What To Put With An Agressive Oscar

[Miss Wiggle]

OK so your all probably sick of hearing about Oscar by now, please bear with me!!

92 us gallons corner tank, debatably less room than a standard rectangular tank but he seems pretty happy. he's got loads of room in there.

current occupants and sizes

1 red tiger oscar - 10"
1 chocolate albino common plec - 8"
1 common syno - 6"

he did have polly the parrot fish with him, but the fighting got too bad so she was re-homed not so long ago.

the tank is planted so i'd really like to keep it that way, so nothing that's gonna munch all the plants.

Since Polly left he's been in a right sulk, although he scraps with them I think he'd be happier with some companions.

I understand we may have to accept that we can't have anyone with him, if this is the case then so be it, however I think with some careful thought and planning it may be worth taking a calculated risk. Were on excellent terms with our lfs and can alwasy re-home any inhabitants that it doesn't work out with.

My thought is that instead of other cichlids with him we should get a shoal of medium-large sized fish then the agression will be spread out so no 1 fish will get picked on too much..... does that make sense, would it work?

I was thinking maybe silver dollars could work...... what do you think? any other suggestions appreciated.

 

[england]

soz to here that...........i have a severum in with my oscars...lovely fish, firemouths also seem ok as do jurnupi earth eaters<

 

[thegnu]

yeah i think you on the right road there. congo tetras or the big rainbows or tinfoil barbs

 

[DanDanUK]

yeah i think you on the right road there. congo tetras or the big rainbows or tinfoil barbs

Ohh no sorry i have to disagree with you there congo tetras or the big rainbows would easliy become lunch they don't grow that big at all about 8cm, here's a pic of my 12" albino red oscar with a 5" roach in it's mouth ! a congo tetra is much smaller than this roach ! a congo tetra wouldn't even touch the sides.

 

[GrantyBoy]

I wouldn't put anything else in your tank as you will most likely go through the same aggresion problems you had with your Parrot Cichlid

 

[LisaLQ]

I'd go for a shoal of dithers - silver dollars, rainbow fish (the bigger the better though). I dont know about congos, they might be a bit small, but TBH, as long as the fish you pick are quick, I doubt they'd end up like the roach in that pic. Also if they were in a group, any aggression (or attempts to eat them!) would be diluted between the group of them. I'd probably personally go for silver dollars or adult rainbows though, as they'd be bigger than congos, and the silver dollars are an awkward shape for eating lol.

Was that a feeder fish Dan, or was he a tank mate? What kind of roach was it? Never heard of tropical roaches, but will definitely tick them off as unsuitable for oscar tank mates lol. I think fish that have been fed feeders are more likely to attack tank mates though, an oscar who's not been fed feeders should be ok with larger shoaling fish as he wont recognise them as food as much.

 

[cheesy feet]

Silver dollars eat plants so thats a no no! I would go with bala sharks but tbh your tank isn't big enough (i think). Boseman (SP) rainbow fish would be a good choice,there really fast and i have seen them at about 4 inches in a display tank at a zoo.I would get a raphael catfish(platydorus costatus), there really hardy and would suit your tank, they max out at about a foot.Mines about 9 inches and 4 years old +.If you feed bottom food like catfish pellets they come out in the day alot.

 

[demonmagus]

balas wouldn't be suitable, a 6ft by 2ft by 2ft is minimum size imo, they are active and love space

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah bala's are too big for the tank.

were gonna upgrade it to a 6x2x2 when we move house hopefully, but for the time being we simply don't have the room so we either have to find tankmates that can live in this size tank, or none at all.


I absolutely love congo tetra's....... I'd worry they'd be too small though, I've seen the size of his mouth, he'd have no trouble swallowing those.

Only ever seem to see smallish rainbows around, are they fast growing? It'd be a bit cramped but we could grow some on in Ian's 60g then move them when they're adult size.

Do SD's eat plants then? all of them or just some?

How many rainbows or SD's would you put in?

 

[CFC]

Silver dollars are aquatic lawn mowers, put them in a planted tank and its like an all you can eat salad buffet for them. All Metynnis and Myleus species eat plants. I am suprised however that you are able to keep a planted tank with an oscar, i have always found that oscars will uproot and destroy plants as they re decorate the tank to their liking each day.

You could try some of the medium/large barb species such as spanner barbs or sumatra barbs which reach 6-7 inches but these will nibble at plants to some dgeree too.

The problem lies in the ammount of floor area available, oscars like almost all large Cichlids are territorial by nature and will not tollerate other fish within their area, the shape of a corner tank doesnt allow for multiple areas as a lot of the area is lost as the tank tapers to the back so the oscar naturally takes over the entire tank, corner tanks are not really suitable for larger fish. In a regular rectangular tank the oscar would most likely only take over one end of the tank allowing for another Cichlid species to be added without major aggression problems.

 

[DanDanUK]

I'd go for a shoal of dithers - silver dollars, rainbow fish (the bigger the better though). I dont know about congos, they might be a bit small, but TBH, as long as the fish you pick are quick, I doubt they'd end up like the roach in that pic. Also if they were in a group, any aggression (or attempts to eat them!) would be diluted between the group of them. I'd probably personally go for silver dollars or adult rainbows though, as they'd be bigger than congos, and the silver dollars are an awkward shape for eating lol.

Was that a feeder fish Dan, or was he a tank mate? What kind of roach was it? Never heard of tropical roaches, but will definitely tick them off as unsuitable for oscar tank mates lol. I think fish that have been fed feeders are more likely to attack tank mates though, an oscar who's not been fed feeders should be ok with larger shoaling fish as he wont recognise them as food as much.

I also agree ! silver dollars are a great tank mate for oscars, because of there awkward shape and lightning fast speed the oscars wouldn't bother them at all maybe the odd nip here and there if there fast enough but other than that there a great choice !

the roach was one which i caught from the river, i was doing an experiment i was checking out the compatability and as soon as i put the roach in the water BOOM Oscar had it, the perch were fine there was no problems with them.

the roach was a normal river roach a good game fishing fish, Rutilus rutilus is it's latin name !

Silver dollars eat plants so thats a no no! I would go with bala sharks but tbh your tank isn't big enough (i think). Boseman (SP) rainbow fish would be a good choice,there really fast and i have seen them at about 4 inches in a display tank at a zoo.I would get a raphael catfish(platydorus costatus), there really hardy and would suit your tank, they max out at about a foot.Mines about 9 inches and 4 years old +.If you feed bottem food like catfish pellets they come out in the day alot.

not if you subsidize your SD's with the greens, give them plenty of lettuce and they will leave your plans alone.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

he's definately the exception, but he really doesn't mind the plants, pics in the link in my sig if you need any proof!!

I do understand the shape can cause problems, I was sold the oscar before I knew anything much about fish, assured my tank was big enough for him, by the time I found out it wasn't I was too attached to give him up. We're very short of space but I didn't want him to end up stunted so got the biggest tank I could get. Because of the limited space to get him the biggest gallonage of water possible we had to go for the corner tank, if we hadn't he'd have been stuck in a 60g which I think just isn't big enough. I think we've done the best for him with the options we've had available and the tank is plenty big enough for him, but if it means that we can't have any companions with him then so be it. We have tried with decor to create different areas. Were hoping to move house in the next year or so and one of the main priorities for when we move is a 6x2x2 tank for him and some companions.

so we may have to accept it's a buy off between companions and the plants then? I wouldn't mind loosing the plants but if given the choice I'd prefer to keep them.

So general consensus..... is there room for any SD's in the tank and how many? I'll admit I know very little about them so I'll have to go and do some research.

I'll maybe ask the lfs to get me some big ones in, we have a spare tank we can remove them to if it becomes a problem and I can arrange with the lfs that we have them on a trial basis and will maybe return them if it doesn't work out.

 

[CFC]

Silver dollars do best in larger groups so i woud recomend at least 6 individuals, a word of caution though, large silver dollars are usually expensive so for near full grown adults you can expect to part with up to £20 each for them!!
The plus is they do grow reasonably quickly so if you buy cheaper 1-2" fish you can grow them out in the spare tank to oscar proof size within a year or so.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Silver dollars do best in larger groups so i woud recomend at least 6 individuals, a word of caution though, large silver dollars are usually expensive so for near full grown adults you can expect to part with up to £20 each for them!!
The plus is they do grow reasonably quickly so if you buy cheaper 1-2" fish you can grow them out in the spare tank to oscar proof size within a year or so.

only tank with enough spare room in at the moment is Ian's planted tank.

we have a spare we set up in the basement as quarantine/hospital on occasions but we've nowhere to set it up as a more long term thing

how big do you reckon they'd need to be to be oscar proof?

thanks for all the help

 

[DiscusAngel]

as there so quick and such an weird shape i dont think the oscar would go for them even at 2" at my lfs they have lots in a tank at about 2-3" and there like 2 for £3 really cheap!