I have heard a number of reports of oscars from 18-24". Some are pretty believable. I would like to see proof in the form of pictures. But with so many reports out there I believe there are some exceptionally large oscars out there.
How many Oscars?
- Thread starter w8tn4rut
- Start date
a full grown oscar in a single 55 wil run the nitrates to 35-45ppm in one week. that is just about a fact. using hikari gold food feeding 1 to 2 times a day. ive done many test over at oscarfish.com to test this theory. so therefor doing two a week every 2 days minimizes that greatly. i even sometimes did 3 a week. now could you imagin 2 in a 75? yeah it can be done, without a doubt. but there will be water changes everyday to keep the fish healthy. anyone that knows oscars, know they are super prone to HITH and it can arrise in nitrates over 20ppm for 1 day. it all depends on the certain fish. and unless you have a pair of oscars, or very very very mild tempered 75 is unsuitable. But once they hit sexual maturity i can put my money on it, that 1 will either die, or both die, from agression. a 75 is just too small for 2 oscars to live peacfully, and healthy. go with a 125 if you want 2. a 90 can work too.
That "fact" is dependent on a lot...I feed my oscar fairly sparingly, all my fish get fed 5-6 days a week, once a day. And, if you have something like a veggie filter set up, nitrates will not be usable as measure to gauge water changes anyway.
And you say a 75 is completely unsuitable due to aggression issues, but then go on to say a 90 could work? I can see the extra 15 gallons of volume giving you a bit more flexibility on the water change side of things, with teh extra dilution. But, a 90 and a 75 have exactly the same footprint, exactly the same amount of territory...How is one any different than the other?
And you say a 75 is completely unsuitable due to aggression issues, but then go on to say a 90 could work? I can see the extra 15 gallons of volume giving you a bit more flexibility on the water change side of things, with teh extra dilution. But, a 90 and a 75 have exactly the same footprint, exactly the same amount of territory...How is one any different than the other?
i meant that on the water quality issues.......... let me rephrase myself. A 125 will house 2 oscars fine with water quality, and agression (depending on the fish) a 90 will help with water quality but not so much agression. Ok well ive only been keeping oscars for 10 years. in many different tank sizes. i'm just giving advice but watch, if the dude puts 2 in a 75 he'll be back in 9 months saying. OMG OMG my oscars someone help 
and honestly i dont understand where in the world you get "nitrates will not be usable as measure to gauge water changes anyway" what book did you pull that out of? becuase im pretty sure in my days of keeping fish that nitrates is the killer... to many nitrates leads to amonia and nitrite outbreaks.. therefor throwing off your water balance. and amonia will burn your fish and scar them really badly, and to much exposure to ammonia will kill them. they will get nitrite poisoning which will lead to death....... so you mean to say that a fish will thrive in 100ppm nitrates just as much as 10ppm? lol dude go back and read your books cause your info is wrong.
I'm not pulling it out of a book...and I'm not refuting that high levels of nitrates can cause health issues.
I'm saying that we often use nitrate levels as an indicator of general levels of TDS in the water column - partially because nitrates are easy to test for, and partially because it would be difficult/cost prohibitive to test for other things.
However, as I stated in my previous post, I along with other aquarists sometimes use veggie filters or planted tanks to help with nitrate levels (and yes I know planted tanks don't mix with oscars and I'm not advocating that). In my planted tanks, I can maintain 0 nitrate levels pretty much indefinitely. So, if my nitrates are always 0, does that mean I never have to do a water change? No, because, like I said, there are other elements to TDS that we don't test for, but can only be removed through water changes. And in that case, nitrates cannot be used as an indicator for water changes, even though they still should be maintained.
I'm saying that we often use nitrate levels as an indicator of general levels of TDS in the water column - partially because nitrates are easy to test for, and partially because it would be difficult/cost prohibitive to test for other things.
However, as I stated in my previous post, I along with other aquarists sometimes use veggie filters or planted tanks to help with nitrate levels (and yes I know planted tanks don't mix with oscars and I'm not advocating that). In my planted tanks, I can maintain 0 nitrate levels pretty much indefinitely. So, if my nitrates are always 0, does that mean I never have to do a water change? No, because, like I said, there are other elements to TDS that we don't test for, but can only be removed through water changes. And in that case, nitrates cannot be used as an indicator for water changes, even though they still should be maintained.
yeah, but we have also all heard the story about OTS and some packed fish tank without any water changes for 5-6 months at a time or any, and people topping them off with untreated water... It's funny, but stranger things happen than fish adjusting to the environment they live in...
I did a small water change on my bosses beta and the thing died in a few hours... This was the same water source, same chlorine/chloramine remover, same everything, he was just lax, and when I got there, I thought I would help out...
I did a small water change on my bosses beta and the thing died in a few hours... This was the same water source, same chlorine/chloramine remover, same everything, he was just lax, and when I got there, I thought I would help out...
I understand what youre saying about the plants helping with nitrates or eliminating them. But when it comes to oscars, they put out 5-7 ppm a day in a small tank like that plants wont be sufficent enough. so therefor keeping oscars, nitrates are a must to indicate water changes. no, they arent the only thing, but what does the average, even skilled aquarists test their water for. nitrite,nitrate,amonnia,ph. alot of ppl dont even test their water nor change it enough. thats why their fish die all of the time. I apologize if i came off rude in that last post.
