Any fishkeepers here? Saltwater or freshwater

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Actually, with Cichlids, 'overcrowding' will generally lower aggression.

If there are a bunch of them in there, they will spend their time chasing each other around but they won't ever target and kill one. Think of it as something of a target rich environment that keeps any individual fish from getting pestered to death.

Do you know if the same can be said for Oscars? I had 5 in a tank before but after about a year I was down to one so I'm guessing the answer is no. This thread has me itching to get a new Oscar tank going.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by beer me

Do you know if the same can be said for Oscars? I had 5 in a tank before but after about a year I was down to one so I'm guessing the answer is no. This thread has me itching to get a new Oscar tank going.

I wouldn't think so.

I'm talking dozens of cichlids. I think the size of Oscars would prevent that.

I'm also referring to mostly the mbuna cichlids. Those are generally in the 3-5 inch range and have a short enough attention span to lose track of whatever it was they decided they hated. It kinda gets back to an earlier post regarding conspecifics; if a fish sees a similarly colored/shaped fish, it will decide that fish is competition and try to bully it. If that same fish sees a dozen conspecifics, it's simply going to motor around trying to chase as many as they can. At the same time, however, other stuff is going to be chasing it around as well. At that point, you mostly get a lot of movement and a lot of tiny little territories. The fish reach an uneasy truce where they'll briefly pursue each other and end up wandering into another territory and they'll get chased out of there. They'll forget why they're pissed, go back to their territory, rinse and repeat.

Some of the larger ones (Venustus and stuff) probably wouldn't be quite as receptive to the approach. I would imagine that oscars would run into the same issue. You just couldn't have enough of them to create a true 'maelstrom'.

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I wouldn't think so.

I'm talking dozens of cichlids. I think the size of Oscars would prevent that.

I'm also referring to mostly the mbuna cichlids. Those are generally in the 3-5 inch range and have a short enough attention span to lose track of whatever it was they decided they hated. It kinda gets back to an earlier post regarding conspecifics; if a fish sees a similarly colored/shaped fish, it will decide that fish is competition and try to bully it. If that same fish sees a dozen conspecifics, it's simply going to motor around trying to chase as many as they can. At the same time, however, other stuff is going to be chasing it around as well. At that point, you mostly get a lot of movement and a lot of tiny little territories. The fish reach an uneasy truce where they'll briefly pursue each other and end up wandering into another territory and they'll get chased out of there. They'll forget why they're pissed, go back to their territory, rinse and repeat.

Some of the larger ones (Venustus and stuff) probably wouldn't be quite as receptive to the approach. I would imagine that oscars would run into the same issue. You just couldn't have enough of them to create a true 'maelstrom'.

Ok thanks. I'd just really like to have a big red and a big albino in a tank but it proved too hard to do before.