As you might have noticed, I’ve been cutting back on the number of tanks and fish I keep lately…and simplifying. For now I’m done with hatching eggs & raising fry for instance.
So I got an Oscar baby…which I’m glad I did. He’s so cool. Most of you know, I read & research things quite a bit. During my Oscar research, I decided my guy probably needs a friend – and seeing as he’ll have a whole 150 to himself, there’d be plenty of room.
So I started reading – a lot. I found all kinds of articles and posts that suggested other Oscars, large Plecos, Clown Loaches, Pacus, Knife Fish, Synodontis, Silver Dollars, Firemouths, Texas Cichlids, Dempseys, and Severums. There are a lot of contrary articles/posts for and against each one.
The most common tank mate seems to be the Jack Dempsey. They’re gorgeous fish, so I was really tempted to just grab one of them. However, the downside to them being beautiful fish is that I kept reading over and over posts from people reporting that their smaller but more aggressive Dempsey was bullying their Oscar mercilessly.
My other choice was a Severum. They are also really neat looking fish, get large enough to live with an Oscar, and from my reading seem to be more docile (on the cichlid scale) than an Oscar. I considered that a plus since that way I wouldn’t have two dominant aggressive fish constantly duking it out over who the boss is.
I was really torn – since I liked them both a lot. I really admire Jacks…but logically the Severum seemed like a less risky choice. I really hate seeing any fish bullied to the point of misery, so I decided on a Severum – slightly smaller that the Oscar. The wife was also partial to the Severums because they’re “cute.” It’s never a bad idea to err on the side of the wife.
We looked at a few places and decided on a Green Severum that’s about an inch shorter than Chowder (the Oscar). I wasn’t sure if going smaller was smart, but thought we’d try it. So far – so good. Chowder didn’t really seem to care much as I was floating and acclimating the new fish. Other than swimming up close to look into the bag a few times, he didn’t seem overly interested. Even when I released the Severum, Chowder just swam over to him and looked him up and down…like a dog sniffing another dog.
Later I put food in. Ha. That’s when Chowder decided to show the new guy who’s boss. He didn’t really bite him or do anything real mean, but it was obvious he wanted the Severum to know the food was Oscar food. Lots of chasing. When the Severm was hiding behind a log, Chowder would go eat. The Severum was basically getting whatever floated into his area – which seemed to be enough. This is the third day I’ve had him – and he’s been pretty shy, but is starting to come out a bit more.
So far it has worked out well. The Severum is submissive to Chowder – and there’s no real violence going on – just some chasing - and when you’re keeping cichlids there is going to be some chasing. Hopefully they’ll continue to get along long term.
Can’t wait to get these two transferred to the 150.
