180 gallon Predator tank

DawnMichele

Aimara
MFK Member
Jun 16, 2010
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Hello. My Oscar Big Boy is all by himself in a 125. He's a little over 11 years old and about 14 inches. He takes up the tank. Here's a older video of him.
 
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Lazybum34

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 19, 2024
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I'd say you're done; in fact, I'd probably say you're done just with the Oscars. They will grow like wildfire; check out posts by FINWIN FINWIN or DawnMichele DawnMichele to get an idea of what a big Oscar looks like, rather than looking at little guys like the ones you just bought. A truly big Oscar is a whole 'nother critter.

I have no experience with that species of cat, but various online sources have stated that it isn't very fast-growing. You may be faced with a possible problem, in that either of the species you want are very capable of eating the other, depending upon their relative sizes...and varying rates of growth mean that you'd need to watch them carefully if they grow at different rates.

Personally, I think you will be forced to feed the Oscars too much just to get enough food down to the catfish. That kind of powerfeeding won't do them any good in the long run, but will cause them to grow even faster than normal, exacerbating any size differences between them and the cat.

I'm sure this combination can be made to work with diligence...but I'm equally sure it can go real bad, real fast if you aren't consistently on top of it in terms of water changes, general maintenance and a level of "fish-sympathy" that lets you understand what may be motivating their actions and interactions.
So far I have been able to get the catfish to eat without over feeding the oscars
 
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