oscar care

A drain in the bottom is asking for trouble. If there is anything in the tank for the Oscar to play with - he will. I recommend a 75 gallon tank unless you want to do tankmates. Be prepared to have another begging mouth to feed. Tank maintenance is critical and the only thing worse than bad water is feeding live foods. Sure they will gobble it up but it leaves you open to introducing things into your tank you may not want in there. Oscars will pout and ignore you when they are mad or you "hurt their feelings" (as if that was possible). The will happily greet you (thinking it means food.) and generally won't eat for someone else. Their sense of territory extends beyond the limits of the tank, so yea they can find a reason to pout.

People will tell you a 55 is perfect but think about the fact that you are putting a fish that can get up to 18" in a tank that is only 13" wide. Average for a healthy Oscar is more around 15". Plus the 20 gallons of water difference is a big deal. Remember big fish = big poop. Along with big poop is sometimes sloppy eating habits. I've had sloppy eaters and "clean" eaters. So the more water you have the better off you are.

The previous statement is absolutley right. The cool thing about Oscars is that they are aware to you in an "emotional" context. They are happy, blue, mad and just plain put off by you. I have my Oscar in a 100 gallon tank which he is king of. He does have tankmates for company. But the one thing you have to be on top of is there water changes. It is not 25% once a week, it is 50% three times a week. They poop a lot, eat messily, and in general dirty the water quickly. If you are not on top of the water changes, the Oscar pays for it with split fins and bacterial or fungal breakouts. So be prepared to take GOOD care of him.

I too would recommend either a 75 or 90 gallon aquarium for an Oscar. Oscars are great. They were my first "real" fish that I was in charge of myself. I would recommend getting as much filtration as you possibly can. If it were I doing it again, I would pick up an Aquaclear 110 and a large canister filter. The AC would be for mainly mechanical and the canister for both Mech and Bio, but mostly bio.

I would avoid live foods. It will be tough because everyone likes to see them eat feeders. It is the worst thing you can do for them.

A high quality pellet food, supplemented with a variety of high quality frozen foods will do great. I liked to feed mine shelled prawns as a treat.

You will want to do weekly 35 - 40% water changes and maintain your filters monthly to keep your water as pristine as possible.

fshfanatic said:

I would avoid live foods. It will be tough because everyone likes to see them eat feeders. It is the worst thing you can do for them.

A high quality pellet food, supplemented with a variety of high quality frozen foods will do great. I liked to feed mine shelled prawns as a treat.

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If you must entertain your friends with their eating habits, they will generally eat bits of hot dogs. Giving them no more than 1/4 of a dog once a month is OK. You need to limit the protein. As with all cichlids, too much protein can cause bloat and serious enough case of it will kill them. Don't feed them cheap foods. It will cause problems.