Oscar Growth

[suheil]

hi people,

thanks in advance for answers u will provide!!

i bought a pair of one inch red oscars infested with severe ich. there were six at the lfs. 4 died. the guy at the lfs warned me but dark red oscars r not easily available in india, so i bought them. after 2 weeks of heat and salt treatment they were as good as new. now i have had them for 2 1/2 months. in this time they have grown to 2 1/2 to 3 inches. i feed them once daily [ at night] when i come back from my clinic [ i am a dentist]. i feed them a mix of prawns, beef heart and peas. sometimes i feed them pellets, sometimes not.

now my question is : 1] is this growth rate normal [ i think they have been stagnating at 2 1/2 inches from a month- iam not sure ]
2] should i feed them more?
3] should i modify the diet?

 

[jakey boi]

oscars usuallly grow quite fast
and you might want to feed you oscars some live food like bloodworm as a treat about once a week
good luck with your oscars

 

[freddyk]

Once a day feeding is good, but feed more pellet - they're made to include everything the Oscar needs and you can't go wrong. Beefheart is fine as a treat but not great as a regular diet considering what a fatty and unnatural food it is (when was the last time an Oscar encountered a cow in the wild?). Right now they're growing fine, having doubled their size. but you've still got a very long way to go. Keep doing what you're doing but don't underestimate the advantages of a good prepared food.

 

[guppymonkey]

What size tank are they in? They should be in a 55 gallon tank at least, even at their size. Small tanks stunt the growth of fish. Oscars grow amazingly fast, faster than any other fish I have ever seen. They really should double in size every month or so for the first 4 to 6 months. I think they might have been slightly stunted by the sickness they have recovered from. A lot of the time illnesses will slow the growth of the fish, especially since they were very young when they got sick.

 

[freddyk]

They really should double in size every month or so for the first 4 to 6 months

month 1 = 1"
month 2 = 2"
month 3= 4"
month 4 =8"
month 5 = 16"

mmm nope.

 

[KeZ]

Hello suheil,

Well done for rescuing your Oscars, I hope they now have a long and healthy life!

I have 2 oscars, in my 105 us gallon, the growth rate will vary.

I bought them both at the same time, they were about 1" long. O's can grow between 3 1/4 of an inch - 1 1/2 inches per month. My biggest is 6", and the other is around 4 1/2"
Going by that i would say mine are about 6 months old tho one has grown quicker than the other... You might find that the dominant one grow's a little quicker.
Oscar's will grow at this fast rate til they are about 8 months to a year old then start slowing down.

I'm still feeding mine twice a day - 4 pellets each. (this is less than it used to be) When the growth rate starts slowing down then i will only feed once a day.

I have another O in a 65 us gallon... she was 1" when i got her, had her for 4 weeks now, she's grown about 1/2 inch.

Can i ask what size tank you have?
55 gallons in the bare minimum for one Oscar, You will run into a few problems if you have them in close quarters.

Baby Oscars are very cute... love all my O's.. they are family members.
I hope this helps a little... I wish you luck with your O's.

 

[guppymonkey]

They really should double in size every month or so for the first 4 to 6 months

month 1 = 1"
month 2 = 2"
month 3= 4"
month 4 =8"
month 5 = 16"

mmm nope.

Well I was exaggerating a little bit but the growth is phenomenal. If you do water changes two to three times a week they will grow very quickly. Mine grew to over a foot long in under a year.

 

[suheil]

sorry could not reply earlier.
thanks guys.
the oscars r in a 105 gallon tank along with 2 severums , 2 green terrors all similarly sized. plan to keep the best of each group.
by the way another silly doubt:
when i look from the front the oscars look bigger than when viewed from the side. which side gives true size?

 

[KeZ]

Hi Suheil,

your 105 Gallon tank is just big enough for your 2 Oscars, They need 55 gallons each and that is the bare minimum. There isn't enough territory in that tank for all the fish you have in there. When the Oscars reach maturity, ( about 8 inches ) They will probably start fighting over the territory they haven't got.

I really think you should consider getting another tank and seperating these fish or selling some on.

As for your size Question... If you look at the fish from the front of your tank, measure them from nose to the base of the tail, that will give you there size. Then you will be able to determine their age!

 

[blitztidus]

I have fed my oscars some preeeeetty weird things. The weirdest would have to be nightcrawlers I was done using for bait, THEY LOVED THEM, they grew almost TOO fast when I fed them those

 

[KeZ]

I know someone who has fed their O's nightcrawlers... One of the O's eat greedily, but the other felt it moving in his mouth and freaked out, hitting his head on a rock!!
he's recovered tho... so thats good.

 

[blitztidus]

Mine slurped it up like a kid slurps up spaghetti, messiness and all

 

[suheil]

well i am planning to keep one severum , one green terror and one oscar. iam just waiting for the to grow a little more so i can pick the dominant ones
thanks anyway.

 

[blitztidus]

No Problem

 

[anvil63]

"Well I was exaggerating a little bit but the growth is phenomenal. If you do water changes two to three times a week they will grow very quickly. Mine grew to over a foot long in under a year."

I've kept oscars for about a decade of my fishkeeping career and have found that water changes are the key for fast growth. Oscars are absolute pigs and will always eat feed them until the calm down when you approach the tank and do water changes at least twice as often as you think you should. On an experiment a few years back I fed my Oscar to satiety twice a day and did water changes (30-40%) about every other day. I bought him at about an inch and one year later I got rid of him at a hair under a foot (raised in a 55 gallon, I know not ideal) whwn I moved.

Carl