Tankmate balance! Finally!

[Jhefnerjr]

I’ve tried a few matchups and finally found my perfect group. It’s been over a month with these and they all get along great!

1 - tiger Oscar
1 - rio grand Texas cichlid
1 - chocolate cichlid
1 - Florida gar
1 - bristle nose plec

Awesome interaction and Fun. Hand feeding is a blast with these guys.

Water Params are perfect with weekly 20% changes. Sorry I had to brag a little.

 

[stiker]

I’ve tried a few matchups and finally found my perfect group. It’s been over a month with these and they all get along great!

1 - tiger Oscar
1 - rio grand Texas cichlid
1 - chocolate cichlid
1 - Florida gar
1 - bristle nose plec

Awesome interaction and Fun. Hand feeding is a blast with these guys.

Water Params are perfect with weekly 20% changes. Sorry I had to brag a View attachment 1469787View attachment 1469788View attachment 1469789View attachment 1469790View attachment 1469791View attachment 1469792little.

Glad to hear. What size aquarium is this? The gar is going to require a larger aquarium by the looks of it as they get massive. Keep an eye on the cichlids as well, what may work now might not in a month or six months or a year. Especially with the Carpintis as they are notoriously aggressive.

 

[HybridFinatic]

Yeah Op, you have a carpintis. Not a Rio grand Texas.

 

[Jhefnerjr]

It’s a 150 with dual FX4 cans and a HOB.

• Oscar is 18” and about 3 years old. Fat, happy puppy dog.
• Gar is 18” (I’ve had one from this breeder before and it maxed out at 22”) and about year old. On constant patrol. But peaceful to his mates.
• Texas is 8” he’s young with a good bit of growing to do. So far he’s very chill, but time will tell.
• Chocolate is 12” she’s 2 years old. She can definitely hold her own.
• Bristle is 6” dunno… how old.

No current plans for a bigger tank. Only the gar has the POTENTIAL to be bigger. But the biggest I’ve seen in aquariums is 26”. And he was “really old”.

 

[stiker]

It’s a 150 with dual FX4 cans and a HOB.

• Oscar is 18” and about 3 years old. Fat, happy puppy dog.
• Gar is 18” (I’ve had one from this breeder before and it maxed out at 22”) and about year old. On constant patrol. But peaceful to his mates.
• Texas is 8” he’s young with a good bit of growing to do. So far he’s very chill, but time will tell.
• Chocolate is 12” she’s 2 years old. She can definitely hold her own.
• Bristle is 6” dunno… how old.

No current plans for a bigger tank. Only the gar has the POTENTIAL to be bigger. But the biggest I’ve seen in aquariums is 26”. And he was “really old”.

Florida Gar can get up to 36” long. The reason you have probably not seen them that large is due to them being kept in aquariums that are too small. Even at 22”-26” the aquarium wouldn’t be large enough due to the fact a 150G is generally 2ft wide so the fish would barely/ not be able to turn around without touching the front and back of the aquarium (depending on size)

The fish you have, isn’t a Texas. It is Hericthys Carpintis. It doesn’t really make sense to call this species a Texas cichlid due to the fact it does not occur in the continental United States. H. Cyanoguttatus is the true Texas cichlid. This an example of why I don’t like common names

 

[Jhefnerjr]

Hey Stiker -

She was sold to me as an “Electric Blue Texas” but I agree it looks more like a Carpintis. There’s so much confusion over the greens, reds And “blues” in the market.

Either way she’s a really cool fish. This was a much younger juvenile pic.

 

[Jhefnerjr]

He might get that big, but a FLA gar we had growing up was in a 300g tank for at least 10 years with lg bass, several sunfish, and a fat bullhead catfish. My dad fed them very well and the tank ran off of an amazing (but highly complicated) custom sump drip system.

I’m not disputing in the wild they get huge, but in that tank he was @ 24”. Very active, fat and happy. Was still alive when we finally had to move a sold the tank, lock, stock and fish.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Awesome! I love the stock and driftwood

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Are you sure you have the sizes of your fish right?
An Oscar of 18 inches would have to be a lot older than 3 and even then it would be an exceptional specimen to reach that size.
I would also be amazed at a female chocolate reaching 12 inches. Your fish appear quite young to be the sizes quoted.

 

[Jhefnerjr]

Are you sure you have the sizes of your fish right?
An Oscar of 18 inches would have to be a lot older than 3 and even then it would be an exceptional specimen to reach that size.
I would also be amazed at a female chocolate reaching 12 inches. Your fish appear quite young to be the sizes quoted.

The Oscar I “rescued” from a friend that was having to move into an apartment. It was 6 inches when I took him and I’ve had him three years since then.

And the chocolate was also a sub-adult when I got her so she’s also probably a year older than what I said. I generally only age them based on how long I’ve had them.

BUT… having said all of that I fell victim to the typical male trait of adding 4 inches to my actual measurement. I guesstimated but when I just threw the measuring tape on each of them it’s actually…

Oscar - just over 12 inches
Chocolate - 10 inches
Gar - 13 inches
Pearl side - yeah forget about trying to get him lined up.

They all still have some growing to do.