2poc wrote:
[quote
Have to admit 70% water changes weekly or 20% every second day sounds seriously excessive to me... These fish survive in ditches in the US.quote]

I have a large 14" O and a 16" Ornate Bichir in my 450 litre and need to perform a large 70% water change once every 12 days to keep nitrates below 20ppm so i wouldnt call it excessive?! The Oscar is fed every day and the Bichir once a week and i can see my nitrates start to creep from 10ppm to 20ppm in little over a 3 day period after the 12 days! Thats with a 1000 litre per hour internal filter, Fluval 405 external canister and an Fluval FX5 external canister filter?!

If you take into account that this chap has a large O and a Pleco (2 very messy fish already and then you add another O in on top of that) in a 350 litre, not sure if he has any extra filtration on his tank, i would think from experience that he would need to do 70% water changes atleast every 7-8 days to keep nitrates below 20ppm which is very important when keeping Oscars?! They are extremely susceptible to HITH!!!

What type of plec do you have in there? I too have an 8 inch sailfin plec in with my two oscars and a terror but when full grown he will be almost 2 feet!! The bigger they get, the more mess they produce. Just something to keep in mind

Jay

Steveo wrote:
2poc wrote:
[quote
Have to admit 70% water changes weekly or 20% every second day sounds seriously excessive to me... These fish survive in ditches in the US.quote]

I have a large 14" O and a 16" Ornate Bichir in my 450 litre and need to perform a large 70% water change once every 12 days to keep nitrates below 20ppm so i wouldnt call it excessive?! The Oscar is fed every day and the Bichir once a week and i can see my nitrates start to creep from 10ppm to 20ppm in little over a 3 day period after the 12 days! Thats with a 1000 litre per hour internal filter, Fluval 405 external canister and an Fluval FX5 external canister filter?!

If you take into account that this chap has a large O and a Pleco (2 very messy fish already and then you add another O in on top of that) in a 350 litre, not sure if he has any extra filtration on his tank, i would think from experience that he would need to do 70% water changes atleast every 7-8 days to keep nitrates below 20ppm which is very important when keeping Oscars?! They are extremely susceptible to HITH!!!

Are you sure there is not something else leeching nitrates into your water or maybe a high level in your tap water?

I have a 10 inch puffer in 240 litres, again a fish very sensitive to nitrate - needs to be kept below 15 ppm. Fed 3 whole mussels every second day & the occasional prawn & I change 50% of water about every 10 days. The nitrate would never be more than 10 & I would guess the bioload would be more than an Oscar & bichir together..

(Not doubting you, just saying I wouldn't want to be breaking my back changing 70% of water in a 350 litre tank every week if I didn't have to)

2poc wrote:
Are you sure there is not something else leeching nitrates into your water or maybe a high level in your tap water?

I have a 10 inch puffer in 240 litres, again a fish very sensitive to nitrate - needs to be kept below 15 ppm. Fed 3 whole mussels every second day & the occasional prawn & I change 50% of water about every 10 days. The nitrate would never be more than 10 & I would guess the bioload would be more than an Oscar & bichir together..

(Not doubting you, just saying I wouldn't want to be breaking my back changing 70% of water in a 350 litre tank every fish if I didn't have to)

No, there wouldnt be anything in the tank that would be leeching nitrates! Both the externals would be cleaned every 3-4 months and the internal every month or two?! I do a good gravel clean at every water change too!! In fairness tho, the Bichir alone would probably eat more than 10 mussels in a week or 5 large lancefish and my Oscar would eat in the region of anywhere between 6-10 large pellets every day and some bloodworms or krill once a week?! They do get fed well but thats how you get large healthy fish!

A good diet and clean water is all you need!!!

Hi All,

Thanks for all the feedback, i managed to get another Oscar around 8 inches and they seem to be getting along fine, they do a bit of mouthing etc but no serious agression.
They are now in the tank on their own. I do a 50% water change every few days. I have two Tetratec 1200's running the internal was removed.

The tank has to remian pretty plain, just bogwood as they wreck everything else. The big lad seems to go nuts every now and then to the point i thought he would crack the tank
He has a twitch, so maybe hes a bit mad

What decorations does anyone else manage to keep with them?

Terry wrote:
Hi All,

Thanks for all the feedback, i managed to get another Oscar around 8 inches and they seem to be getting along fine, they do a bit of mouthing etc but no serious agression.
They are now in the tank on their own. I do a 50% water change every few days. I have two Tetratec 1200's running the internal was removed.

The tank has to remian pretty plain, just bogwood as they wreck everything else. The big lad seems to go nuts every now and then to the point i thought he would crack the tank
He has a twitch, so maybe hes a bit mad

What decorations does anyone else manage to keep with them?

The only decorations i have in my tank is a rock background with 2 large pieces of bogwood and a large rock?! I have one piece of large bogwood thats about a foot and half long and it was moved half way across my tank over night?! I dont know what my fish do be up to during the night haha?? It must have been the Bichir, he must have just knocked it over swimming around and that?!

i have 1 9" oscar and 3 albino oscars 5"6"7" im selling them if ur interested ??