min tank for oscars?

Hunter2001

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Jan 24, 2003
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I was recently at petsmart talking with an employee, who seemed to know what she was talking about. I informed her I have a 30 gallon tank and asked her if oscar fish would be ok in there. To my surprise, she said there would be no problem having a few oscars in there. Stated oscars would be fine in a 30 gallon tank.

My question is, has anyone ever raised oscar fish in an aquarium around this size, and how did it work out?

Thanks.
 
I've never tried it in a 30, but did try many pairs in a 55, IMO and IME a 55 is not enough tank for 2 o's, and even one is borderline. I always ended up selling my Oscars when they grew up because the 55 just wasn'r enough. The problems you will encounter are these.

#1. O's grow about an inch per month give or take 2 weeks or 1/4 inch. in one year a healthy O will be a foot long. at that time he can't turn around in a 12 inch tank without bending.

#2. big messy fish create a lot of waste. O's are the poster child of big messy fish. You will need huge amounts of filtration, and water changes virtually every day to keep the tank clean even when the fish are anly 3 inches long.

#3. Oscars are highly succeptable to HITH (hole in the head disease) although there hasn't yet been a proven cause, a couple of the highly suspected cause are long term exposure to high nitrates (50 ppm or above) and nutrition. nitrition can be achieved in any size tank. Nitrates see #2.

#4. Although Oscars really aren't a highly aggressive fish, tight spaces ond or poor water quality tends to make most fish grumpy IME. and therefore they may get fiesty with each other as they grow.

Draw your own conclusions, but I'd reccomend something in the range of 75 as a bare minimum for two Oscar's.
 
Oh yeah,
I should add that while I don't bash LFS employess as a rule, I take their advice pretty lightly as a rule, many of them just don't know the whole story, and they give advice without knowledge or experience. I would almost bet that if you asked that same employee how big Oscars (10-13") or pleco's ( coomons get upwards of 18" I've been told) grew, they couldn't give you a correct answer. that person probably has never seen an Oscar over 3 inches if that big.
 
Oscars

IMHO.

The absolute minimum for a single oscar would be a 50-55.

Even for a smaller one that you pick up at a LFS.
They grow way too fast, probably the fastest cichlid in terms of growth rate.

In a 30 yours if properly taken care of would out grow that tank in well under a year.

One more thing. If you do get one stay away from feeder gold fish. They are not good for the oscar and with out a proper diet the oscar will eventually develop HTIH. Feed it a good brand pellet and frozen food. This way it will grow up nicely and healthy.
 
As these guys have already said.......that LFS employee was full of poo-poo.. 30 gallons isn't enough for ONE oscar, and trying to keep more than one in a 30 is foolish and borderline cruel. A healthy oscar will be over 1 foot long after a year......and they do NOT grow to the size of their tank (they won't stop growing just because they are crammed in a small tank.)
 
1 oscar 55g minimum, recommend 65+
2 oscar 90+
breeding pair 120+

remember they get 12-14 inches and a 55g is only 12' wide.
im sure people have kept them in smaller tanks but i would recommend these as acceptable minimum tank sizes.
 
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