as my new tank is nearing completion i'm begining to think about tankmates for my two o's. they are pesently about 8.5 and 10 inches and i fnd myself thinking about how nice it would be to have a pair of albino tigers in there with them. my question is can i put say a couple of 4-5 inch fish with them or an i asking for trouble?

firstly, have you got enough room for four Oscars? Around 200 gallons will be needed. Secondly, I personally would only keep two Oscars together in one tank. the chance of you getting two breeding pairs be very Slim, the chances are of one breeding pair would be a good bet in my opinion. Whereas Oscars aren't overly aggressive, they certainly can be when they are breeding, having other Oscars in the facility could turn nasty.

im not really interested in breeding pairs.if it happens good but im not looking for it.im more concerned about how quickly the new tankmates will grow so i can introduce them into the new tank. i have a spare 250 l tank for growing them and my new tank will be about 850 l (72x30x24).ive read about many different types of potential tankmates but im not certain which would be the best. there is not a lot of choice around here for older fish so im looking at getting small ones and growing them.any sugestions would really be appreciated

im not really interested in breeding pairs.if it happens good but im not looking for it.im more concerned about how quickly the new tankmates will grow so i can introduce them into the new tank. i have a spare 250 l tank for growing them and my new tank will be about 850 l (72x30x24).ive read about many different types of potential tankmates but im not certain which would be the best. there is not a lot of choice around here for older fish so im looking at getting small ones and growing them.any sugestions would really be appreciated

Fish to avoid would be green terror, red devil, Festae

The choice compatible tank mates is huge. Some are Firemouth, texas, blue acara, convict, severum, salvini, jaguar, jack dempsey(sometimes these fish are too agggresive), port acara

Also think about silver dollars, tin foil barbs, silver sharks, geo brazil(try some of the other geophagus), chocolate chichlid, niguarian, frontosa, uaru, festivum

well ive decided on going with 3 severums as tankmates. i think i have a big enough tank to handle the load. thanx all for the input

well ive decided on going with 3 severums as tankmates. i think i have a big enough tank to handle the load. thanx all for the input

Good luck with the tank:)

BTW, are you necrocanis from MFK? Sorry, just had to ask:laugh:

I was wondering if cray fish or the lobster would be "OK" to put in with the oscars and thier friends. I thought it would like to have some bottom life going on.


I just wanted to mention that in my happy tank I have
oscars, 2 red devils that don't bother anyone ~ I know probably luck, jack dempseys, 1 parrot, firemouths, pleco
2 lil danios and clown loaches and something else which
I can't remember the name but are very colorful. Raised most of these fish from pint size.

There are 2 problems with cray fish or lobster. The first is they have claws that can grab and injure fish and the second is an oscar may see them as food and try to eat them (it was mentioned on here once that an oscar may attack and kill one even if it is too big to fit in the mouth)

i too thought that maybe crayfish could be a good tankmate but i was thinking about keeping the tank cleaner but after some checking i heard exacly what delboy said that they could harm my boys so i decided against them. on another note i finally decided not to go with severums but opted for a red and an albino tiger for my tankmates.....now all i have to do is grow them a bit (about 3 more inches) and introduce them into my new tank.

Thank you for the info. I certainly wouldn't want my
guys to get hurt. I already went through that when my one oscar kept eating my clown loaches. He wasn't well for
over a week. I think he learned his lesson.