Tankmates for oscars
(The Texas cichlid can make a good tankmate when housed with 1 or 2 large oscars)
So you want to house another type of fish with your oscars. A lot of people say keep oscars with oscars, but I disagree, If given the proper environment almost any other fish can live with oscars to some degree. First you can't put a very aggressive fish with oscars because oscars aren't very aggressive and the other fish could kill your oscars. Another no no is putting fish small enough to fit in the oscars mouth, then the oscar will look upon this fish as food. Now every oscar I kept always was housed with other types of fish. I've kept them with Firemouths, Convicts, Assorted African cichlids, and pl*cos. At one time I decided to buy a red belly pacu, for awhile it was fine until it started picking on the oscars which were at least 2 times his size. He would take big bites out of there fins. So I got rid of it. With the African cichlids I originally had two one was smaller than the other. One day when I went to check on the fish I noticed the smaller one on the bottom of the tank decapitated. But other then those two exceptions my oscars have gotten along fine with any other fish.
Here is a list of tank mates for oscars with descriptions of each.
Firemouth Cichlid: This is a good tank mate for oscars. They only get 6 in. max but the oscars usually can't swallow a fish that big. If you want a Firemouth raise him and the oscars together from when they are small.
Convict Cichlid: These fish are highly aggressive but are small 5 in. max which makes them good with oscars.
Pacu: If you want a piranha type fish then this is the closest to the real thing but be careful not to get a red belly pacu this type has a full set of teeth and are to close to the real thing. But beware they get big even bigger than oscars. A tank of at least 500 gallons will be needed.
Jack Dempsy: Now if you have two or more oscars and they are bigger than the Jack Dempsy than they should be fine. So make sure you follow these rules with Jack Dempsys because if your other fish are smaller the Jack Dempsy will probably kill them.
Texas Cichlids: I don't really know much about these fish but I have heard that they make great tank mates and I plan on trying it out. I will fill you in if it works.
Large catfish: Oscars and catfish that are Large never bother with each other. Except for Shovel nose catfish which get about 3ft. long they may be able to eat an oscar. Normaly to big for aquariums under 500 gallons.
These are my choices of tankmates for oscars if you have any others that work well then email me with a description of the fish and a picture if you have any.