uggh... oscar + red tail black shark?!

[jessey]

i set up a 55 gallon tank for my dad's birthday, and it just finished cycling yesterday, everything looks beautiful... so me and my dad took a trip to the lfs. the plan was to bring home an oscar and a school of fish (tiger barbs or tetras).

well, the baby oscars that they had looked pathetic - barely an inch big, and their colors looked lame and faded. they had some full-grown oscars, and they also had 2 medium sized oscars.. about 5-6". we both decided we liked the medium-sized oscars; unfortunately, they had just gotten them in two days before and they said we couldn't take one home until the next day (which is today).

we decided to pay for the oscar in advance (he was about $25, which i thought was pretty good, considering he's already got some size on him). we also picked up 6 bloodfin tetras, and so far so good with them, though i want to get a few more eventually.

here's where we get to the trouble, of course... my dad decided to also get 2 cory cats and 2 red tail sharks. the RTS's were harrassing the crap out of each other this morning, and i knew we didn't need/want the cories, so i brought ONE shark and BOTH cories back this morning, and picked up a clown pleco instead.

so my question is: aside from obvious stocking issues (if we're not overstocked now, i know we will be soon), what are your predictions? will the oscar beat the crap out of the RTS? or might it theoretically work, at least for a while? and just HOW overstocked do you think i am? (i only have one HOB filter on the tank now, but i'm planning to go pick up another one sometime soon.)

thanks for reading,
jessey

 

[Fuzz16]

your oscar will eat the tetras im sure
the RTS might get picked on depending on your oscar

and why would your lfs be holding fish for a couple days...that doesnt make sense. seems like a way to scam you out of money by pre-paying.

 

[jessey]

i know the oscar will eat the tetras... they look beautiful, but i mostly got them as an eventual snack.

apparently someone traded my oscar and one other in a few days ago, so they wanted to hold on to them for 3 days and make sure they were healthy. i picked him up today though... i just made a new post with pictures.

so far bobo doesn't seem to be bothering the RTS, but we'll see how long that lasts. he tried to eat my clown pleco, but he couldn't get him cause he was on the glass.

 

[missdixie256]

You are already overstocked. A 55g is barely big enough for an adult Oscar and nothing else. No plecs, no dithers, no nothing.

Your best bet would be not to do corys at all even in a larger tank. If I am not mistaken, like pictus, they have spines that can and will get stuck in your Oscars mouth when he tries to eat them (And he will!) which will lead to the death of the C and the O if it happens to hit the right spot in the oscars mouth and throats OR he chokes to death on it before one of you notice it OR he dies during the removal process where you have to cut the Cory apart.

I would also return the Clown pleco while you are at it.

Oscarfish.com :: Home if you need anyone that will tell you the same thing I did. While you are at it search the forums for 'pictus' or 'oscar ate pictus' because there are LOTS of photos that show the removal of a spined fish from the mouth of an Oscar.

 

[jessey]

the cories were one of the fish i returned this morning. i faintly remembered hearing something to that effect, that they were dangerous to the oscar's health, which is a large part of the reason that i already got rid of them.

i know the tank is overstocked, but it's not mine, it's my dad's, so this is the set up for now. we'll see how it goes.

 

[jessey]

i just re-read my last post, and realized it sounded a bit defensive. i didn't mean to come off sounding that way, i created this thread to ask for advice and knowing that my tank probably isn't the ideal setup right now...

anyway, aside from the RTS, i thought the stock was ok, or at least somewhat ok, at this point? i don't have much flexibility in changing things right now but i do appreciate the input from everyone.

jessey

 

[Big Vine]

Bear with me as I break this down into 'red light,' 'yellow light,' 'green light'...

'Red Light': clown pleco
You've already seen the oscar try to munch on the little guy. May not have been successful so far, but eventually he will be. Question is---will it slide down his throat as smoothly as a guppy would? Might work, but I'd be inclined to err on the side of caution in the event that it results in the types of 'throat blockage' scenarios missdixie described earlier. Not worth the risk, IMO...I'd ditch the clown pleco.

'Yellow Light': RTS***
Basically the oscar may end up eating it, or he may not.
So there is some risk involved, but the oscar should be fine either way. As long as you're prepared for the RTS to get eaten, then I wouldn't sweat it. It'd make a nice snack for Bobo. And besides, the 55 gal. tank could eventually do without the added bioload of the RTS anyway, lol.

'Green Light': bloodfin tetras
Virtually no concern whatsoever seeing as how they'll all be eaten within a week or two anyway, so let's just leave them out of the equation.



***As for the odds of Bobo eating the RTS...here's my assessment:
How big is the RTS?
If there's much more than a 1-2" difference between it and your oscar (your oscar being bigger, of course---Bobo is bigger than the RTS, right?), then the RTS may be on borrowed time.

Check out this pic of Triton moments after darting after an adult platy back on July 15...he was just over 3" (TL) at the time, and the platy he consumed was about 2" (TL). So just a hair over an inch difference in length between the two. The tiger barbs in the pic are nowhere near full-grown, by the way.

Of course, you need to take into account the fact that the platy was being introduced into his tank, whereas your dad's RTS and oscar were introduced at the same time. Plus, let's face it...an RTS is a much more formidable 'prey item' than a platy, so he's got that goin' for him as well, lol. I guess time will tell how it all plays out in the end...

Forgive me for the seemingly endless babbling...
I guess my point is that the oscar is likely to try eating anything close to (or shorter than) his own length---especially considering the fact that anything shorter than him in the length department is likely to be many times smaller in actual body mass.

Wow, probably I didn't need to say all this, but I've already typed it up, so it's staying, lol.
BV

 

[jessey]

hmm ok, well this is making sense to me... i guess the reason i thought the clown pleco would be ok, is because i know you have a pleco, BV? (ok now it sounds like i'm pointing fingers... i swear i'm not... just tryin' to figure it all out!) is it because the clown pleco is so small that he's such a danger to bobo?

the RTS is *considerably* smaller than bobo... so far, he hasn't shown much interest in him, but i won't be heartbroken if he does.

 

[Big Vine]

Hehe...about the RTS...fair enough!

About what you were saying with regards to the pleco situation...
What gives you the right to start 'pointing fingers' around here anyway?!? j/k

You are right about me keeping a pleco as well, but here's the main difference between our two situations:
-mine's a leopard cactus pleco with an expected length of about 9"
(not gonna fit into Triton's mouth at that size; your clown pleco does/will eventually fit into Bobo's)
-my pleco 2.5" (TL) was in the tank well before I put my oscar 1.5"(TL) in with him and, to this day, has shown no interest whatsoever in the pleco (yours has already tried to snack on your clown pleco)

In sum, if Triton were to try eating my pleco it could very well get lodged in his throat and result in complications...perhaps even death if left in there for too long. If Triton had shown interest in snacking on the pleco, I would have removed it by now. But he hasn't, and he'll be even less likely to once the pleco is full-grown. In the case of the clown pleco, Bobo has already attempted to snack on it. Given oscars' curious nature, I doubt that's likely to stop. But even if it does, the clown pleco will eventually (due to its smaller adult size) be a more tempting snack for an oscar than a leopard cactus pleco would be.

Hope that makes sense.
By the way, I also specifically chose a leopard cactus pleco (L114) because of their carnivorous nature---mine really does help clean up after the food leftovers that Triton leaves behind.

BV

 

[jessey]

What gives you the right to start 'pointing fingers' around here anyway?!? j/k

look at me... startin all kinds of trouble

i'm going to take everyone's advice on the clown pleco, though... going to move him to my 29 gallon for now... then eventually probably bring him back. =/ (i already have a rubberlip plec in my 29 gallon, or i'd just keep him there!)

 

[jessey]

i moved the clown pleco to my 29 gallon tank, so i'm going to watch him for a while, specifically to look for spats between him and my rubberlip plec...

everyone wish my luck, because while you all are telling me my tank is overstocked, my dad is talking about wanting a second oscar or a jack dempsey. i'm of course telling him NO... my main concern is that i'll come home one day and he'll have tried to "surprise" me with a new fish.