Juan Carlos, My new wild caught Columbian Oscar

DMD123

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I feel bad, he died cause of what I wanted. All was working out with him and the RT, Toni and Hotlipz. I wanted him and Toni to mate up, should have waited longer, gave him a better chance.

I changed the tank and all that. Took out the branches, put in seven different hides with rocks. Still she just didn't like him.....
If Juan were bigger it still may have turned out the same or even worse you could have had a dead Juan and a beat up Toni. You really never know what will happen, dont beat yourself up over this. Your intentions were good.
 
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Cichlids-r-beasts

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Well Houston we have a situation.

Me being the ever impatient fish keeper wanted to see if Toni and Juan would get along. So I swapped places with Hotlipz and Juan. Hotlipz went into the 55 and Juan went into the 125 with Toni. I figured he is the same size as Hotlipz so should be ok.

So it went a lot better than I thought. There were no brawls or anything, Toni actually seemed to be flashing at him like she wanted to mate. So I went to bed and all was well.

I wake up in the morning (today) and my heart sank. Juan Carlos was floating on the waters surface, lifeless. I touch him to see if he was playing dead or something.........sadly that's not the case. Sonething must have went terribly wrong overnight for Toni to have killed him.

R.I.P
JUAN CARLOS MONTOVAN THE THIRD
View attachment 1308239
RIP Juan. He will be missed

If you’re adding a smaller fish in a larger fish’s tank I suggest a couple hiding spots that the larger fish can’t get into or move/knock it over. And imo with cichlids things can change quickly overnight. So next time maybe add the fish in the morning so you’d have time to observe their behavior throughout the day.
Personally this works for me.
 

jaws7777

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Sorry to hear about this. Don't beat yourself up this is part of keeping fish.

Imo moving decor around or giving fish time outs only delays the inevitable. If one of them is going to start trouble it's going to happen no matter what. Some times these changes work sometimes they don't.

Went through something similar with my old wc Oscar. I had to re-home him as he just would not let any other cichlids live in the tank (150)
 

RD.

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I agree with the others, it always sucks to lose a fish, but mixing cichlids is always a roll of the dice with no guarantees. On the positive side, you still have a very beautiful and healthy Oscar in your tank.
 

jaws7777

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+1

I'm not a fan of albino fish except for Oscars. Yours looks great
 
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Ogertron3000

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Sorry it turned out like that, like the other guys said it's always a gamble mixing fish. There's always the "I should have done this or that" thought after something goes wrong but unfortunately no one has a crystal ball to see how things will go. You've probably learned a few things if you want to try again with another Oscar sometime.
I would have thought a wild fish would be more aggressive than a captive bred though.
 

AnthonyFish20

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I agree with the others, it always sucks to lose a fish, but mixing cichlids is always a roll of the dice with no guarantees. On the positive side, you still have a very beautiful and healthy Oscar in your tank.
i agree how big was toni if anyone knows the best time to add cichlids is wen everyone is juveniles imo
 

Jexnell

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i agree how big was toni if anyone knows the best time to add cichlids is wen everyone is juveniles imo
Toni is 8inches, I have heard that the best time is when young, tried that with her, she rejected them. I also heard adding it when smaller so main don't see it as a threat can work as well. That is the point we are at now. Juan was the 5th Oscar I have tried to home with Toni. So at this point I am done trying to home her with another Oscar unless I get like a 300gal tank. So she will stay with her friend she has accepted so far, Hotlipz the Green Terror. 20180319_005353.jpg
 
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jaws7777

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i agree how big was toni if anyone knows the best time to add cichlids is wen everyone is juveniles imo
Even this isn't always gauranteed. Sometimes they reach a certain size and all bets are off.

Toni is 8inches, I have heard that the best time is when young, tried that with her, she rejected them. I also heard adding it when smaller so main don't see it as a threat can work as well. That is the point we are at now. Juan was the 5th Oscar I have tried to home with Toni. So at this point I am done trying to home her with another Oscar unless I get like a 300gal tank. So she will stay with her friend she has accepted so far, Hotlipz the Green Terror. View attachment 1308427
Honestly she just may not want tankmates. It's her territory and it seems she's accepted the GT.

I've had experiences where some cichlids wouldn't accept any other fish, sometimes they were fine and other times they only accepted non cichlids.

I've had much better success with mixing cichlids and non cichlids (polypterus, cats, pleco)

For me less cichlids (one per tank) is just easier but then again I like CA.

I also think age plays a role. My current pearsei was always a jerk but seems to have slowed down the past few months. He's around 3 or 4
 
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