed properly. Ive seen Arowana kept nicely with neons, at the end of the day in my opinion any fish can be kept with almost any other fish so long as the right precautions are taken, right amount of stocking, right tank size, and get good individual fish

Arowanas with Neons...or any other combination of very large and very small fish...tends to work simply because animals generally don't expend more energy obtaining food than they will derive from eating that food. A big Arowana will burn more calories chasing a Neon than he will get out of it if he catches it.

FINWIN , I'll bet you don't use live feeder fish. I'll further wager that when you introduced those small cichlids you didn't do it when Brick and the other big guys were lined up at the front expecting to be fed. Weren't they fat and mellow after a nice big meal? That way, by the time they were hungry again, the newbies had been in the tank for probably a day or so and were starting to get accustomed to it rather than being in shock and blundering around like complete idiots with EAT ME tattooed on their sides.

Most keepers who feed live feeder fish to big predators are probably familiar with the phenomenon of dropping a few feeders into the tank and watching almost all of them be immediately caught and eaten. If one or two avoids instant death, they often manage to survive for long periods of time because they no longer act terrified and confused. They know where to hide, how to keep a low profile...and their relative relaxation removes the target that was painted on them. Predators want easy prey.

But they are still predators. All it will take is a few missed meals, or maybe a major rescape that leaves the little guys confused and nervous, and they are back on the menu. "Socialization" doesn't enter into it; they aren't buddies, they are just big fish kept with little fish that may or may not be easy to catch and appetizing enough to eat, depending upon how much work it will take, how hungry the big fish are and how accustomed they are to eating pellets instead of fish.

 

[DMD123]

Ive kept many different Oscars over the years and generally if it fits in their mouth, they eat it. Though I too had a rare one that got up to 11 1/2” and lived with Australian rainbows and never looked at them even once as food. Oddly it did eat frozen silverside which resembles the rainbows. Dont know if the difference was that the Rainbows were raised with the Oscar from a smaller size but it can work depending upon the fish.

Flash ahead a few years and I try a different baby Oscar with some quite large black skirts and somehow he managed to eat them, lol

Does make me want to try some smaller fish again with my current Oscar just to see if I stumbled upon another “fish are friends, not food” kind of fish.

 

[FINWIN]

Now that Brick is officially 3 (I will be posting on this in another thread) he's definitely gotten lazier overall when it comes to chasing. He did eat nightcrawlers for about three months then lost interest. No feeders of any kind. When I introduced the smaller fish I made sure they had plenty of 'get away' places and the tank has enough room I felt reasonably ok but I did keep watch the first week or so. Despite his current mass the oscar can burst with surprising speed when he wants to.

I actually have socialization with the current group. The small centrals all hang together most of the time, and my rainbow Pepper used to stay with my chocolate cichlid Bobo all day. They even rested together and Pepper would 'defend' Bobo. It was pretty funny. My previous acara Felix also stayed with both Pepper and Bobo, they were a trio.

Mini gang wars break out when its centrals vs the acaras, or even the hrp Pip helps out the severum Corn vs the acaras. Brick doesn't get involved in any tank squabbles unless he's annoyed at the activity.

No way would I have tried this setup in like a 90 or 125.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Along the lines of what kingster said, I would add that I'm successfully keeping pictus catfish and kuhli loaches together in equal numbers. Did not consider the danger when I bought them years ago and was inexperienced, but read about it here: https://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=5279

I'm pleasantly surprised it worked.The kuhlis are the perfect size snack for the pictus, who are also likely fast enough to catch them.