Oscars

Hi all,

I am changing from a community tank to oscars or an oscar.
i have a trigon 350 with 2x tetratec 1200. Anyone that keeps oscars any info what type and would the tank manage 2 oscars? Could i leave my 8 inch pleco in there?
Anyone selling any?

Hi there, you certainly can leave youir pleco in. Oscars arent as aggressive as people tend to think. the type is not important as there is only one species of oscar, the different varieties are just colour morphs of the same species. So its down to taste.

avoid Hormone fed fish if possible. Oscars are usually imported at around 2 - 4 inches and are showing beautiful colours in the shops. But get them home and they become dull. Always ask if the fish are hormone fed, buy natural beauties if you can.

Your looking at 2 - 3 adults in a tank that size, although personally I would get about 6 in that tank!
Best bet - Buy a good few young and keep the best and sell the rest as they grow.

thats some good advice although its not that easy to get rid of them when they get large. i wouldnt be surprised if you end up being offered a couple full size for free. ill ask around for ya

Many Thanks for the replys,

I bought 2 large tiger oscars in AV1 for 100 quid, they were a pair. Couldnt bear to split them even tho i had reservations about the one eyed one.
One of them only had one eye and a bit of fin damage. Popped them into the tank after acclimatasion and the one eyed guy never looked right. Just lay on th bottom of the tank the whole time. I did get a nitrite spike of .25 after 3 days and Drew advised safestart which i got 3 bottles and all resettled. Unfortunatly the one eyed guy never came round and eventually died.
Th other fella is a fine fish, full of personality and life, even hand feeding.
Expensive lesson earned, a 50 quid fish not right from day one.

Can i put a small guy in with the big lad? Seen some nice ones in Wackers, but done want to risk it being bullied.

Would it be too risky to put a small one in or is it just a case of trying?

the rule of tumb is if can fit in its mouth it will be swollowed,oscars are very greedy cichilds,they will eat anything

In my opinion, i would'nt add a smaller Oscar in with the larger one that you currently have! More than likely the bigger one will either bully it to death or quite simply eat it if its small enough. I have my red tiger O nearly 3 years now and he's 14" long and i know i would'nt get away with putting a smaller one in with him?! He is an aggressive Oscar infairness and does'nt hold back in letting my 15" Ornate Bichir know who's boss! The Ornate would have a small O for breakfast either way so im not tempted to get another one anyways?!

Advice on keeping your O healthy!

1)Keep the water conditions extremely good especially that you have two very messy fish in an Oscar and Pleco combination. If your tank is filtered efficiently you will probably get away with doing a large 70% water change once a week.

2)Feed the Oscar a varied diet including a quality pellet food which should account for roughly 80% of its diet with the other 20% being filled up with the like of bloodworms, krill, lancefish, muscles etc.

3)If you dont feed a varied diet and keep the water conditions 100% right, then more than likely your O will suffer with HITH and that isnt what you want for your pet!!

If you need any more advice, just ask

Steveo.

Thanks for the info much appreciated,

was doing 20% water change every 2 days, a bigger one once a week suits me great.

hey there,
I've not been around in while on the site. If your still looking for a big oscar, there was a pretty much fully grown one in aquarium solutions in ashbourne few weeks ago...40euro. healthy looking

oog1111 wrote:

hey there,
I've not been around in while on the site. If your still looking for a big oscar, there was a pretty much fully grown one in aquarium solutions in ashbourne few weeks ago...40euro. healthy looking

I saw that oscar - wow what a fantastic specimen!! It was huge and perfect. It was sold and on hold for someone unfortunately.

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. I'm not advising negligence, I give my own cichlids 50% weekly water changes but I have a LOT of cichlids in one tank. How big is the tank?

Sorry to hear about the loss of the one eyed fish, bad idea to buy a fish that is in any way damaged though. Drew is a nice guy though & I'm sure he'll see you right.

If I were you I'd chance another Oscar, obviously not one small enough to be eaten but you will see soon enough whether there will be trouble or not, why not get one eary in the morning & try it out, if it doesnt work out remove the fish & return it on the same day?

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 ??