Juvies can be more aggressive than adults.... I have two in separate tanks. One is 5 years old with feeder tiger barbs swimming all around, but still eats average 1 or 2 a day. The other is only 1 and 1/2 and eats anything i put in the tank.... pellets, other fish, frozen foods. only my can stand a chance. And chows tiger barbs like 15 in two days. My older was more aggressive growing up than now.
Tankmates for Oscars
- Thread starter CODzilla
- Start date
What if I were to go with just one Oscar? Would it get lonely on its own or can they thrive as a single Cichlid with just SD's and catfish for company?jordanlewis100;3328555; said:
I have ordered two from a reputable LFS but I suppose I can rehome one after a while. I could have bought them already from Pets At Home but I saw them when they were first delivered and they were covered in white spot and the conditions they keep the larger O's are horrible, they have a 6-7 inch Albino O and Large Firemouth in a small tank with a Tiger O that was only a few inches and both the Albino O and the Firemouth were ripping into the smaller O and his fins were totally shredded. I learned a long time ago not to buy my fish from there but they are quite good for food and decoration but maybe I should stop buying from there.
hi oscars are fine on their own they won't get lonely ! one oscar would be fine with what you have i feel as the waste output will be down by half and they do excrete a lot of waste !!! you could try and see with more than one but you will need to do alot of regular water changes and filter cleaningCODzilla;3330054; said:
I have a 14g Jewel with an internal filter as well and its rubbish. My tank was murky and disgusting with that thing I ended up hooking up an external. Think its the tetratec600 which I used to have on an old tank.
this is one of those times when it could go either way i've kept oscars with bichirs before but some people have had trouble with the oscars picking on the bichirs and also it can be hard to get food down to the bichir before the oscars eat it all,endli's can also grow to 2 feet or more eventually as wellBlitzRui;3332698; said:
I went to Wharf Aquatics Thursday and picked up a couple of Common Oscars:
The markings aren't really blue to the naked eye, it's more of a light gray (photography isn't my strong point!).
I went with the intention of getting one or two Oscars but the guy upsold me telling me there would be trouble if I only kept a couple of them together and suggested I get them some tank mates!
2 x Male Jack Dempseys
1 x Blue Acara
Now I have a problem with being over stocked, in the tank at the moment are the
2 Oscars
2 JD's
1 Blue Acara
1 Common Plec
5 Silver Dollars
1 Pictus Catfish
6 Rosy Tetra
1 Platty.
The Tetra and the Platty will have to go before the others get big enough to eat them and I have read you can't keep adult male Jack Dempseys together so I will have to let one go, the Pictus will be a danger to a fully grown Oscar if the Oscar tries to eat it so I could let him go and that would leave me with:
2 x Oscars
1 x JD
1 x Blue Acara
5 x Silver Dollars
1x Common Plec
I know this is still too many fish, I am running the 1000 ltr per hour internal and the 400 ltr per hour Eheim external along with weekley 50% water changes so what realistically will I be able to keep in there when they are fully grown?
The markings aren't really blue to the naked eye, it's more of a light gray (photography isn't my strong point!).
I went with the intention of getting one or two Oscars but the guy upsold me telling me there would be trouble if I only kept a couple of them together and suggested I get them some tank mates!
2 x Male Jack Dempseys
1 x Blue Acara
Now I have a problem with being over stocked, in the tank at the moment are the
2 Oscars
2 JD's
1 Blue Acara
1 Common Plec
5 Silver Dollars
1 Pictus Catfish
6 Rosy Tetra
1 Platty.
The Tetra and the Platty will have to go before the others get big enough to eat them and I have read you can't keep adult male Jack Dempseys together so I will have to let one go, the Pictus will be a danger to a fully grown Oscar if the Oscar tries to eat it so I could let him go and that would leave me with:
2 x Oscars
1 x JD
1 x Blue Acara
5 x Silver Dollars
1x Common Plec
I know this is still too many fish, I am running the 1000 ltr per hour internal and the 400 ltr per hour Eheim external along with weekley 50% water changes so what realistically will I be able to keep in there when they are fully grown?
I'd say the Blue Acara seems more like a Green Terror but I might be wrong. You'll have to quit on some fish as they grow up. I guess that'll be your call. Now you can manage them ... being juveniles. Cheers. 
Im going with a big NO for that stocking. Oscars are very sinsitive to nitrates. You will need to keep the nitrates below 40ppm if you want to keep them healthy, 20 ppm is better. And Im thinking that when they get bigger you are going to have a hard time keeping up with water changes to keep the nitrates in check. Not to mention, that yes oscars are the wussys of the cichlid world, but they are still semi aggresive, and once they hit puberty (7-8 inches) they is always a chance that they will no longer get along and the more dom one will eventually kill the other. SO I would say its better to play it safe and get one oscar, which will need 50 gallons, and then decide how many gallons do you have left to play with, and go from there. Just my 2 cents
You will be way over stoked for your tank. I would go with the two O's, one JD and your SD's(might even cut that down to three). You will still be at max capacity so you will have to be good about your water changes. A few things to keep in mind as well; Make sure your O's are quite a bit bigger than your JD. JD's are very aggressive and will be relentless about picking on your O's. I had a JD that was the same size as my Oscar and I had to remove hime because he had shunned my Oscar to one corner of the tank and wouldn't let him eat. You will also want to keep an eye on your Oscars because some just won't tolerate another O in their tank. You might be ok though with the SD's and the JD to draw attention away.
