Hi, I replied to Joe earlier, but never directly to your post.

If that *small* South American cichlid is an Oscar (astronotus
ocellatus), it will grow to become a *huge* South American cichlid. It
is not uncommon for those critters to get to 14".grin I would get a
minimum of a 75 gallon for one oscar. Use rocks to provide ledges and
hiding places.

I keep my oscars at:
ph 7.0
Carbonate hardness 4-5dKH
General hardness 5-6 dGH
Temp 78-80 deg F

These params really worked out well, because I also have a community
tank that is also South American Amazon. So, when I make my Oscar water,
I am also making water for the other tank.

However...my water (North Texas) is horribly hard and alkaline. Were
talking 270ppm dissolved solids, and pH 8.5 out of the tap. Every
morning, I half-expect to see gravel pouring out of the tap. I have to
use a Reverse Osmosis/ DeIonization (RO/DI) unit to strip everything out
of the water, then build it back again.

With chemicals, I try to use just enough to get the job done well, but
no more than that. I have had great success with the Kent Marine line of
products.

I feed my O's a varied dient of Hikari cichlid staple pellets, Tetra
JumboMin food sticks, and FishGumDrops BeefHeart. At 8in each, I give
them one beefheart chunk each.

As with any fish, feed no more than they will eat in a few minutes. Keep
your lids secure, these babies *will* jump. Get a good, really good
filter. Oscars are horribly messy. Literally half of what they eat
washes out of their gills. What comes in those aquarium packages will
probably not be sufficient. You'll want to turn that tank over 8-12
times per hour if you're using hang-on power filters, so if you have a
55 gal tank, I would get two 330gph power filters. Yeah. They're *that*
messy. Also, since they're so messy, the bio-cycle in your tank really
gets going, producing a good bit of nitrate. Be prepared to do a 15-25%
water change weekly.

Hop on http://www.theoscarpot.com. Great folks there.

I think you should be okay with a plecostomus, especially if they grow
up together. I might buy the pleco a good bit bigger than the Oscar,
because the oscar will grow much faster, and might be tempted to snack
on (or attack) the pleco.

If I can throw one thing out, please, Please, PLEASE don't cycle your
tank with live fish. The ammonia and nitrite spikes can be deadly and
crippling to them. It would be like airing out someone's new apartment
with raw sewage and nerve gas. I would use household ammonia. I've used
Wal-Mart Sam's Choice brand(purple label) with great success. I cycled a
55g sal****er tank in 3 wks with 2 tsp of that ammonia per day, along
with 2 tsp of stress-zyme every few days.

Gawd... I've written a novel. Please note, I am speaking from my own
experience and learning, which is...well...my own, and is only a perfect
fit for me.

Best of luck to you.

-- Kerry Thomas
-- Please remove .NOSPAM from my email to reply.


Russ wrote:
My wife is wanting to get a south american cichlid from PetCo. They
are like $5.99 for the small ones.

We have never owned a fish, so we're trying to research as much as we
can online. Does anyone have any good recommendations for tank
decorations, size, gravel, additives, websites to order from, etc?

We have a 20 gallon tank and just purchased a pump/filter and vacuum.
We're planning on only having one cichlid for a long time, but if we
get another we will get a bigger tank. We're also planning on putting
an Algae eater in there with him of the same size. We figured we
might find all the other stuff online cheaper. Any good sites that
are cheap anyone can recommend?

Thanks!