J2theD

1st off, I just want to say that I have been reading these forums for a couple months and REALLY enjoy them. I have not posted because I am away in college and do not have a tank set up currently, but will be doing so in May/June.

I have a few questions for some of the experts around here

Ok, so I have a 90 gallon aquarium, and want to put some Cichlids in it. I absolutely love them. I definitely want an oscar, but after that I am debating what to get. I want to know how much more i can have in there.

Some other fish I want are maybe a couple Jack Dempsey's and couple Convicts. I was also thinking about a red tail shark and Pleco. Ideally this would be my dream tank, but I have the feeling I will be over stocking if I follow through with this. I really don't plan on upgrading my 90 gallon tank for quite awhile, so what I get I want to be able to live there until they die naturally

(I plan on getting a very good canister filter, so lets assume filtration is more than okay. another note: The most I really want to filter regularly is weekly, perhaps twice a week sometimes. But I really do not have time for every day or every other day changes.)

Also, i really love having plants in my aquarium, and prefer real ones to fake ones. Can I put live plants in with the fish i mentioned above?

Thanks for the help

J.D.

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!!!

you can go with an oscar, a jack dempsey, and 2 cons... that would make a fun tank..as far as plants, my oscars never allowed anything fake or real to stay long..they uprooted and tore up plants but I know some other members have them in there ....jut make sure nothing sharp or hard is used as they get bigger, they flounder around and rough house alot and you dont want them to get hurt

goodluck!

agabr123

welcome! glad you're enjoying the site!

in addition to the info shawnie's given you, this is the site that i use for lots of oscar info
http://www.oscarfishlover.com/

Amanda

Nick Goody has a 90 gal. cichlid tank, you may want to take a look at his profile & threads for ideas.

J2theD

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

So would a piece of driftwood be a bad idea? Or just make sure there are no sharp edges like you suggested and it will be okay?

Also, personally I have no preference, but if I got a pair of mating convicts, should I both taking the fry out, or letting the Oscar/Jack eat them? Or will the convicts get really aggressive? I figured if the convicts had fry I would set up a 10 gallon fry tank, and then gradually feed them to the Oscar/Jack. Is this considered heartless around here? I just do not want to worry about getting rid of a 100 convicts I would give to the local fish stores as well if I got too many.

Thanks again guys, I look forward to putting pics up once I set it up

platy ben

Driftwood should be fine
Yup you could use the baby convicts as feeders, i dont see anything wrong with it, but the Jack dempsey and oscar wont have a chance of getting the fry if the adults are around.

Shawnie

once the oscar gets to adult size, the driftwood would hurt him...they are too iratic of swimmers the older they get to be safe...they love bubble wands tho....I have a few vids of my oscars literally swimming in them ....I did raise cons as feeders because they are good for oscars to have ....but getting feeder fish from a pet store is very dangerous for them as hole in the head disease is rampid with feeder fish that are sick and oscars eat them....if you have a breeding pair of cons, they will NOT let any fish near their fry...they will torment anything in that tank no matter what the size....but if you want a 20 gal to breed and raise feeder cons, that would work for your oscar....

J2theD

Thanks for all the advice and info.

If my pair of convicts do in fact breed, then is it ok to just put all of the fry into a 10gal, or do they need to be with their fry? If my convicts do not breed, I was planning on breeding guppies or platys for some live treats for my cichlids in my 10 gallon. No way would i buy feeders from the store cause I just don't trust them

pepetj

I keep Oscars with Kenyi, Convicts, Silver Dollars, Angelfish, and Firemouth in a 145gal heavily planted tank. They haven't gone after any fry at all. I introduced the pair of Angelfish (who have great reputation as population control) and no results either. I would be careful as for pleco, some grow too much and could be a threat down the road for your other fish.

I can't say a word about Jack Dempsey since I haven't kept one yet.

You might manage to keep a solo Oscar and a few tankmates. Consider keeping the Oscar as the only big fish there: you'll have more flexibility as for tankmates.

In a 90gal, with a very good canister and a back up sponge filtration (or two) with weekly partial water changes as maintenance routine I would keep:
One Oscar
Five Silver Dollars (they clean leftovers)
Two Convicts
Two Firemouth

I would add them carefully, monitoring that filtration can handle increases in bio-load; also I would rather get all of them as juveniles and watch them grow.

You can use driftwoods as long as you don't over do it and keep them small to mid size. I keep three mid sized pieces plus two driftwood-like decor (Convicts caves). Oscars need considerable free swimming spaces.

As for plants, I would say it depends on your particular Oscar. Some Oscars won't let any plant standing. My experience so far with my two Oscars (a male 13.75" Tiger Oscar, the other one -a 7" unsexed- has barely four days in the tank since the 14" female died unexpectedly last Saturday due to an obstruction in her reproductive system) has been of fairly good success.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

PS Please follow agabr123 visit oscarfishlover.com I've learned a ton there.

Nick Goody

I keep a 90gal Cichlid tank with 1 Oscar, 1 JD, 1 Blue Acara, 1 Convict and 2 Jewel Cichlids. It's an aggressive tank but they all get along ok. The only fish I had a problem with was another Oscar, who got constantly bullied by the other one. I gave him away to a friend with a 90gal. My Oscar is fine with all the other fish, possibly because they are all smaller than he is, and he doesn't see them as a threat.

Low95chevy

What about 2 oscars and 1 jack dempsey in a 90 gallon? can you keep female and female oscar's together or male and male? or only male and female and i know you cant tell the difference between male and female but I'm just saying what if you end up with two males?

FearTheFishies

nm...

MaddieLynn

I don't think discus with an oscar is a good idea since oscars are aggressive.

meicalnissyen

here

Attached Images

pleco.jpg (120.3 KB, 32 views)

KJAK

I had the same problem when i bought my Oscars. So i searched a lot about that fact before adding tankmates. finally i went for 2 angel fish. They seems to be ok with each other. yeah sometimes they were charging at each other but never attacked. Angel fish always took the initial move. Now Oscars are bigger than angelfish. So now there are no fights or chargings.
I think angelfish would be a good idea. Yeah JD is also a good option, but if your Oscars are smaller than JD watch for the aggression