Ok, so I have been wanting an oscar for a long time but until now I have never had a large enough tank for one. I recently bought a 72 gallon bow front fish tank and id like to get an oscar and one other fish to go along with it. I was thinking of getting a pleco or possibly another algae eater to help keep the tank clean as a bonus. What options would I have, given the size of the tank? Thanks for any help.

I would totally forget the idea of getting a pleco, the only suitable species that you can put with an Oscar get far too big for your particular tank setup.

Have you got internal filtration on your tank, or an external filter?

You're not really going to be able to add much more to what you already have. If you have adequate filtration you could possibly add another small cichlid such as a blue acara, or maybe a jade eyed Cichlid, these are just two examples of fish that don't normally exceed 8 inches and would probably be okay in your particular tank, but only if you've got a good filter.

I agree with penn anything you add to that tank is going to be right in your Oscars face and he will more than likely bully it

Bichir...

dowtie,hey i have a 75 gal. tank and an oscar, and i keep a severum and a big ass crawdad with mine and they all get along fine. my oscar likes to try to eat all the food but thats oscars for ya, and plecos man they can do some serious pooping thats why i don't have one anymore!!

as Penn said, your tank isnt really big enough for a plec as well, as they do grow quite big..

HOWEVER, I have one in both my tanks, and the way I am trying (note i say TRYING and not have) to get round this is by very much over filtering the tanks, bth my tanks have a LOT more filtration then required, nd so far so good...

also, I dont feed my plecs, they survive on the algae and leftovers in the tanks, some will think this bad, but they are happy, it keeps their growth rate down, and they do a great job cleaning my tanks,..

Just what I do, please dont take this as gospel tho..

T

i also agree you could have a plec but your filtration has to be really good, and make sure the plec is bigger then your oscar, as i had bristlenose pleco and my young oscars of 4 inch chewed them up, my tank is 90g and im going to get a plec at 6inch delivered tomorrow, so heres hoping, but if it does fail to work out, try to have a backup for rehoming ,plus keep an eye on your water readings, xxx

TonyT wrote:


Overfiltering is just one of the things you will need to do. The other is loads more water changes and you wont be able to miss even one. Are you prepared to do 2 or even 3 water changes a week to keep your nitrates low!!!!