Hey, I was thinking of adding a firemouth or 2 to my aquatic family, im just wondering if Oscars get along with these fish, i have bala shark also (3 of them) and they do fine with my Oscar's, But Im wondering if a firemouth would go good with these or not?
I just want to add some colour to my aquarium and I have enough room to do it soooo....
Or any other fish too!

If you have the room, anything is worth a try... Adding other fish to an existing tank is always a crap shoot.... All you can do is try! And have a back up plan if it doesn't work out!

True, im just thinking now before my Oscars do get to big and view these new fish as snacks, a expensive snack!

It is best to try when they r small I am trying to find
Silver dollars big enuff to go with my 7" Oscar but it's
Harder then I thought it's worth a go =]

That does sound like a challenge lol.
Does anyone know how fast or how big firemouths get? And or how aggressive they are. I hear they are temperamental lol.

No,but this is one that Aus-car owns, so he'll be able to fill you in on your questions!
I bet he'll chime in soon.

They are so awesome looking

Shinc wrote:


I agree and I could use to helpful tips on these guys . I really think they would be a awesome addition to the aquarium.

They grow up to six inches is what i read yesterday, after seeing aus-car's fm.

I have a firemouth in my Oscar tank and he does well. He has been a tankmate with my Red Oscar (larger one) since they were both very small, and they never had a problem. Sometimes the firemouth and my smaller lutino Oscar get into a gill flaring contest, but no serious injuries.

As Noddy said... they do get to about 6 inches. but they are slow growers and would take quite a while to get there. Mine is a little over 3" right now. Firemouths are very quick and agile so they can get out of the way of even the larger Oscars, this is a big part of what makes them a decent tank mate for the Oscar (IMO).

Thats not too bad

From my experience with them, and other people I have heard from, they can be put in the same class as a Convict Cichlid in terms of attributes. I have 2 in the same tank with no problems at all, but things could be ALOT different if it was a mated pair. I have also head from a couple of people that theirs likes to hide alot and is hardly seen.

They look amazing when flaring their gills, no other fish Iv seen can do that.
I say give it a go there's a good chance it will work, but when you are dealing with Cichlids and fish in general, no-one is ever 'guaranteed' to get along. The earlier they are in the same tank together the higher chance of success you should have.

I think people sometimes overlook these fish in the LFS because they are very plain looking when small.

Here's an old pic of my FM and Gold Severum seen in another thread when they were little tikes, complete with horrendous red gravel! it was free with the tank I would never part cash for something like that.