Oscar Care

[guppymonkey]

I am getting a new 55 gallon tank (not that my girlfriend is happy about it) and I really want an oscar. I have no idea how to care for them and I really want to avoid hole in the head. What can I keep in the tank with the oscar? Can I get more than one oscar or is 55 gallons too small? How many water changes a week should I do? I usually do a 25% water change on all my tanks once a week. Should I up that for the oscar? Is it ok to feed it some of my very very many extra guppy fry? I have heard that feeders are bad but since I am breeding them myself they should be healthy right? Any info would be a great help!

 

[juanveldez]

no you can't have more than one oscar in a 55 or for that matter even one full grown oscar in a 55. would be fine as a grow out tank for an oscar but later going to need a tank that is going to be around 18-24 inches wide. as for avoiding HITH the best way to do it is to maintain regular water changes and a very good diet I would either go with a pellet from Hakari or Omega One. I use both in my tanks and for some reason my fish prefer the Omega One pellets while they have a lower amount of protein in them the main ingredients are seafood based.

 

[Clare]

Our oscar is in a tank 8ft x 2ft x 2ft but you could consider one slightly smaller, maybe 6ft.
They are curious and inquisative and great pets. If you keep them from young you can get away with keeping a couple, otherwise, NO!!!
Ours is in with some peaceful catfish and some Polypterus. The Polypterus are hardy and easy to keep.
Sand substrate is essential, they love to rearrange their tanks and move sand around. This also helps clean the gills.
Feed them Mussels chopped up, with Prawn and Cockle. If you only feed pellets they can cause constipation. Pellets are good to give once or twice a week. We feed cichlid gold pellets to ours.
These fish are messy feeders so twice weekly water changes are a good idea, hole in the head can occur but with good water quality and food you should have a happy healthy fish, not to mention a great mate.
Look on Aquarua Central website for info. on fish. The Polypterus are really fascinating too. Good luck
Clare

 

[guppymonkey]

Whats wrong with keeping them in a 55 gallon. All of the books I have read said that a 55 is ok for at least one maybe two with enough water changes. One book even said that it was ok to keep oscars in a 29 gallon (although I think thats a little cramped. I know I am not the expert but thats what I have read.

I have read from many people that sand is a good substrate but how do you keep it from ruining the filter? When the fish digs around it is bound to stir up the substrate and it will get sucked up into the filter and mess up the motor. How do you keep it out?

I have read that oscars are very social fish. Do they really interact with their owner? Any information on this social interaction would be great because it will give me some reasoning power with my gf to keep the tank in the living room!

 

[juanveldez]

well think about this rationally if a 55 gallon tank is 12.5 inches wide and an oscar has the potential to grow over that mark I don't think that he would be happy nor would you. as for keeping sand out of the filters there is a million ways to do it. get a pair of your girlfriends nylons and put a peice of that over the intake of the filter. if you have aquaclear filters you can use a sponge insert and cut it down to fit over the intake as well to keep the sand out.

 

[Ben]

u need at least 75 gals for one oscar

so soz u cant get one

 

[Vip]

I say he can get away with a 55g oscar. As a sole tank mate i cant see it getting hole in the head in a 55g with good filtration.

 

[Vip]

Isnt 55g 4x18x18 ?

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[juanveldez]

vip if I remember right a standard 55 is 48x12.5x21 where as a 75 gallon is 48x18x21

 

[Vip]

Thanks for that jaun, ive been trying to figure out for a while now on just how big 55g was and i was sure it was 4'x18x18 but it was only a guess for me, so thanks for the info.
On the other hand now this is really good news for me because i now dont have any 55g tanks as i have said in the past, they are 75g so im very happy to find that out.

Thanks again,
Damian.