What fish to keep with an Oscar?

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saradomin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 16, 2014
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Canada
Would any of these work with an Oscar?

Severum
Jack Dempsey
Blood Parrot
Convict
Green Terror
Salvini
Jaguar
Red Devil

What sort of tank mate would you recommend for an Oscar? I am not talking about the size, stocking, bio load or anything of that sort. I want to know which fish are compatible right now.
 
Any of those could work, some have a higher chance than others. With cichlids you wont know which ones will work and which wont until you try it. Some may work out for years and then it suddenly doesnt work. It all depends on their personality, tank footprint, and how many other cichlids are in the tank.

Is the Oscar the centerpiece? Do you want cichlids that have the least chance of bullying the oscar? How big of a tank are you planning to put the oscar and tankmates in?
 
Compatibility depends on tank size but jags and Red Devils for the most part don't work with oscars although in a large enough tank they can live together, everything else should work


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They are going in a 125 gallon tank. I am getting an Oscar of around 5-7 inches and I want a tankmate that will not completely destroy it. An occasional fight does not concern me.
 
for a 6 foot 125 g, a severum, blood parrot, green terror, male convict or any combination of the 4 with the oscar may work. I dont recommend just having 2 cichlids (oscar plus one) since it doesnt spread out the aggression if the oscar you get is highly aggressive. If you can, get all males to prevent any "pairing".

I would say that a GT of the same size (5-7") could cause significant damage to an oscar ( 5-7"). However if it is smaller chances are higher that it wont kill the oscar.

I have a green terror with an oscar, and the larger oscar tends to bully the smaller green terror. When they were the same size, the GT bullied the oscar.
 
Would a Jack dempsey work also? I've had two with a Blood Parrot and they were never any serious aggression issues.
 
Here's what I would do:

1 Oscar as the centerpiece
1 Pink Tail Chalceus (top level swimmer)
8 Filament Barbs (Swims at all levels)
1 Fourline Pim catfish (Bottom)

Get the Barbs and the Chalceus first and grow them out for a few months. Then introduce a baby Oscar and the catfish.

The barbs are active swimmers; they will ad a lot of movement to the tank. The Chalceus just kind of hovers, which is different, but cool.

Zipping up my flame suit as I write this...cichlid-only tanks bore the heck out of me. Mix it up with different species that look, behave and are different.
 
saradomin said:
Would a Jack dempsey work also? I've had two with a Blood Parrot and they were never any serious aggression issues.
Click to expand...

Possibly, if you get a JD willing to be passive to the oscar. Ive kept 2 rather skittish JDs with 2 oscars and they didnt do any damage to the oscars.
 
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