som1 help me!?

Question

I bought a breeding pair of convict cichlids today and put them in my 4ft tank with my oscar that is about 5 inch long. The male contvict is about 2 inches the female is 1 inch. My major prob is that my oscar wont leave them along and im worried sick he gonna kill them. i have a tank that is 20 x 10 x 12 that i have some sword tails guppies and platy. I know this tank is way to small for my convicts but would they be ok in there for a day or 2 till i bought and set up a new tank. I dont want them to be killed!

sorry for sounding cruel but i dont care if the convicts kill my platy and stuff.
If i added up the cost of all my smaal fish it would still cost nowhere near wot i paid for my breeding pair of convicts

Convicts now in my 10G tank. i will get a new tank 2morro, run for a full 24hrs and mostly fill with water from my other 2 tanks. ill also take out a filter foam from a running tank and put that in the new 1 to help get the cycle started

Answer 1

first of all, what size (gallon) tank is the oscar in?
a 4ft tank could be anything from 30 gallons to 300 gallons. he needs at LEAST a 75 gallon tank for himself.

yes, you could put the convicts in with the livebearers if you dont mind them getting attacked. you could use a piece of plexiglass to create 2 sides. that way, none of your fish would get hurt.
this however, should be very temporary. the convicts shouldnt be in a small tank for more than a few days.
make sure you research their needs and the tank is big enough in order to give them the best life you can.

Answer 2

Rearranging your tank will only temporarily solve the problem, after the oscar gets comfortable again it will continue to attack the convicts. Either move the convicts to another tank or add some caves or holes for the convict pair to hide in. Once the convicts get used to the tank they should be ok. I have a 5 inch Wolf cichlid which is alot more aggressive than an oscar with a 2 inch Flowerhorn and the flowerhorn does ok. I just made sure that the flowerhorn had places to hide.

Answer 3

No wonder your oscar is pestering them, its just trying to work out is this food or am i supposed to leave it, I would say that if you leave them there he'll eat one once he's done that he'll probably devour everything in the tank, the Oscar needs at least 55gallon of space and I'd say that the convicts would need at least 20, as for a breeding pair I've had some small fish but Convicts breeding at 1" i think you've been had.

Just to clarify the Oscar is not that aggressive and its current tank mates are just that, but having introduced small fish he's now in a quandry about the fact of is it food or tank mates, so eventually he'll try one and enjoy the taste and then pollish off the rest.

AJ

Answer 4

Your 10 gallon tank (it is not 20 gallons) is fine for them for a very limited time - but go too long and you'll find your convicts killing each other.

You simply shouldn't put pairs of cichlids with your Oscar - truth be told, you shouldn't be mixing any cichlids with your Oscars at all, as it's entirely against their nature, and they inevitably end up fighting over the tank at some point although too many people don't care and do it anyway. Re-arrange all you want, but somebody will get hurt. Probably the Oscar in the end.

Answer 5

Well, they'd be ok in that tank, but they'd eat your other fish. You really need to get that other tank ASAP. In the meantime, you might try catching the oscar and putting him in a bucket of water while you re-arrange his tank. Sometimes you can trick them into thinking that they are in a new territory. Then, when you re-introduce him to the convicts, maybe he'll be better behaved. Good luck!

Answer 6

yes, it would be better for them than being dead.