Poor Oscar

[Morquinn]

I went to my LFS yesterday and they had this HUGE oscar in, biggest one I have seen in person probably anywhere from 12 inches or more, and I asked the lady about it, the person who had it kept him in a 29 gallon, I seriously cant even imagine how the thing turned around, it didnt even have much room in the 40 gallon that the store was keeping it in till it was sold, not only that they were selling it for $60, is that average for im assuming a close to full grown oscar? Guess ive never seen a big one for sale, just babies.

 

[Rust]

man that is sad, they get bigger than that in the wild but in a home aquaria that is almost fully grow, and $60 is a little bit over the top. what type was it? red, tiger, albino?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah they can get up to about 16" but most won't get up to that size.

don't often see adults for sale though, just babies and juvi's. Bloke in the LFS said to me the other day they're worth less when they're fully grown than babies, can't imagine that's true though?

 

[vancouver]

$60 is quite a bit.. most people don't want to buy large oscars... around here large ones go for around $20-$40 depending on where you go.

 

[max11180]

he was probably meaning (maybe not him personally, but SOME retailers do it) it's easier to sell youngsters because they look small and cute, and can be sold under the pretense that they stay kinda small, and won't attack anything else.. a full size one people can see its a big lump of fish, and only the stupid, or the ones amoung us with large ponds or living room size tanks can cater for them (not many), thus harder to sell.. so they have to sell relatively cheaply.
Also, any retailer would want to sell any big fish fast, as they would eat their profits almost as fast as their food supply

 

[demonmagus]

that's really sad,

about the 'how much' thing, I noticed that a big oscar costs more for some reason, maybe so people who want to keep them with other large fish don't have to 'grow them'?

 

[sylvia]

Bigger fish tend to cost more. That's always the case - all you need to do is look at flowerhorn and koi prices and you'll see. I suppose the logic is that a big fish looks more impressive and has had more 'put into' it so it is worth more. With thigns like koi, you can also can't usualy tell exactly how they'll turn out as adults when they are young either - when a fish is fully grown, you know what you see is what you get.

The space the fish take up when they are larger and the extra food they eat are not serious costs for your average LFS and shouldn't dent their pockets too much As such, they aren't so desperate to get rid of big fish as to make them super cheap. Having said that, bigger fish actualy tend to sell quite quickly anyway because people with large tanks (however few these people are) are nonetheless actively looking for large individuals to add to their setup (as opposed to growing out fry) and are willing to pay that little extra to have a 'complete'-looking tank. It makes sense to sell the big fish for a little extra then, and maybe keep them for a tad longer than your average platy as well.

 

[Morquinn]

He might of been a red tiger, he was pretty much black with some dull red blotches on his underside. He wasnt a real stunner, besides his size, but still. Yeah that petstore way over prices stuff, its pretty rediculous, and they wonder why they have the same animals in there week after week.