need help with oscar

[superoscar]

i have a 2 inch tiger oscar alone in a ten gallon tank and am going to upgrade to a 54 gallon corner tank. I'd like to know wat would be good tankmates for that size tank.

[gatotsu77]

Realistically, nothing. A 54g corner tank probably isn't big enough for a full grown oscar, even if kept alone. You'd be best investing in a standard 75, or better yet, a 125g tank to provide him with some room to move around. A 125 would probably be ok for 2 oscars, and even then, there's always room for improvement. Oscars are always hungry and will eat just about any fish which will fit in their mouth. I'd suggest taking a look at some people's setups who already own oscars, and see how they chose to set them up. In all likelihood, they're in a 200g+ tank, and have other very large tank mates such as clown knife fish, tinfoil barbs, jack dempsey cichlids, large catfish, etc.

[superoscar]

the 54s only temporary, after the oscars through with it and into his 250 gallon(getting it next summer) itll be used for my black moor goldfish

[bigscout]

I'd hold off on tank mates, a 54 corner would be fine for the first 10 months of an oscars life if you don't feed him heavy and run good maintenance. A corner tank will give him turning space better than a standard 55 g but you'll eventually hit the bio-load limits of that volume of system. If you feed heavy you'll hit them very soon. A well fed Oscar will grow an inch a month, so by next summer you'll have a 9 inch fish that loves to eat and make messes. Anything small enough not to compound your problems will be eaten by Christmas.

Once in the big tank, I've found Dempsey's Firemouths, pleco's (Watch what type, some get too large) severums, and even in some cases large gourami's. I've kept pearl gourami's and blue gourami's with Oscars and they were fine, but I've also kept them in pretty good sized tanks. Most Oscar agression issues come from a lack of tank space IMO, I do not see issues in large tank with fish that never work in smaller tanks.

[salty0pepper]

My piano teacher's son's girlfriend hasa tank at my piano teachers house (long story) and im not sure what size but its long , and she got it with the osar already with it , jack demsey with it but thw oscar died of hole in the head and now they just have the dempsey (they also have a zebra cichlid species only tank where they breed them :))

[quiksilver]

im just thinking here, your gonna have a big tank thats great. but by the time you get it you'll have a large oscar on your hands introducing fish may be a problem. correct me if im wrong but wont you have to try and find some tankmates that are allready at a fairly large size.

[DallasP]

I've learned over some time that oscars do best when introduced to a tank at a very young age if you plan to add tank mates. This gives them time to get aquainted and itll lower the aggression issue down some. I have 2 blue gouramis with my oscar and they do excellant together, but they've been in the same tank since they were babies.

[100gw]

If you do move him to a 250 gal tank a school of SD's would be possible tankmates. I currently have a 4" Tiger Oscar in a 55gal and would like to have him in a 125gal by Christmas

[superoscar]

i may get the 250 before christmas, ill get it whenever i come up with the money. even tho i buy my tanks on craigs list itll still cost me a good 600 buks with equipment