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125usg 1 oscar 1 texas. would this combination be ok or will the texax be to agressive. i already have a small oscar and will be buying the texas even smaller. could this work.

chris

It might. But everyone i know who's tried this has had to give one of the 2 fish away. Texas is a pretty agro fish. You can try... but keep a close eye on it. Really should depend on the size and nature of the fish.

I would let the oscar grow to about 3-4" and then get a small 1-2" texas as well as something else like a Jack dempsey, green terror, a male or female convict, a firemouth or 2 or a salvini. I'd also go with some dithers such as silver dollars, giant danios or a larger rainbow species. you could add the dithers now by the way but wait a couple months before adding something like a texas. this way the oscar has put on some size and will be intimidating to a smaller texas. also the oscar will always have a substantial size advantage over the texas so hopefully that will keep the texas at bay.

sounds ok, i think the oscar if large should fend for himself with the tex.

jason, don't you think that tank would be a little over crowed with an oscar, texax, jd, and dithers. please give me your advice for i have no experience with large sa/ca cichlids.

chris

it might look a little overcrowded once they reach full grown size, and you can always at that time remove the JD one of the fish and see how the remaining two get along. I only mentioned it because in my experience and in a lot that I've read it is more common to see bullying/aggression with only 2 cichlids in the tank as opposed to having 3. having a texas and oscar of opposite sex would help but oscars are so difficult to sex that you'd really need to look for a female texas (which may not be a bad idea anyway since a female would most likely be less territorial and aggressive).

I've found that a female convict or 2 can help out in this type of situation. I used to keep my festae pair in my 125. Festae are very well known for being very aggressive to each other during courting and spawning. I kept several female cons with them and they never did show aggression towards each other. the little female cons were very quick and never did get picked on though there was the occasional chase.