Pair Of Oscars

[kniesh]

Ok, I think I have finall succumbed to Oscars. I have contemplated it for a long time but now I think I am gonna get some. My tank is 6x2x2 and is lont-term, planned for marine. But this marine project is getting further and further away so I am now gonna put a pair of O's in there. These are obviously going to be the centrepiece but I am looking for a little something else to put in there, anyone have any ideas? I am open to a school of something (not silver dollars or Tinfoils though) and I am also open to a few different fish, just after some ideas of what you lot have kept with them in the past really. Any help appreciated.


Sorry just wanted to edit, I dont necessarily mean a breeding pair, more just 2 Oscars

 

[Idlemind]

Oscars are some of the coolest fish out there to me but the ones I had(breeding pair) would eat anything I put in the tank and should you get lucky and get a pair and they set to spawn the ones I had would become very protective and would beat the fins off anything in the tank with them( I had a huge pleco) They were in a 55 gallon tank.
It was cool because they would eat tree frogs and lizards so it was easy enough to find them different foods from right outta the yard.
They will become very personable as well its a good choice I swear mine could recognize me when they saw me one of them would even jump out of the waer and hit the lid if I walked up to the tank and just stood there for a minute and didnt feed as soon as I got to the tank, lol named that one Shamoo lol
, if ya dont have a pair they will still eat anything they think they can fit in their mouth...its been awhile since I had some so maybe someone that knows more about them will give ya some better info on them..

 

[indigoj]

I'm planning the exact same set up - 6x2x2 with 2 O's and tank mates.

At present my baby O's are living it up in a smaller tank with a lapradei bichir, tyre track eel and raphael catfish. I have a large common plec already in the big tank and 2 kissing gourami (these may not work once the O's go in there but we'll see.)

I'm planning maybe another plec or another big bichir and have been exploring suitable schooling fish, I've taken a liking to filament barbs - they reach about 6-8" and a school of 8-10 would look fab. They grow fairly slowly though so I'd have to source near adult ones.

I'm planning on adding the O's last to allow the other fish time to establish themselves and have plenty of cover - plants, wood, drain pipe for the eel and caves. Not to mention a lot of filtration!

 

[simonas]

Vinny you could have had mine last week, I sold them and they were absolutely beauties

Great fish highly recommended and I regret selling mine as well

 

[indigoj]

I saw your ad Simon, and wished I had 2 huge tanks. Sure you found them a great home though.

 

[shelaghfishface]

yeah yours get on great with your Birchir dont they indigoj? i even in a 6ft wouldnt be tempted to put toooo many fish in, only saying that at this stage as you dont say what age oscars youll be putting in, if they are matured pair then you may be ok, but young ones, i would go with the birchir and a lot of cover- least till they mature, just to make sure they have space to run and hide should they need to..and if you havent had oscars before you may not know " the signs" of one wanting beat the other to a pulp.. but dont worry you`ll soon pick them up , they are hardly discreet fish i agree they are beautiful fish and very undemanding- tho they need room and a heck of a lot of filteration ( min5x tank size PH- more would be great)
and no i certainly wouldnt really be looking for a breeding pair.. well i would cant imagine anything nicer than 100 oscars in my longue... but in a 6ft it wouldnt work and you would need a place that you were sure could take all those babies that you did manage to rear
good luck any questions just fire away
shelagh xxx

glad you mamanged to rehome them, i read about your ray too.. well done nice move

 

[indigoj]

Mine do get along well with the bichir and eel - they have tug of war over bloodworm cubes with the eel - but I do think it is because they are still so young. I'm hoping that mixing them so young will mean they stay living harmoniously.

 

[kniesh]

Thanks for all the replies. Didnt notice you sellin any Simon. I have coldwater stuff in there at the moment but it turns out to not quite fill the void I left when selling up so desperately want some personality, I knew Oscars were the ones.

I am definately goping to get them around 2-3" in size which is part of the reason I want some other stuff otherwise they are going to look completely lost. I will probably feed them the same as my old GT I had and EBJD, which will be squid, Prawns, crab, mussels so I imagine they will be growing pretty quickly. I will keep you posted on what I get and try an get some pics up as soon as I get them.

 

[simonas]

yeah they went pretty quik, a guy with a huuuuuuuuge tank took them
mine got on fine with my bichir never a problem between the two types of fish and easy to feed cos bichir took from bottom and oscars took anything at the top

Do you still have that fire eel Vinny my big one died today

 

[kniesh]

I dont m8, I sold everything I had in the tank to go marine. Ran out of cash though tbh so decided to set it back up as the big tank wont be going marine now for a while yet. Got my 62gallon set up for marine now instead.

What happened to the Eel m8, gutted for ya, he was a monster too.

 

[simonas]

I dont m8, I sold everything I had in the tank to go marine. Ran out of cash though tbh so decided to set it back up as the big tank wont be going marine now for a while yet. Got my 62gallon set up for marine now instead.

What happened to the Eel m8, gutted for ya, he was a monster too.

no idea mate he just got a big lump by gill on saturday an went down hill quickly!! gutted myself cos he was my favourite fish
thinking bout doing a major change and changing it to marine fish only

 

[kniesh]

Thats pretty much what I am plannin on doin now. Am gutted I have put off the marine now cos I had some nice fish there I could have just kept. I took them the fish shop by me to a guy I know an it had all gone that day except for the Tinfoils.