Tankmate for a Tiger Oscar in a 55

[ataylor]

I got a small tiger oscar for my birthday, so he's taking up residence in my 55gallon. Right now he's only about 2 inches, but I know that won't last long!

I've been moving the current residents out into another tank. The only fish left now are a pearl gourami, a honey gourami, and a rhino pleco. As the gouramis are plenty big enough to defend themselves for the moment, I'm letting them stay for a few more weeks, but I'll have to move them out too. That leaves me with the rhino pleco. He's about 6" at the moment, and plenty safe from oscar, but... I was thinking of trading him at the LFS for another cichlid.

What other fish are appropriate to stay in a 55 with the oscar? I need something that won't get bullied but won't fill up the tank, as I'm sure the oscar will be plenty fine doing that himself.

Any suggestions?

 

[WaterPond]

an oscar isn't even appropriate to saty in a 55gal, sorry. Get a 75gal, that is the minimum for oscars to live hapily.

If you do that, then there are still few things that i would recommend putting in with an oscar.

 

[ataylor]

a [full grown] oscar isn't even appropriate to saty(sp) in a 55gal, sorry.

There, fixed that for you. Thanks for the response about a 55 being too small for a 2" oscar....

If it was a year or two older and was getting large enough to outgrow the tank, your response would be appropriate. As it is, it isn't. I'm looking for tankmates now, not a year from now. I want the fish to grow with a tankmate before it grows too large and aggressive to tolerate newcomers.

 

[evercl92]

How about (assuming you're not limiting yourself to cichlids):
small lima shovelnose catfish
freshwater barracuda
leporinus
geophagus
african knife
parrot cichlid
red tailed shark
bala sharks
clown loaches
salvini cichlid
peacock cichlid
silver dollars
school of tiger barbs

My 75gal houses my 14in oscar, 10in lima shovelnose, 2 blue gouramis, and a female convict, without any issues. My oscar is pretty tame though, won't even eat/kill feeders/small fish.

 

[ataylor]

How about (assuming you're not limiting yourself to cichlids):
small lima shovelnose catfish
freshwater barracuda
leporinus
geophagus
african knife
parrot cichlid
red tailed shark
bala sharks
clown loaches
salvini cichlid
peacock cichlid
silver dollars
school of tiger barbs

My 75gal houses my 14in oscar, 10in lima shovelnose, 2 blue gouramis, and a female convict, without any issues. My oscar is pretty tame though, won't even eat/kill feeders/small fish.

Wow, thanks for that list. A number of those I'm just not familiar with so I'll have to research them. I'm wondering if a single convict chichlid would work...

 

[hc8719]

How about (assuming you're not limiting yourself to cichlids):
small lima shovelnose catfish
freshwater barracuda
leporinus
geophagus
african knife
parrot cichlid
red tailed shark
bala sharks
clown loaches
salvini cichlid
peacock cichlid
silver dollars
school of tiger barbs

some of those fish on that list get way too big to be in a 55, especially the clown loaches, bala sharks, freshwater barracuda, and parot cichlids. the oscar will need a huge tank at full grown, a 75 is barely ok even, as it leaves little swimming room

 

[tropicfishman]

a PACU LOL not really they get over 3 feet logn and quite mean lol I would do a pleco and some silver dollars but you do need a bigger tank