Hey everyone,

Ive got a situation im not too sure about so i just wanted to know what you guys think...

Ive got a 6 inch oscar, and i bought a blue acara to go in the tank with him and got given a young jack dempsy. The jack and the acara are currently in a seperate tank as they're much smaller than my oscar and i thought i'd keep em seperate till they get a bit bigger.
The acara is currently about 2 inches and is bulking up a fair bit, and the jack is just under 2 inches. The jacks more slender and its mainly him im worried about. Theres a bala (silver) shark in with the O thats about the same girth as the acara and oscar doesnt see it as food and usually leaves it alone.

Im wandering if when i add the two fish this size, do you think he'll see them as food and eat them?? I'm not sure if he could physically eat the jack, but it probably would fit in his mouth.

Any opinions greatly appreciated,
cheers.

first thing i would ask is do you or have you ever fed your oscar feeder fish. This will make a difference,if yes they are more likely to get eaten. If like most people you use pellets and a mixed diet, then there is a chance they will be ok but you will have to spend some time watching them to make sure and even then they may end up eaten. I have put 3" clown loach in with 10" oscars before with no problems. a 10" oscar could eat a 3" clown even sideways so it really dose depend on your fish temperament and previous diet. Its a gamble but If your oscar is tame and friendly I would try. If its aggressive wait. If you do decide to try give plenty of hiding places for small fish. also feed your oscar before putting new fish in.You could also move items around in tank to give oscar something to explore and take its mind off other fish. good luck

My advice would be not to put those fish in with the Oscar. The chances are it will try and eat them. Oscar's are predators, they will look upon any small fish as a potential meal and even if your Oscar can't manage to swallow the smaller fish, it will kill them trying to.

This photo shows a 9 inch Oscar attempting to eat a four inch bristlenose catfish. Even though it couldn't swallow it, it killed it. Oscars have got very large throat teeth that can deal with just about anything they come across.

the only sure way to tell if you can put your tankmates in with your oscar is to try. some oscars will only go and check them out, while other will try to eat them. since oscars grow so quickly keeping them seperate until the tankmate grow large enough will take a long time.

like marcus said you could try rearranging your tank and providing lots of hiding spaces for the newcommers but this will not always work. my suggestion would be to try it and keep a close eye on things until you feel confident that your oscar wont try to eat them.

i have small convicts(2-3 inches) in with my 12 inch oscars and they dont bother with them at all however like ofl said, well a picture is worth a thousand words

I've been quite lucky when introducing smaller fish into my tank with Oscars. I've managed to do it with jurupari, acara and clown loach. However, just because I did it, I don't like to recommend other people doing it. Probably because I would get the blame if they got eaten. But, it's really is trial and error. If your tank is small, I would say forget it, if you got a big tank, you more likely to get away with it. If you are going to do it, make sure there are plenty of hiding spaces that the small fish can get into, but the Oscars can't.

Finally, it really is up to you. We cannot take responsibility if your fish get eaten straightaway

the general rule of thumb for oscars eating fish is if it fits in their mouth, they'll probably eat it. so the odds are against you there. but you may be able to pull it off, especially if u have a large tank. ive seen some potentially terrible combination of fish work out. ive had a large red devil with 2 large o's and a 2" tetra that no one bothered. the devil would occasionally chase away the os if they got to close to his cave, but thats about all.

as far as aggressiveness goes, it depends on the fish. i can tell u now, my 4" o would kill all those smaller fish that you guys have somehow managed to add with a much larger o.

for the jack dempsey, they are pretty smart fish and grow at the same rate as os. i added a 4" jd in with a fully grown jd, expecting bad results because the larger one was very aggressive. he had been alone for awhile at that point because he killed his oscar tankmates. the larger one would chase the smaller everywhere. through caves, rocks, everywhere. after 2 days, the smaller found a safe spot. right next to him. the smaller would go inside the largers cave and sit right next to him. the larger couldnt turn around inside the cave, so if he came out one side, the smaller would turn around and go out the other. it was pretty amusing to watch. about 3 years of that, i saw them sitting out in the open peacefully. and i knew i was gonna have babies haha.

you could try a cheap gold fish of same size to see if it gets eaten. that way you dont loose a fish you like. this is still not a sure way but could give you some answers as what will happen. Like OFL said please dont hold us to blame,anything can happen. the fact some of us has had success means little as I am shore there will be more with a not so happy ending.

I have in my Oscar tank a 150gallon now for my,Oscars are with a few pleco's at about 8-10inches.A big Green Severum at about 8inches,the Oscars,a fire eel and Stonefish too.Plenty of rocks,caves and hiding spots too.Plants are spreaded and also a planted area's too for the Green Severum since she's shy alot too.The Oscars don't see anything with food from the smaller fish or anything like that in my case.I also have a 2 Gold Gourami's that actually if picked on or given chase by the Oscar(s) they get back and they do it with a vengance! The Gold Gourami's at about full grown now too 5 1/2 inches to 6inches.Also I have 2 Kissing Gourami's too just like the Gold one's and 2 blue Gourami's.All in all they are fine in the tank with the Oscars..

So like everyone else says it all depends on how you feed and tame your Oscars.If you see them go after the smaller fish intervien and try to make the Oscar turn the other way I've done that and it's been working great for me.Tyke the smaller Oscar 8inches now if he goes after the Fire Eel he gets it from the Fire Eel gets back at him it will chase Tyke til it's done with him.All the other fish just go their ways and nothing is going wrong just watch your plants if they are real plants you may have some missing.

Thanks for all the replies, and yah i was just looking for opinions and planned to take em as such, the fish are definately my responsibility.

I thought about it and decided to give it a go as my oscars pretty chilled and....SUCCESS!!!! They're all living together happily.

I put them in a clear bag and hung it in the tank for a while first. I did the same when introducing the sharks and oscar came up and had a peck at the bag, but this time he just came and had a look, then went off and forgot about them!

After a while i let them go and theres bin no real trouble. The little ones keep out of his way pretty good and they've even got quite close on occasions, with oscar the one who looses interest and swims away. So yeh, i hope it stays this way. I think i'll try and keep them well fed for a while and just keep an eye on whats goin on.

Its pretty funny, the little jack and the sharks take turns hassling and chasing each other around.

by the way, im jef from philippines,i have a new albyno oscar for about 2 inches and after i read the required tank for oscars, im planning to tranfer it in a bigger tank for about 24 inches x 18 inches x 12 inches together with my 2 inches red pacu...is it okay??kindly send me an answer in my email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it power to this site and its great....

I was wondering if gouramis would get along in a tank with 1 big oscar (pretty friendly guy), a severum, and a silver dollar. They seem to be the largest fish I can find in the local WalMart. Or would a small school of quick moving convicts be a better choice?

i couldnt put gouramis ,or just about any other fish smaller than 4"/5"in with my o they would definately dissapear pretty quick,he loves 3/"4"live locust at the moment,.....hope this helps