oscars
- Thread starter sharpie
- Start date
sharpie,sharpie said:
Tiger Oscars are magnificent fish. They get very large and can become very!!! aggressive even to their own kind. I recently had to remove one from a tank of two, due to serious fighting - so mush so that I had to top off my tank daily to replace the water splashed out by the fighting.
I would stay away from live foods. Live foods carry disease and you will run the risk of making them ill. Dry food is OK but if you would like to get the best growth and magnificent looking fish try beef heart. Good luck and best wishes.
P.S. It will be difficult to maintain good water quality with these fish so pay close attention to it. If you do the rewards will be great.
Stevieg
I have no first-hand experience with Oscars but everything I had read says that you can't really keep live plants with them.
As someone else has already stated, live feeder fish are not a good idea because they introduce parasites and disease. Feed your oscar a quality pellet staple and supplement their diet with frozen foods (silver sides, krill, and very occasionally beef heart). Although some people swear by it, I stay away from terrestrial based foods so beef heart is not on the menu for my fish.
Plants will, unfortunately, not do well in an Oscar tank because they are prodigious diggers. I would also suggest extra suction cups on filter intakes and I would probably invest in a plastic or metal submersible heater as Oscars are notorious for biting, shaking, and eventually breaking glass heaters.
The issue most aquarists fail to comply with when owning Oscars is water quality. Oscars are large messy cichlids. Overkill on filtration is a good idea and weekly water changes are a must. Poor water quality will result in external parasites and disease. "Hole-in-Head" is a common ailment of the Oscar who lounges in dirty water. Tank size is another issue. One Oscar should be kept in a tank no smaller than 55 gallons (some would argue 75 gallons is the minimum). They grow amazingly fast given proper tank space, diet, and water quality.
Best of luck!
Plants will, unfortunately, not do well in an Oscar tank because they are prodigious diggers. I would also suggest extra suction cups on filter intakes and I would probably invest in a plastic or metal submersible heater as Oscars are notorious for biting, shaking, and eventually breaking glass heaters.
The issue most aquarists fail to comply with when owning Oscars is water quality. Oscars are large messy cichlids. Overkill on filtration is a good idea and weekly water changes are a must. Poor water quality will result in external parasites and disease. "Hole-in-Head" is a common ailment of the Oscar who lounges in dirty water. Tank size is another issue. One Oscar should be kept in a tank no smaller than 55 gallons (some would argue 75 gallons is the minimum). They grow amazingly fast given proper tank space, diet, and water quality.
Best of luck!
I feed my oscar Spectrum jumbo pellets every other day and give him earthworms, crickets, lizards(when i find them), or grub around once or twice a week.
My oscar used to dig up plants until I put a floating artificial plant in the tank now he just goes after that, its been months since he has removed another plant from the bottom.
My oscar used to dig up plants until I put a floating artificial plant in the tank now he just goes after that, its been months since he has removed another plant from the bottom.