Oscar Tank

[Ava_Banana]

Hi all.

We are planning on getting one or two Oscars!

I say planning, as it has taken some time to get to where we are now . My wife's family always used to keep fish and she "grew up" with two Oscars (not in the tank with them of course)....so has always had a soft spot for them.

At the moment I have a 55gallon corner tank in the Living room (lounge, call it what you will).

We have had a number of discussions and measurements..........and realise that without too much hassle (well, without actually moving walls) we can just fit a 6 x 2 x 2 tank in . A 5 x 2 x 2 might be preferable as it wouldn't take up a third of one wall, but we shall have to see what is available.

At the same time, I have heard of a 6 x ? x ? that may be available "free!!!!" about half an hour drive away.

I have read quite a few threads regarding "tankmates" for Oscars...and it will all depend on final tank size of course.....I am kinda' heading in the direction of 2 oscars.......and a little flock of silver dollars........or maybe one oscar, a severum (or similar large cichlid) and a flock of silver dollars.

I do have 3 clown loaches currently in the 55g (currently at around 4 inches long) that could add a bit of colour to a big tank.

My questions are:

What would you do.....can you recommend a biggish interesting fish to go with an oscar..........and would a little flock of s dollars be OK.......would you keep the clown loaches in there too........or would they grow so slowly they would be oscar food in ten months....(gonna get the oscars from small).


And.......with a big tank.........what have you done with regard to floor strenthening ......if at all..this will be in a downstairs room, but on floorboards...!

thanks......wish us luck.....

 

[Morquinn]

Silver dollars would be fine as long as they werent small enough to be eaten, depending on the size you get the oscars, silver dollars grow amazingly quick and are just too mishapened to be eaten, my oscars dont bother my silver dollars. Not sure about the loaches, as ive never had any. As as for a biggest fish, ive heard people keeping them with parrot cichlids and jack dempseys.. but really I have no clue what I would put in there, because I just keep the oscars and silver dollars together, nothing else, well cept the pleco.

 

[Ava_Banana]

thanks.......you got any pics of your setup?

....or should I do a search....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

to get a pair of oscars you need to be very careful, you can't just put any 2 together and hope they will get along.

you need to get a large group of juvi's let them grow up a bit and hopefully you will see a bond form between two, they should become a breeding pair so keep them and take the rest back to the store. however there is no guarantee that this will work, you may find a bloodbath one morning

generally it's best to just keep 1 oscar to a tank.

if you introduce all the tankmates within a few weeks and as juvi's they stand a much better chance of getting along

 

[Ava_Banana]

to get a pair of oscars you need to be very careful, you can't just put any 2 together and hope they will get along.

you need to get a large group of juvi's let them grow up a bit and hopefully you will see a bond form between two, they should become a breeding pair so keep them and take the rest back to the store. however there is no guarantee that this will work, you may find a bloodbath one morning

generally it's best to just keep 1 oscar to a tank.

if you introduce all the tankmates within a few weeks and as juvi's they stand a much better chance of getting along

Thanks miss W.....

I was hoping that with it having a big footprint that two Oscars could sort out their own territory if it came to that....I wasn't necessarily thinking of going the male/female route.......since they appear to be so hard to sex..

...I know you have a BP with your O.........what else could i consider as a tankmate.....and do yours ignore each other...or do they "interact"....do they have a heirarchy....?

As I said before...your setup is a bit of an inspiration........I even have two very mature amazonian swords that I am going to "try" to keep with them....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

to get a pair of oscars you need to be very careful, you can't just put any 2 together and hope they will get along.

you need to get a large group of juvi's let them grow up a bit and hopefully you will see a bond form between two, they should become a breeding pair so keep them and take the rest back to the store. however there is no guarantee that this will work, you may find a bloodbath one morning

generally it's best to just keep 1 oscar to a tank.

if you introduce all the tankmates within a few weeks and as juvi's they stand a much better chance of getting along

Thanks miss W.....

I was hoping that with it having a big footprint that two Oscars could sort out their own territory if it came to that....I wasn't necessarily thinking of going the male/female route.......since they appear to be so hard to sex..

...I know you have a BP with your O.........what else could i consider as a tankmate.....and do yours ignore each other...or do they "interact"....do they have a heirarchy....?

As I said before...your setup is a bit of an inspiration........I even have two very mature amazonian swords that I am going to "try" to keep with them....

that footprint is nowhere near big enough for 2 O's that aren't a proven pair... just get 1 it'll be tonnes easier

yes they get on great, oscar and polly are inseperable, they've grown up together, they hang out together all the time. I tried adding a firemouth when they were both still young but not proper juvi's and it didn't work, while oscar didn't bully him the firemouth was obviously too scared to come out so we never saw him.

thing with oscars is they all have they're own temprements and personalities, some will not accept any tankmates at all, some will be fine with anything, you have to play it by ear to an extent.

look at other medium to large cichlids, should be agressive enough to hold they're own if oscar gets in a strop, but not so much that they will bully oscar cos they can be softies too.

your generally ok with most plecs and large catfish.

just make sure you get all inhabitants as young as you can and within a few weeks of each other and you should be ok

 

[LisaLQ]

How big are your clown loaches? They grow a lot slower than oscars, but if they're already a few inches they should be fine to grow up alongside a baby O We had 2-3 inch ones in with our 7-8" oscar and he wasn't interested at all, we also had silver dollars that scared the hell out of him lol but it seems like our case was an exception to the rule, they're normally fine And they're beautiful too.

We had one oscar, one vieja intermedium (also known as chuco intermedium), 5 clown loaches, 6 silver dollars and two female convicts in our 6ft x 2ft x 18" tank.