Hello all. This is my first post and looking for some sound advice please. I have a 400 litre tank that housed a red and a tiger plus a pleco. The oscars were bought together and have always got on really well but from day one, the tiger has never been 100% and today he died. My local shop said it could have been tapeworm? What do I replace him with. My local shop has a returned tiger that out grew his tank, he is about 9/10" long and my current red is about 7/8" long.I'm told its 50/50 to whether they wil get on, maybe mix the decor up or put a partition up to start? Any help or experiences would be most grateful. Many thanks.

welcome to Oscar fish lover

Okay, your tank is around 80 gallons, a nice size for one Oscar, unfortunately not two. So I would abandon any plans to replace the Oscar that died. You mentioned you had a pleco, do you know what type?some of these can reach 2 feet plus, so even that fish on its own could be too big for your particular tank.

had that helps

Wow. Quick reply!!The pleco, im not sure, rescued from a work mates 2'tank. I will find out. Ouch, a 5' tank tank with 1 oscar, bad advice there from a shop who said 2 would be fine. That poor old tiger currently at my local, hes in a 2' tank with about 7 other fish. He's been there about 3 weeks. Would he not be happier in a shared 5'? Lots to learn!!
Many thanks.

you did say 400 liters didn't you? is probably actually nearly 90 gallons. I would still be reluctant to house two Oscars, it will be an extremely tight fit. You would be better off with one Oscar and maybe three really nice tank mates that don't gets any bigger than 8 inches, that would make for a much nicer tank rather than being at your absolute limit.

I think you will be ok with 2 oscars in your tank.

Introducing a new one can be difficult. Try just putting a new one in and see what happens. If they start injuring each other badly from fighting then separate and put divider in. Leave like that for 2 or 3 weeks or until the injured one has healed up. Then put the oscar that was the aggressive one in the weaker ones side. Hopefully they will be ok apart from a bit of minor fighting. Leave for a week or 2 then remove the divider. If they dont get on when you put the aggressive one into the weaker ones side then give up on them 2

An alternative is to get an oscar that is smaller than your oscar, say about 4 inches, as your oscar is less likely to see it as an interloper

Having said all that one oscar and some smaller fish would look good

Thanks very much for the advice. Will let you know how I get on. Thanks again.