Tank mates for a pair of Oscars.

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M

meantryptamine

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 24, 2010
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Dallas, TX
Been reading the site a little here and there, but this is my first post. Glad to be here.

I'm picking up a 110 gallon restaurant lobster display tank today to house my rather aggressive red Oscar and the apparently mentally defunct albino that are getting big enough (in attitude, not size-they're about 2.5") to really harass our school of mollies in the 55. The mollies did a great job of socializing them, but that job is done and it's time to get them out of there. Here's my question.

Oscars are dirty. They make a mess of their food and some of it usually ends up on the bottom of the tank. I know I'm probably overfeeding them a bit, but I enjoy watching them and that's what it's all about. The million dollar question is what can I keep in the tank with them that will swim around eating those puffs of food from their gills without taking up much space (this 110 is going to be their permanent home) and without getting eaten themselves.

I have a pair of common plecos (approx. 5" each for now) in my other 100 gallon and I was thinking about putting one in there with them to help clean up, but in the end, it would probably just add a lot more bio load than I want/need.

So, what's the verdict? 110 gallons is basically the prescribed size for a pair of Oscars and I don't want to crowd them. Can the Oscars be kept with any kind of smaller fish, or will they end up little red pellets on the bottom of the tank?

Thanks in advance for any input.
 
Allan01230;4095866; said:
Try some fast midsize barbs. Filament barbs come to mind. They are fast as hell and very pretty as they mature.
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I may run into a problem because I'm actually planning on feeding them mollies occasionally and if they're conditioned to eat live food, they will probably be less compatible with smaller fish. I don't want to stock up on barbs and have them start disappearing on me.
 
I guess it's good that I brought it up. The last time we had an Oscar, he was really enthusiastic about eating some minnows the neighbor had left over from fishing that day. I know that's a bad idea for all kinds of reasons today, but I was quite a bit more ignorant back then. I was planning on gut loading home grown feeders this time around. How is live food bad for Oscars?
 
A. gigas;4095916; said:
live fish are very bad for oscars, i would never feed live.
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home grown liverbearers as on occasional treat should be fine, possibly even beneficial in the form on enrichment
 
I have 6 silver dollars with my Oscar in 100gal
They are very fast and great to watch. They are extremely active
They also eat everything that comes out of my Oscars gills.
Make sure you get the large enough so the Oscar cannot eat em.
The are a schooling fish, and can take hits.
I think if you get silver dollars that are atleast 1.5 - 2 inches they should be fine.
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Foxlarocks;4096548; said:
I have 6 silver dollars with my Oscar in 100gal
They are very fast and great to watch. They are extremely active
They also eat everything that comes out of my Oscars gills.
Make sure you get the large enough so the Oscar cannot eat em.
The are a schooling fish, and can take hits.
I think if you get silver dollars that are atleast 1.5 - 2 inches they should be fine.
index.php
Click to expand...

I'd like something with a little color. I was trying to think outside the box with invertebrates, but I can't find anything I like in freshwater.
 
a school of large botias would eat any left overs on the bottom. Plus the cichlids shouldnt really bother them
 
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