thinking about doing a cichlid tank?

moonstream

moonstream

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Nov 5, 2007
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Jayne
I have always drooled over cichlis, from oscars to discus to rams, and in the spring am thinking baout setting up a 50-75g tank for some cichlids. I would love to have 5-7 discus, as I find them amazing and captivating, but the more rough and tumble cichlids also catch my interest, such as the oscars, severums, firemouths, and africans.

would a single oscar be okay in a 40 breeder tank (36 by 18 by 16 inches) with frequent water changes and no other fish living with it? could it have tankmates in a tank that small?
 
A 40 breeder with a rigorous WC schedule will work for an Oscar way better than a 4 ft 55 any day. The width is key. The 40 breeder is 18" the 55 is 12.5"...I would rather have 18" to turn a round in myself. The water changes on a 55 or a 40 breeder would suck though. I have avoided buying Oscars and I have multiple 100+ gallon tanks fwiw....
 
Will it work? Yeah. As in you could keep the oscar relatively healthy.

However, your oscar would get bored pretty quick with such little space. You'd have trouble keeping water quality optimum honestly.
You would be better off with a 75g (standard footprint of 4x18) or more for an oscar if at all possible.
 
I guess Ill stay away from them then, they are just so tempting LOL!
 
Ok, for anyone that wants to know if this size tank is ok for an oscar, I'm gonna take a pic of my new foot long oscar in our 125g and you can see how small the tank seems and then make a decision.

Also, you will have a lot of trouble keeping water quality good enough, take it from someone that overstocks LOTS of tanks.

Give me a second here to get a pic.
 
Full 125g shot. Lots of room. Yup I know I need to scrub the decorations, they're coming out tonight anyway :silly:
oscar125.jpg


I cropped this pic to about the size of a 40 breeder. I measured and drew on my tank to get it right, yeah I'm weird like that, lol.
oscar40.jpg


So that's how a foot long oscar would look in a 40 breeder pretty much. Cruel? Nah, not IMO. Not the greatest either though since they'd pretty much be swimming in circles. Also keep in mind that this one is a foot long and they can get to 15" with the proper care. I see lots of 15 inchers that have been abandoned at a fish store because no one realized they got that big.
SUPPOSEDLY they have been recorded at 18", but I have never seen this. But just so you know it's supposedly possible.

I think it's better to see a comparison visually than just have someone tell you "It's fine" or "NO THAT'S CRUEL!". So hopefully this helps someone make a responsible decision.

w/ lines if that helps (I realized the above doesn't really show dimension well...not that my drawing does...)
newoscar40pic.jpg
 
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