I had something tragic happen to me lastnight. I had a few friends over to play the new Gears of war 2 for XBox 360. Before we started playing one of my friends was looking at my tanks and was in awe by how beautiful my discus are. I was in the kitchen making a PB&J when my friend yelled to me and said that one of my fish was dead! I came running in to the room thinking that it was one of my discus! My friend shaun pointed to the oscar tank and thats when I found my red tiger oscar floating on the bottom of the tank with its bottom jaw ripped off and its fins shredded

I thought that my oscars were going to breed but I guess the other oscar had a diffrent plan. :angspmd:

I called my LFS this morning and asked for one of there employees by name. I talked to the guy for 2 minutes before he said enthusiastically that he would take my oscar. He has a 300g tank with a couple of dats and some other bigger fish that I cant spell let alone pronounce. So tomorrow I say good bye to my oscar and take a breather from large CA/SA cichlids.

I'm sorry to hear that Mike. It's always hard to lose a good fish, especially one that has as much personality as a big CA/SA cichlid does. You say you're going to take a break from the big CA/SAs for a while, have you decided what you are going to put in the tank yet?

Mark

I'm thinking africans that wont as big as oscars. Its a 72g

That would be the way to go. Keeping two Oscars in the same tank unless it is huge a lot of times a coin flip. A 72g will be suitable for a large amount of Africans! Sorry to here about your loss dude, that sucks!

Thank you Paul. can you suggest any africans?

Damn that sucks.

I wonder if the one wanted to breed and the other didn't. Whatever happened that blows.

Anyway, I don't have nearly the experience in Africans as other people on here, but the kids have 4 sleeper cichlids (Nimbochromis livingstonii) that are really awesome. They play dead to nail feeder fish.

Wikipedia Info

A tank that size you could get a nice aquatic turtle too. African Mud turtles are chock full of awesome.

Thank you Saint. I have no Idea what happened I'm just PO that the one killed its mate. As for the turtle, I like them but I'm not into keeping turtles. I think if I was to ever keep turtles I'd bulid a pond and keep snapping turtles or I'd figure a way to keep the giant galapagos tortoise.

In a 72g you have lots of choices I would go to cichlid-forum and browse their profiles and see what you might like. You could do Peacocks or Haps or Mbuna or Victorian it is really up to you and what is available to you. See what you like and then see what is available then we can help stock it with what you like!

I will do that. I'm liking the Christmas fulu but I think I'm going to go with something else.

I took your advice and went on to cichlid-forum and this is what I found.

Cynotilapia sp. "Mbamba" (Lion's Cove)
Sciaenochromis fryeri
Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga" (Makonde)
Dimidiochromis compressiceps
Placidochromis sp. "Electra Mozambique"
Taiwan Reef
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi "Eureka"
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (Otter Pt.)
Cynotilapia afra (Cobue)
Labidochromis caeruleus (Kakusa)
Labidochromis sp. "Mbamba"
Labidochromis sp. "Perlmutt"
Melanochromis baliodigma
Melanochromis vermivorus
Metriaclima greshakei
Pseudotropheus crabro
Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Bee"

You've got some really nice looking fish on that list. I would suggest choosing either a Hap/Peacock mix or an Mbuna mix. Overall Mbuna tend to be too boisterous for the Haps and Peacocks. I do keep Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove I) with my Haps and Peacocks, but they tend to be more mellow than most Mbuna. Good luck with the Africans.

Mark

Thank you mark. I think I might go with the Mbuna mix.