To Those of You Who Keep Oscars

I have a new 90 gallon fish tank that I'm working on setting up. I've decided I would like to have larger and fewer fish. I'm interested in Oscars. Now I've heard that you either keep one Oscar or you keep six because of their aggression towards each other. Since I only have 90 gallons and I don't plan on getting a several hundred gallon tank, I guess I'm only going to get one. What kind of tank mates would be suitable, besides Plecos? Any other information or advice you guys have from experience would be very valuable to me. Thanks :D

well my parents had oscars when i was little and i dont really remember how to take care of them. one thing i do remember is that oscars are capable of fighting with other fish so i dont know if it would be wise to house them with other fish.

Well I think they have to be equally aggressive and large, so they're not eaten.

75 Gallons MINIMUM for one oscar.

They grow extremely fast. A lot of places recommend a 55 gal for one oscar...but to me that doesn't make sense. A 55 gal tank is what, 12 3/4" deep? Oscars grow to about a 12" in a year, and that would mean for an O to turn around 360 degrees, it would have less than 1/2" of clearance on either side...not good.

They are really cool fish though. They are the type of fish that's way more concerned about whats going on outside of their tank than anything else. They'll beg for food, definitely grow to recognize you.

We have an O and a 2 severum in 75 gallon in the reception area of the office I work in. Seems like he "greets" every person that walks by.

As far as aggression...totally depends on the individual fish. Some get along in groups, others don't. Unless you have a very large tank, as you said, I would stick with one. If you want to have a few tankmates, make sure you get them all at about the same size...Oscars generally are not very aggressive, they just use their size to intimidate other fish.

I say thumbs up to an O, they are great fish.

Hope that helps.

Please do some reading. It's one oscar per 50-75 gallons of water.

With a 90 gallon tank you can keep one oscar and noting else. They are my second love after bp's.

I have done reading, I'm just asking for some personal experiences. I understand the adult size of Oscars, which is why I'm only planning on keeping one in a 90 gallon tank, are you telling me there is no room for a second tankmate?

Thanks for the info elevate this :D. That's one of the primary reasons I'm so intrigued by them -- they're more of a "pet" than just a fish in a tank. I love how the adult Oscars and Giant Gouramis engage me at my local fish store. Definetly very cool. Severums are interesting...

The two severum I have are just as personable as the O, but the O is still king of the tank. Severum are beautiful fish in their own right as well, but can be very timid.

I had 2 Oscars in my 90 gallon and they did fine. Plenty of space to swim. They are awesome fish. Some people call them puppy dog fish. Hole in the head is a common problem with them so its extremely important to keep the water clean with quality filters (Eheims and Powerclears) and do your weekly water changes. I also used Melafix with every water change. It smells great and in my opinion helps to keep the fish healthy.

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Originally Posted by jglass38

I had 2 Oscars in my 90 gallon and they did fine. Plenty of space to swim. They are awesome fish. Some people call them puppy dog fish. Hole in the head is a common problem with them so its extremely important to keep the water clean with quality filters (Eheims and Powerclears) and do your weekly water changes. I also used Melafix with every water change. It smells great and in my opinion helps to keep the fish healthy.

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I agree with Jamie, I had 2 oscars in a 90 gallon and they did great. It helps to raise them from a small size together. Water quality is VERY important and must be cleaned weekly. Oscars produce alot of waste and it can cause alot of ammonia and nitrites in a small period of time.

Great advice guys, I agree. No need to regurge what you guys already said!:rockon:

-Jason

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Originally Posted by JBallPython

Great advice guys, I agree. No need to regurge what you guys already said!:rockon:

-Jason

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Ahh the jokes I could insert here... :D

Thanks for your advice guys. I think two oscars would look perfect in the tank, and we have a great locally owned fish store here that I want to buy them from. So excited :D I will post pictures once the tank is setup. I'm planning on getting a canister filter to combat the waste, which has worked wonders with my 75 gallon.

Agreed, i had 2 Oscars in my 90 gal and they did fine... also had a peacock bass (chiclid) and a Jaguar guatpote (cant spell that one) We catch them in the canal behind my house... They are basically native to florida now. Only the Jaguar was aggressive at all.

If you like tanks you should try file snakes (already posted the pics in anither thread but heres some anyways) These guys are super cool and 90 gal is perfect for them!

http://www.nextworldexotics.com/images/tizank3.jpg

WOW. Definetly have not seen those before.

Check out the thread i just poseted on them... you may like them! (Its right below your thread titled File Snake)

I was successful in keeping 2 different pairs of oscars in 2 separate 75 gallon tanks. With the first pair, I had two pictus catfish and they all did just fine together. I wouldn't recommend a pleco in this set up though, because of the copius amounts of waste produced by the oscars alone.
And don't forget, just because it's been done, doesn't mean that the 2 oscars you will end up getting will get along for the rest of their lives. With Nicholas and Armand, there were 2 close calls where Nicholas had suddenly turned on Armand and beat the crud out of him.
You can also cut down on waste by getting them to eat a staple pelleted diet with occassional meaty treats and only feeding every other day.
I used to feed my oscars a super protein diet and believe me, I saw it back out the other end the next day!! :eek:
After switching them all to pellets, I barely ever saw oscar poo again after that. ;)

i have two oscars in my 77 gallon. they are being moved to my 135g when the stand gets made... but they've done just fine. i have a fluval 404 on the tank... do weekly water changes and they have MANY tank mates!

my giraffe catfish is in there with them, 2 texas cichlids, 2 sun catfish, a pleco, a 3" venustas and another cichlid (can't remember the name but the same size as the venustas).

is the tank heavily stocked... yup. do i do a lot of water changes... yup. are they all doing great with absolutely no disease at all... yup.

so can it be done... yup. can you do it and be lazy about water changes... nope. :P

i overstock most of my tanks though... i also over filter them to make sure the water is top quality as it's what they live in.

if i lived in a toilet... i would SO want someone to flush at LEAST once a week! :giggle:

oh and my oscars love each other. no problems at all between them. felix and brindi are their names... my little puppy dogs! (and very pouty when i do their water changes... they very very VERY much dislike water changes LOL)

Nippy thanks for the info, though I don't understand why I wouldn't put a Pleco in with them, in fact many of mine do a WONDEFFUL job of cleaning up waste and algae. I'm glad to see everyone has had such positive experiences keeping pairs. If the pair doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. I had quite a bit of that happening when I had a silver-tipped shark and other fish kept mysteriously disappearing. :confused: :P

As far as water changes goes, I am definetly used to it. I do them at least with the 75 gallon each week to keep the Discus happy.

I think I'd like to have one tiger, one albino, a pleco, and one or two interesting bottom feeders -- perhaps a spiny cat, since they eat fish waste, and there was a really cool catfish like HUGE bottom feeder I saw at my lfs, I can't remember what it was called, but apparently they have the potential to grow to the size allowed, so many people keep them in ponds. They were black and light orange, and had a high dorsal fin. Anyone?? :confused:

i have never heard of any fish eating other fish poop. are you sure????

plecos and goldfish are the POOP KINGS of the fish world... so... if your tank is a little overstocked... as a 90 gallon would be with two oscars, i would consider not bothering with one. perhaps a bristlenose IF you have an algae problem but honestly, most plecos only eat algae when they are small and need to be fed algae pellets when they grow up (cause they get fat and lazy LOL)

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

i have never heard of any fish eating other fish poop. are you sure????

plecos and goldfish are the POOP KINGS of the fish world... so... if your tank is a little overstocked... as a 90 gallon would be with two oscars, i would consider not bothering with one. perhaps a bristlenose IF you have an algae problem but honestly, most plecos only eat algae when they are small and need to be fed algae pellets when they grow up (cause they get fat and lazy LOL)

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If a fish does not fully digest its food then I'm sure another fish may pick through the feces for "leftovers"...but the only fish I know of that truly eats fish waste would be the species of scats...and those are brackish fishes.

-Jason

i have a green scat in my brackish tank :D thanks for enlightening me!

Pulled from web: Abundant in calm waters of swamps and mangroves (Ref. 27188). Omnivorous, feeds mainly on organic wastes.

We have a pair of Oscars in our 125g tank. They were both subadults that we took in from our friend's pet store because, to put it bluntly, the world sees Oscars as throwaway fish. (sadly.) Any time I go into my friend's pet store, there are Definately three or four large Oscars in her 225g tank; people buy them as cute babies, then once they hit the 6 inch mark, people either get tired of them or start fearing them or hating them for eating their tankmates, and drop them off at the store.
I would seriously look into buying some unwanted, already-subadult-to-adult sized ones. Chances are, they were unwanted by someone else, so you would be giving them a good home.. now, I know we can't solve all the world's problems, and I would hold nothing against you if you want to buy juvies.. but I do have to say that their colors often fade as adults, so if you pass up some big ones in favor of bright red youngsters, you might just get one that dulls in the end.. subadults would help "fill" your tank nicely too, and make it look less like a tank full of "dead air."
Our 125 gallon tank underwent an evolution to get where it is now. We have 5 clawed frogs, one livingstoni cichlid, one redfin cich., and two plecos (dirtballs!) in this tank. No one bothers anyone else, but we originally had 4 Oscars; two were super-aggressive, so we put an ad into the paper and found local Oscar lovers who bought them.. our current two are pretty tame, but the Red does like to sit and wait for you to feed him, and he will jump out of the water at you for food! Secure heavy lids are a must on any Oscar tank.
Red still has some remainder of hole-in-head; he had it very badly when we got him last year, but he does not seem to suffer any from it. I wonder if it is something that never completely heals? White, our "snowcap", has a deformed mouth, presumably from a mouth fight before we got him.
We did lose our favorite Oscar, "EE." (stood for Evil Eye." We had gotten him for free from a petco b/c he was blind (had pop eye early in life) and sadly, he died last year from fungus; I tried like heck o save him, isolating him and treating but sadly he did not make it. These are seriously fish that you either love or hate; they have more character in one fin than (addmittedly) my goldfish or tropicals have in their entire bodies!

The tank: sorry it is at an angle in the pic.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s.../oscartank.jpg

White:
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...whitething.jpg
Red:
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/redthing.jpg

I JUST realized you posted this.. what great looking Oscars! It's sad that they are "throw-away" fish to people, kind of like giant snakes - people only want them when they are small and cute, but when they're unprepared for the adult size, they think they can just pass it off on someone else. I wish I knew someplace locally that had sub-adult to adult Oscars. The fish store I'm planning on purchasing from is a place I trust. I've never had a fish die that came from them -- they quarantine for a month before selling, and I know they came from a respectable breeder.

Your albino is GORGEOUS! Was that one you got as a sub, or a juvie? It would be nice to have one that becomes bright as an adult, but it's not necessary for me to be happy with the results. I'm more just in love with the idea of two giant fish in my tank, a huge contrast to my other tanks which are all lots of mid-sized fish.

The white one, we got him when he was maybe, about 3 inches long. They are each about a foot now, and I don't think they're growing much more.. some do tend to get larger than others; we had one that topped out at around 15 inches! He was one of the ones that we sold..
They are swesome fish, and it seems as though you have the right attitude; seems like a lot of people have this crazy idea that if they keep them in small tanks, they won't grow.. that does not seem to be true with these guys. Mark's cousin had three, in a 30g tank, and they all topped 13 inches.
A pet store that quarantines; awesome!