Stocking Question- what would you do?

[celebrist]

I would want a bottom dweller as well
A big pleco would survive fine but the extra bioload may make that untenable

Not sure but maybe striped Raphaels if you find them big enough since the oscars will outpace them growth wise

 

[Backfromthedead]

I hope the 2 “growing up together” makes them both viable options together. I’m also fully aware that’s not how this works but one can hope! They are both fully aware when we walk in the room etc. was mainly seeing what people would advise as possible tank mates and to see if there were any suggestions on “bottom feeders” per se.

I actually deleted a part of my post suggesting a vulture catfish, ultimately thought a 130g would be too small for an adult vulture. In my opinion it's a little tight for any suitably sized bottom dwellers+2 adult oscars. There are some midsized pims like ornatus or goldiella which could still potentially be eaten. Some of the larger growing synodontis cats could be good like angelicus, batensoda, or the commonly available eupterus as long as it is of substantial size when introducing and you provide a log or something for it to hunker under. I've actually seen this combo in action at a LFS demo tank for years now--large adult Oscar with a supersize batensoda 10"+ in a ~125g tank

Big issue will be temperament of the oscars. If one or both are particularly nasty or if they pair and start to breed there will be nowhere safe in that small tank for any bottom feeder. They might not kill it but it will not have a fun life being harassed, fins, whiskers, and eyeballs nipped, and chased around constantly when the Os are bored. Could work with sufficient space and hiding spots though.

 

[duanes]

Agree with RD and others that limiting that size tank to just the 2 oscars would probably be the best scenario.
130 gals is not a lot of territorial water, even if adding a small sump, compared to the acre of territory an oscar in nature would command.
I have a 180 gal tank with a 125 gal tank as a planted sump/refugium to buffer the build up of chronic nitrates, and would find the idea of 2 full grown oscars in it, to be over the top territorially and space wise.

 

[troublesum]

I would not advise a pictus in a O tank i tried it once years ago and the O tried to eat the pictus and died because the pictus spines got stuck in the O

 

[jjohnwm]

Pictus cats can be used as bottom feeders for Oscar tanks...as long as you are referring to feeders that stay on the bottom until eaten. Even then, their spines make them risky, as stated above. Oscars will use absolutely every cubic inch of that tank, top to bottom.

Otherwise, I would agree with the general trend of the above posts, i.e. even with only two Oscars this tank will be stocked pretty heavily. Any trips back to the LFS at this point should be for purposes of returning one of those Oscars, IMHO. And I would expect to be doing at least 100% of the water in that tank at least once a week in the near future.

Don't make the common mistake of buying Oscars...or any other fish...at a small size, and then looking at your tank and deciding "Oh, yeah, I have tons of room...I need more fish!" You don't...and you don't. Those Oscars are going to grow like wildfire, and two of them in that tank will rapidly progress from "too sparse" to "that looks nice!" and then continue right on through to "Geez...that tank is crowded!" Those big logs of poop they will be scattering around represent only a fraction of the waste that they actually excrete into that tank. Surf the net for a few pics of big Oscars...and by "big", I don't mean 6 or 7 or 8 inches, because they get much larger than that, and they do it fast.

Think ahead.