RBP's or Albino Oscar?

[sublime1184]

I have a chance to trade for a 6 or 7 inch albino Oscar for both my 4 inch Red Bellied Piranhas. I have researced a bunch recently and it seems oscars get a little bigger (12"-16") then RBP's (approx. 12") and also Oscars have more personality and are a lot less shy, among other differences. Can anyone that knows about or has owned both offer their opinion? Thx

 

[Blinky]

I've never owned RBP, but oscars make fabulous pets if they're provided with appropriate conditions (IMO they need BIG tanks to really be at their best). They can easily tell the difference between their keeper and others, and have noticable 'personality'. I once met an oscar named Oscar the Grouch who lived in a big tank by himself in the back of a LFS. The owner showed me his 'trick', which was spitting the large snail shells in his tank at visitors until his keeper fed him a snack!
I'd make the trade if it's a nice looking oscar. I wish I had a large tank so I could keep some, they're really fun fish

 

[sublime1184]

Thx Blinky. I had been researching for hours straight and have been racking my brain thinking what to do. At the LFS it was very playful and chased my finger around the tank. I will go for it! I'll post some pics of the Oscar by Wednes day for all to see.

 

[jonathan03]

I'd take the oscar. All of the piranha I have owned didn't do much until it was feeding time. For the other 99% of the time, they just sat mostly still. When they get larger, they chop goldfish in half sometimes, which can be interesting to watch. Oscars will just inhale the whole fish.

You will also pay a lot more in food for piranha. They like live food mostly, but you can sometimes use things that are meaty like beef heart and others. But if you add meat, your water might go off the wall. You can get by with pellets for your oscar. After year a year or two, it can be a pain going to the lfs for feeder fish every week so you will really like the pellets then.

Oscars move around in the tank and dig in the gravel. They can be tame and eat out of your hand too. But this is somewhat rare, so don't expect all oscars to do it.

Oscars are not as shy as piranaha. It seems that piranha are agreesive because they are under fed, or they seem threatened. If you put your finger on the glass, the piranha will run and the oscar will come and look at it. Notice how you always see the don't tap on glass in piranha tanks. Tapping on the glass scares them to no end. They can sometimes leap out of the tank.

BTW, what size tank do you have? You should have at least a 55 for an oscar. Your piranha will need the same size soon enough.

 

[knowy]

wow, it's neat to me the diversity of places and experences on here,
in N.C. no way can we get Piranhas. i wounder what it's like to keep those big tetras, can you feed them anything like pettlets,,and it's neat to here what people keep and where they are from,
oscars are nice fish when they are young and old,. when young they are active and cute, well to each his own, ;but they are fun, i had one and trained him to eat worms, he wld jump outa the tank about 2 feet or more to grab worms outa my hand. i also feed him chiclid pellets, i mean alot of pellets.and i wld treat him from time to time w/feeder gold fish, but i learned very quickly that they are messy fish and will eat just about anything and grow very large very fast. at an old age they lay on the bottom mostly motionless just waiting for a handout and grow this fat bottom lip, like they are grouchy all the time "oscar is a great name for this fish" i my self have been there and done that" learn my lesson so to speak. i see so many big oscars in stores here that got the boot b-cause they got too big and usually end up dying in the store due to over crowding and bad maintence, pacus are the other big fish here that tend to get turned back in and dont get a chance to become the great fish they they were intended to be.
kinda got off track, i hope you get the oscar and enjoy him, one easy fish to train to do tricks and they are very socialable to their owners, good luck.
knowy

 

[sublime1184]

I dont tap the class cuz then they rearrange my plants in their panic frenzy. lol. Learned that very fast and hated rearranging with my hand in their. The RBP's are too shy and i only see them at night when little lamp is on and i can't sleep. Well i do feed them chichlid pellets (sp?) every three days with/ 4 cubes of beef heart and on the third feeding (9th day) i feed them 7 medium feeder minnows. I have experimented with goldfish and guppies but they like minnows best and goldfish give them a hard time plus not that good for them. Right now the RBP's are in a 29 gallon but I am getting a 55 gallon kit thursday so i think the oscar should be fine for a week in there. ill move all the rocks and stuff out. since it is at a LFS should i just sell my RBP's to someone and buy the oscar or just trade. I dont know value for 6-7 inch albino oscar or 4-5 inch RBP's.

 

[sublime1184]

Thx for sharing knowledge guys. BTW, I am setting up my 10 gallon with 4 or 5 tiger barbs, 3 or 4 Figure 8 puffers, and a zebra pleco. Ill try to post pics of Oscar and 10g setup by the end of the week.