# oscar and pleco?



## sk13322 (Aug 7, 2011)

my tiger oscar is about the size of my hand can i get a pleco around the same size and have them two be ok with eachother? thanks


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## dekrug (Aug 7, 2011)

How big is your tank?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

sk13322 said:


> my tiger oscar is about the size of my hand can i get a pleco around the same size and have them two be ok with eachother? thanks


This is probably doable if you have a 100+ gallon tank.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Oscars and plecos can go together if the pleco has hiding places he can't be reached in. What you need to watch with this combo is water quality. Both have a rep as "messy" fish, which basically means they have a lot of body mass relative to their length and are not that effective about eating everything they are given, so you have to deal with lots of uneaten food and a lot of poop. Both grow a lot bigger than the chain stores let on. One of these fish is a 'nitrate factory', 2 is a recipe for "I'm always changing water and I still have high-nitrate, out-of-control algae, and HITH. Do it only with a big tank and an aggressive water change regimen.


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## girth vader (Apr 24, 2006)

emc7 said:


> Oscars and plecos can go together if the pleco has hiding places he can't be reached in. What you need to watch with this combo is water quality. Both have a rep as "messy" fish, which basically means they have a lot of body mass relative to their length and are not that effective about eating everything they are given, so you have to deal with lots of uneaten food and a lot of poop. Both grow a lot bigger than the chain stores let on. One of these fish is a 'nitrate factory', 2 is a recipe for "I'm always changing water and I still have high-nitrate, out-of-control algae, and HITH. Do it only with a big tank and an aggressive water change regimen.


+1 

Unless you can turn the tank over 10x/hr then I wouldn't consider it, and nothing under 100g.... However do not go by what the filter claims on the box. Those GPH flow rates are based on no media and clean uptakes and clean canisters. Go online and get true results with Media, then minus 30% for dirty media and tubing... then use those numbers to find out exactly how many times you are turning your tank over..... As a rule your filtration should cost more then the actual tank was...


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