oscar question.

I agree with what everyone had said so far and I hope you guys get that tank! It would be sweet to have a huge tank like that! Good Luck.

Oh, and ash9494boo........ On second thought I'm not even going to say it.:nono:
 
Same, not really the point of this specific thread.

But I echo everyone's thoughts so far. Tell your hubby no point in buying a fish and then turning around and buying a much larger tank each month as it grows. Get a tank capable of supporting the adult size, and then get the fish.
 
ash..actually i can say more.. if you don't understand why a 10 gallon is so cruel, pm me and i can explain why, if you don't know any better than that it's ok, everyone makes mistakes,
and bea... as far as buying the fish and upgrading later, go ahead and wait and set up the 150 then get the fish, by the time you set up a 150gal and do more research, your husband might find different fish other than an oscar, a 150gal opens a lot of possibilites up, nothin against oscars, i love mine.
 
I agree with most of the above. Given enough space, Oscars get along well with others. I suggest severums or chocolates. Bigger tank the better. 150 should hold a couple of O's plus a couple of sevs or chocolates. 20 gal is a no-go.
 
I just acquired an oscar from a 10G tank whose owners honestly thought they were taking reasonably good care of the fish (large water changes every 7-10 days, feeding a mix of frozen and pelleted food, no feeder fish).

The oscar had hole in the head as well as other bacterial lesions on the top and side of her head. The owners thought she had bumped her head on the tank or decor. They did not realize that there was a problem with water quality- they did not own a test kit.

In addition, after living in that tank for a year, she is only 6.5 inches long- which is very stunted (she should be 10-12 inches). I had her in a bare 65G tank by herself for her first 3 weeks with me (she is now in my 75 and will be moved into a 120 in a week or two).

I would expect that the nitrates in that tank would have reached 10-20 ppm in 1 week with 65 gallons of water. They didn't get that high because I did daily partial water changes to keep the nitrates as close to 0 as possible so that she could heal. When I skipped a day, the nitrates were over 5ppm.

I hope this helps explain why oscars can't be kept in small tanks.
 
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