I HAVE HAD MY 100 GALLON TANK FOR 3 YEARS I HAVE IN IT MALAWI CHICHLIDS 2 CUCKOOCAT FISH AND THREE LARGE PLECS. I AM SICK OF SEEING AGRESSION IN MY TANK SO I HAVE FOUND A NEW HOME FOR MY MALAWIS I AM THINKING OF REPLACING THEM WITH 2 OSCARS BUT WOULD STILL LIKE TO KEEP MY CATFISH AND ONE OF THE PLECS IS THIS POSSIBLE? I AM STRUGGLING AT THE MOMENT AS I AM NOT SURE IF I SHOULD TAKE A CHANCE WITH THE OSCARS OR GET 6 FRONTOSAS. I HAVE HEARD LOTS OF GOOD THINGS ABOUT OSCARS BUT DONT KNOW AN AWFUL LOT ABOUT THEM I HAVE FOUND THE SITE FULL OF VALUABLE INFO, HOWEVER GOING FROM A OVERSTOCKED TANK TO JUST TWO IS A BIT DAUNTING CAN ANYONE OFFER ANY ADVICE

The first little bit of advice I will give you is not to use capital letters when using the forums. It is tantamount to shouting

frontosas are certainly very nice fish and a large tank would look nice with quite a few of them with a very rocky background.


I can quite imagine that going from quite a lot of fish, down to not many will seem quite strange. However, you have got to remember that if you choose Oscars to keep, you are choosing some of the messiest guys around. One Oscar does require quite a lot of space to itself. You can certainly keep your pleco and Catfish if you want. What kind are they? Were I would suggest you to is make the tank look really nice, maybe add some rocks or wood, or both.

Oscars are not difficult fish to look after. As long as you keep the tank clean, give them good filtration and adequate healthy food, you shouldn't have any problems. They are not too fussy about the water, ph between 6.0 and 8.0 will be perfectly okay. Africans cichlids are sometimes a little more delicate when it comes to water so you might find Oscars a little more relaxing not having to worry about the water.

If you have any more questions, just ask away

Sorry about the caps, my tank is already full of rocks and my water is perfect at the moment, the readings are spot on and have been for 3 years I do not know the name of the plecs they are all the same type I only paid £2 for them and they are in every fish store I visit the biggest is now 12 inch. The two cat fish are cuckoo catfish I was told they were the only ones to get with the African Chichlids. I have been watching a few videos posted on the internet and was quite disturbed to see live fish and baby pink mice being fed to the Oscars would I have to give them anything like this because if so I think I will give them a miss. if not then I am going to give them a try i will get two. but even though you say my plec and cat fish will be ok with them could you assure me that they will be as I would hate to lose them, especially with the knowledge that I had killed them. I would also appreciate any advice as to the colourings can you mix them or do you need to get two of the same colour, I would obviously like a breeding pair but understand there is no way of telling.

Cuckoo catfish are part of the syndontis family of catfish. Actually I have one here, a little bit different to yours, mine grows a little bit bigger. These are perfectly okay with Oscars, they make very good tankmates. However, they do much better if kept in groups. You have to remember that they are actually African catfish so if you want to be authentic, look for some South American catfish.

You can keep any type of Oscar together, red/tiger, albino/red tiger, the list goes on. As for knowing the sex, that is $64,000 question and you will normally only know when you see them breeding.

Oscars dont have to be fed on pinkies or feeder fish there are lots of other food. THey will take frozen seafood like cockles muscles prawns and any other frozen fish you can find or you can buy other live foods from your local store like mealworms crickets or river shrimps. The choice really is yours.

christinecuckoocat - I think you should get some Oscars, as then I can watch them grow. I will never get a tank as BIG as yours. It's the only chance I will get to see some grow!...And they sound like interesting fish, don't you think? But it's up to you in the long run?!?! I'm sure those 'FRONTOSAS' things will be nice as well?!?!

yes I am definately gonna get some but god the more you read the more confusing it seems to be I thought I had made my mind up to get two Oscars but then I read on another web site to never get two that you must get one or six.I have been to my local pet store and he has two tiger Oscars in that have been returned they are about 10 inches and he says that the owner returned them as they were fighting mouth to mouth. They also had 3 month old albino Oscars in. I would prefer to get babies and watch them grow as the pet store did'nt know anything about the Oscars eg age what they had been fed, tank mates etc. so when I returned home I looked for more advice on the net and that is when I found the advice to never get two even though I am sure now that my tank is adequate. So back to the drawing board I think, maybe I should just take the plunge and go and get some but would not want to do the wrong thing for the fish. This weekend I am going to travel to a specialist fish store I only hope that they dont give me different info and confuse me more.at any rate at least I will be able to see some more Oscars, they are beautiful fish.