The study group
 

My tank is like a freshwater reef. The Oscar (big orange and black on left) plays the role of grouper. He even broke my buddy off one night. I told him he could throw a jig in. He tied one on and tossed it in. Oscar hit it and head for the deep side of the aquarium, Brandon set the hook, almost knocking a hole in my cieling, and snap----Oscar was broke off swimming around with the jig in his jaw..He knocked it back out himself in another second. That was a couple years ago.

I remember catching Oscar in the Everglades canals back when I lived in south Florida. They're very strong fish pound for pound and very aggressive.

How big is the tank? Looks pretty nice. Would you like a pecosamatus. Not sure how to spell it. It 's one of those fish that eat algae. He's about a foot long.

Oscars are pretty cool fish with their own personality. The can be messy though, and destructive too if they don't like the way the tank is laid out. I had one that did not like any kinds of plastic plants on one side of the tank and he kept uprooting them and moving them to the other side.

I have already got one in there, one of the smaller bristle nose Plecos. I better leave it at that. Thanks anyway. If you see those bright blue african cichlids, I have plenty of those to give away. There are probably 15-20 of them hidden along the bottom from 1/4" to 2". They are mouth brooders and breed like crazy. It is 125 gallon. It is weird because this is a highly carniverous tank, guppies, shrimp, crawfish, and other small fish get devoured immediately, but these baby cichlids survive. I don't know if the bigger cichlids give them pass, or they are just too wary to be caught. No telling how many times I have brought a new fish home bigger than them that I want to introduce, and it just ends up as another snack.

All the fish except the Pleco and a catfish are cichlids, including the Oscar and have similar characteristics. The fish in the middle, a Salvini Cichlid, yellow on top, red on bottom with the black stripe in the middle, peeping around a rock is the most wary and aggressive. When she lays eggs, there is not enough room for the Oscar to hide. She brought him to death's door last time. If I hadn't vacuumed her eggs up or removed the Oscar he would be dead. It is funny to see the different ways they operate. In a fishing hole, the Oscars would be first to be caught, while catching the Salvini would take stealth and patience. The Oscar rushes in, while the Salvini watches and waits and sizes things up.

That's a nice-sized tank. How big is that Oscar? They can grow to about 14", a couple of pounds, in a big enough tank, right?

That's a nice tank. It's a raining in Lebanon today, can I come over and fish? I promise to catch and release!
Is that freshwater?

He is about 10" long by 6" tall and thick, probably pushing 3/4 lb or more and eats whole night crawlers, and crawfish. If he can't eat the crawfish hole he will grab them and smash them apart and eat the pieces. Although the other fish get most of the other pieces.

Sure, looks like they might be biting today. Yep, freshwater cichlids. They are a very active, intelligent group of fish. Keeps me entertained on days like this.

fish tank
 

My mother had a Jack Dempsey when in was a kid. They were a very fun fish to have also and it seemed to live forever .. over 10yrs if i remember correctly. Do you have 1 of those also? it didnt get anywhere near a oscar size but she also only had like a 30 gal tank for it. I remember it eating worms on occasion though. i dont recall her ever feeding it guppies though

Yep, there is a dempsy in there. The blue blob in the center near the back glass. He is at least 7-8" and will eat pretty much eat anything the Oscar will. They really loved the locust hatch this last year.

Have you ever tried to put fish from lakes around here in there? Or won't that work?

It's illegal to keep most native Tennessee fish in home aquariums without a permit. This was included in the last revision of the "bait" regulations.

Gotcha, thanks!