Oscar tankmates

[Phoenixphire55]

can oscars be housed with any other fish ? In a heavily planted tank for example, would one oscar among some SA cichlids be a bad idea? I assume having corys and a pleco in a tank with an oscar is a really bad idea, right?

 

[rich311k]

Depends on the size of the tank and the temperament of the oscar. Another oscar is usually your best bet. Believe it or not oscars are mild mannered compared to other large new world cichlids and they are the ones that usually take the beating.

Forget a planted tank. The oscar as he gets bigger will uproot them all. They do not like obstructions to block their field of view from potential rivals.

 

[JessieVB]

I think oscar tankmates depend on the temperament of the oscar and the size of the other fish.

I had an oscar a few years ago and we kept Red-tail tinfoil barbs and a pleco in the same tank and never had any problems. Our oscar was pretty docile though.

 

[cogburn]

im planning 2 oscars and 6 tinfoil barbs... in a 120... from what ive read its gonna work... im also not planning on any plants... just bigger stones for substrate and some rocks and driftwood... i want the focus to be on the fish... its gonna rock...

 

[n3wt]

I had a similar problem, my Oscar was super aggressive and would attack anything that I would put in the tank. I went to a guy who specialized in Cichlids and he told me that Oscars are not really fighter fish but more like big eaters. So if you put just one fish in there than he will go after it but if you put a couple fish in at one time they'll do fine.
So I did what he said and put about 4 Cichlids about the same size in there with him and after a few days of getting used to the other fish he was perfectly fine with anything I put in there after that.

 

[cogburn]

im gonna do a fishless cycle at 4ppm... so i can add both oscars and all 6 tinfoils at the same time... i figure if i put em all in at the same time i shouldnt have any problems...

all 8 fish will be roughly the same size too... im trying to minimize problems

 

[JessieVB]

Putting them all in at the same time sounds like a good idea to me. We had started our tank with the tinfoils and a managuense and the pleco. My dad saw the oscars and decided he wanted one of those a few weeks later. We added an oscar and the managuense bullied it (so we gave the managuense his own home).

 

[rich311k]

Tinfoils would be a good choice.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I guess I can't really get an oscar because of my existing collection and my plans for future tanks. I have a bunch of mollies, four corys, a pleco, and then five goldfish ranging from an inch to 3+inches. I plan to get a big tank just for goldfish (getting a few more) in some form of a river tank, and then I'll have an amazon tank with the rest plus some peaceful cichlids. However I'd love to get some aggressive fish, but maybe oscars require too much space / no plants.