I am setting up a new tank, 46 gallons. I love Oscars and cichlids but am unsure if they can be together. Any advice would be appreciated.
They can live together. The cichlids should be about two inches and the Oscar not much bigger. I’m sure you know that the Oscars will eat anything they can put in their mouths. I have an oscar cichlid tank right now and things are fine
yeah
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Size matters with Cichlids, it’s eat or be eaten. Cichlids are territorial and predative. If your Oscar and your cichlids are of similar size you may be ok. If not, you may wind up missing fish and seeing a fat belly on another : )
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yes
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It depends on the other cichlid and tank size.
You actually have a small tank for anymore than one Oscar to reach maturity. If your Oscar is small this will be OK for a while, but when you can afford a larger tank with good filtration, I would suggest at least a 55 gallon for an Oscar and a 100 gallon for more than one large cichlids.
As to others cichlids, it is best if they can grow up together, and and stay around the same size.
I have successfully kept Severums, Jack Dempseys, Blue Acaras, and occasionally Black belt Cichlids. Stay away from Red Devils unless you want it to be by itself.
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The short answer is no, a single Oscar more then fills up a 46 gallon tank.
Even in a larger tank you need to be carefull mixing Oscars with other cichlids. Oscars seem aggressive, but they are actually quite mild compared to other cichlids – Jack Dempseys, Green Terrors, Texas, and other common larger cichlids will more likely then not beat up the Oscar at some point as they get larger (cichlids get more aggessive and territorial as they grow). If you want to see the best and most natural out of your Oscar, and you have a big enough tank (75 gallons or more) then the best companion for an Oscar is a mate.
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They can live together. The cichlids should be about two inches and the Oscar not much bigger. I’m sure you know that the Oscars will eat anything they can put in their mouths. I have an oscar cichlid tank right now and things are fine
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It’s not recommended that the oscars be kept with other cichlids.
Oscars are a relatively peaceful cichlid even though they get very large. However they will eat anything they can fit in their mouth. So if you keep them with other "peaceful" cichlids that are smaller then they’ll likely be eaten, and if you keep them with more aggressive cichlids then the oscars will take a beating.
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