a question about a south american tank

[gwyllgi]

'lo,

i have a 20 gallon tank that currently houses a two and a half inch long blood parrot, three silver dollars of about the same size, and a one-eyed oscar.

I'm planning on upping the tank and I was thinking that a 55 would probably be my safest bet.

i'm worried as to my oscar's size. he's barely three and a half inches long, and i've had him since about january, when he was two inches long. he gets ghost shrimp, the ocassional danio or very small feeder goldfish, and sometimes frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms.

he's just not growing nearly as fast as the other oscars i've seen or owned, and i am wondering if his sickly condition as a smaller fish (i rescued him from work, as a larger oscar had eaten his eye and tore him up pretty badly, rendering him unsellable) is a factor in his seemingly stunted growth.

any thoughts on the subject?

 

[peifc]

With that size tank, I won't feed the fish that much live and raw food without good filter or constant water change. Oscar can easily get HITH if the water isn't clean enough, IME.

I notice that hikari gold pellets help fish grow a lot faster than any food I've tried.

 

[750t]

Consider a 75 gal. This would give your oscar plenty of room. A 55 just isnt really wide enough. Just a suggestion.

 

[Harry Tolen]

I agree that a 75g is the smallest tank you should consider. Your oscar could easily get to be longer than a 55g is wide, and fish really hate that kind of confinement. The standard 75 is basically a 90g tank that is a few inches less tall (which reduces the cost), so you get the most bang for your buck.

However, if you can afford it you should look into a 125g tank. That will give the silver dollars room to school, and the cichlids plenty of room to establish territories.

 

[gwyllgi]

thanks for the input. I'll see what I can do. I think we carry a few 75 g at work, but none that i see are ever rectangular... they tend to be in different shapes and are therefore more expensive.

 

[Harry Tolen]

The "standard" 75g (and yes, there is such a thing) is 48" wide x 18" deep x 21" tall. I use them in all my double-decker tank stands, as the reduced height makes it possible to stack them and still have room to work on them between shelves.