Could i keep a jack dempsey, a twoinch tiger oscar and a one pleco in a 92 gallon tank?

Question

please answer 10 pts best answer

Answer 1

First thing is first:

Compatibility:

Yes, the Oscar and Dempsey are compatible, and can agree with each other, but you need to understand their behavior differences.

BUT!!!

The Oscar is an angry fish, it almost enjoys killing... This behavior surfaces as a sub-adult, and gets worse with age.

The Dempsey is a very tempermental fish, that enjoys keeping to his own space, but has no problem fighting to the death should a rival show up on his turf.

Knowing these things we can totally put them together, but the main factors will be space, cover, and capacity. You have the capacity without a problem, Dempseys and Oscars both can thrive in anything above 40 gallons, you meet this criteria just fine. The Pleco means nothing while dealing with cichlids, they're noctournal bottom feeders, while the cichlids are diurnal (awake and active during the day.) You wont find conflict between any of these species.

However, since your Oscar is only 2 inches long, I'm concerned about the age/maturity of your Dempsey. An oscar, despite any size will NOT immediately respect its "social boundaries" and will without hesitation invade the Dempseys space. When this happens, they WILL fight.

Now one of 2 things will happen, your dempsey, if its a decent age, will decimate your Oscar, and that will be the end of the story.

or...

The both fish are of comparable size, will nip, possibly lip lock and combat for a good while, if they're both 2 inches, they wont have the strength to cause any "real damage". They can and likely will injure each other, however it will be minor and only superficial, both species can take one helluva beating, and will learn to respect each others needs.

Your Dempsey will pick Side A and the Oscar will just enjoy the rest of the tank.

The fighting will be less of a deal if you have cover for your fish. If you have several "cave-like" structures, your Dempsey will find a new place if it feels insecure where he is at, if they're available at least.

Your Oscar will with time outgrow the Dempsey, but under constant social conflict during its youth, they will learn to get along, and you won't need to be concerned with the Oscar laying a smack down on your Dempsey after it nearly doubles its size. Average male dempseys grow between 9-12", 12" being HUGE!!!!!!! while Oscars can cream 18" in their "Huge" catagory, and a 12" Oscar is "typical".

In the Event that after time, the Dempsey ends up male, with a Female Oscar, you may experience the Dempsey taking runs at the Oscar instead. You can manage this behavior by moving the Dempsey's favorite ornament, it WILL pick its favorite, and if he misbehaves, just move it somewhere else, but in his own established territory, this will cause the Fish's preception of its own territory to "shift", as they will use their favorite rock, ornament, whatever as a territory marker. The fish will become too concerned with the safety of its territory to bother tormenting the other fish, and will proceed to march the perimeter of his space for a few hours, sometimes days.

Oscars do not share this affinity for territory, however enjoy remodelling the tank, any plants (fake or not) will be uprooted, anything the Oscar can move around, it will... This may also cause problems with the Dempsey's mood if these objects belong to the Dempey's territory.

You will not be able to house any target fish in this aquarium, as the Oscar is too voracious to keep any small fish with it. Bear in mind, your tank will house nothing more than oscars and dempseys, Dempseys cannot live with 2 males, Oscars can live comfortably with more females than males. I would reccomend in a 92 gallon tank, 4 fish, 2 Dempseys, one male, one female, and 2 oscars, one male and one female. With a 92 gallon tank you can buy a dozen fish, six of each and expect to get one male and one female for each species after a few months waiting to see them pair up, then return the leftovers to your LPS. Companionship will help them stay out of fights.

In a nut shell:

Yes, you can keep these 2 fish together, but only if you introduce them during their youth and have the space for both fish to establish comfortable territory (which you do).

Remember if the dempsey gets out of control later on with age, re-arrange its territory to put them into their place.

Answer 2

Oscars don't enjoy killing! They are the shyest fish I have ever seen! They eat smaller fish, yes. But any big fish will eat a smaller fish. Oscars get bullied in tanks like that so easily cuz they are NOT very agressive to other fish similer in size. Yes it will work, and NO oscars are not killing machines. They are misunderstood fish.

Answer 3

Actually Chop, I think catalyst has it totally reversed.  While you're right about the fact the Oscar aggression is blown too far out of proportion, in addition to that, it's totally opposite about a Jack Dempsey.  A Jack Dempsey is a RULE THE TANK TYPE, not someone that's going to just back off from an Oscar.  A Jack Dempsey got it's name from the boxer, not from being a shy meek coward.

Can you put them in a 92?  Possibly.  What I'd like to know more is the overall footprint on it though.  The longer the tank the better the odds.  It's certainly not the Oscar I'm going to worry about, but more the Demspey trying to take everything over as they typically do.  I'd opt for a six foot length tank if at all possible, and if you go five or four feet, you're going to want to watch how they interact when they reach adult hood.  I'd say it's pretty ideal to grow up in, but once they hit adult sizes, inside, I'm fearing it's not enough space.

While a pleco is a bottom feeder, and an armored catfish, keep in mind, Oscars have a tendancy to try to eat anything they can fit in their mouth.  There have been several occaisions here in YA where there have been Oscars trying to eat plecos, so this might not be a good idea in the long run.

Answer 4

catalyst pretty much wrote a book for u. lol. i agree with most of what he said. however i dont agree with his preception of aggression of the oscar. in the aggressive world the oscar is probably the weakest of the bunch. yes they are ruthless against fish that fit in their mouth, but anything outside of that, they are less prone to attack.

what u have is perfect for the tank size u have and i would recommend to get a surplus of feeder fish just to keep ur fish statisfied and prevents them from beating each other up.

other than that catalyst sumed it up for everyone. lol. he really wanted that 10pts. lol. j/k

Answer 5

give the points to catalyst

Answer 6

I kept two large Oscars and a Jack Dempsey in the same 70 gallon tank with no problems. Had aquatic plants too.

I also had rock features so that they could define territories away from each other.

Oh, and I had three sailfin plecos, too. No problems.