Hi, I have had Oscars, and terribly miss them now. They are wonderful fish; kind of like having an aquatic dog. My 2 Oscars used to play with me, and loved eating from my hand. Now I have a baby Map turtle, and would like to know if I can get a baby Oscar to grow up with the turtle. It would break my heart if I had them together, and found one morning that the Oscar had bitten my turtle. I have read that cichlids are aggressive enough to be able to live with turtles, but I worry about the baby turtle. The turtle is only about 2 inches, and they do grow pretty slowly, whereas Oscars grow pretty fast. Does anyone know about this pairing, and if they would make safe tank mates?

Thanks,
Kate

Having never turtles before I don't really know much about them. However, I do know that turtles produce more waste than fish so keeping one with an Oscar could be problematic unless you had a very big tank. Also, turtles do require somewhere for them to get out of the water if they want. I don't suppose this would be too difficult to create. You just have to make sure the water was very high which is not always the case in a fish tank. I believe that turtles would decimate plants so you might not be able to keep them. I read somewhere that is easier to introduce a fish into a turtles tank than introduce a turtle into a fish's tank. You also mention that the turtle would only be 2 inches long. I have absolutely no idea what the growth rate of the turtle is but a 2 inch turtles could certainly become a tasty meal for an Oscar. Whether they could actually eat it, I don't know, but they could certainly make rather a mess of it.

I wouldn't even contemplate doing it unless you have got a very big tank, I'm talking 100+ gallons.

If I was you, I would find a turtle forum or something, they could give you much more information as there are probably people who keep fish with turtles

Hi Kate.
In my experience of Cichlid & Turtle tank mates, sooner or later Mr. Turtle will become an irresistable, potential snack. The Oscar won't physically be able to swallow him 'shell n all' but will almost certainly attack head or legs.

Hope this has been of some help. Graham.

My only advice would be to interduce the oscar to the turtle tank first "hopefully making the oscar think that the turtle is the boss" and try to get a smaller oscar than the turtle so he dont outgrow the turtle to quick and keep the little oscar off fedder fish. Mabye kepping is carnavours ways hidden... lol

I have herd of people keep map turtles together so good luck!!!!!