CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

haha ok so here it is... i had two oscars for about 6 months and wanted to try something new... so i gave them to the LPS and then bought a bunch of gourami's and guppies and all those BORING little fish .... so now i want an oscar again.  so what do i do with all the little fish that are in my 55 that the oscar would be going in. i thought that if i got a small enough one that he could grow up with the gourami's but i also have an angelfish thats quite small and 4 guppies and 2 glass fish will he be alright with them for now?? also i have a Blue Lobster will he be fine with him??? ( P.S. the lobsters name is jamal haha )

please let me know i really want my oscar back haha

thanks,
Will

Hi, Will.  Welcome back!  No prob, your new Oscar will deal with the "boring little fish" soon enough.  Also the Blue Lobster.  The Angels and the Gourami will be OK for awhile, but once your O hits 6 or 7 inches, those fish will not enjoy life very much.  You might think about a 29 or 30 for the smaller fish, so everyone can be happy.

I GOT HIM TODAY !!! he is awsome his name is BORAT haha and he is about 2 inches and is a tiger oscar... he is already  causing mayhem in the tank haha to be expected.... im returning the blue lobster to the store tomorrow for a store credit becuase i know he will just destroy him.


will

time to pick up another tank. Oscars will destroy all of those fish, that and they are all from different parts of the world :| your over stocked my friend. for the future of the fish i'd get another tank kickin around like a 55 for the oscar and keep the fish you have in their tank as it is.

i dont not belive i am overstocked... i have 2 gourami's 1 angelfish 3 guppies and an oscar and the oscar is doing fine with all of them minus the guppies which i expected him to eat anyways... i moved the blue lobster to a 29 gallon acrilic tank in the other room, im hoping the angel fish and the oscar grow together but i think he will just outgrow the angel.... i heard that if the oscar is introduced to small-er fish while he is still small that he wont bother them when he grows... its when you introduce smaller fish to a big oscar when he destroyes them. i dont know the fish that are in with him right now were only like 5 bucks at most each so if he eats them all ill just get some jack dempseys or something.

LOL ok.. an oscar alone, needs a 55 gallon tank, thats why your over stocked.
they will do fine untill the oscar is like 4" then the guppies are gone.

and with Jack dempsy's i dont reccomend them with an oscar
for the size of your tank, an oscar is the only fish that shouldbe in the tank, the tank being 55 with other fish, it can't withhold the bio load, unless you want to do 50% water changes every 2 days.Just something to think about, if you want to do that or not.

ok well i had 2 oscars and some large danios before and they were perfectly fine and a pleco and they were fine....
all in the 55. then i gave them to a friend
and decided i wanted an oscar again so now i have 1 oscar 2 gouriamis 1 angel fish and the same pleco ... i think ill be fine but thanks for the advice

i take it you change 50% of the water every other day??
cause the bio load the oscar alone would create...  couldnt support any other life, while maintaining to be healthy.
and those oscars were full grown? Poor Fish.
IM not really worried if you will be ok, its more the fish im concerned about.

no they were not full grown... never said that they were about 6 inches each
the water wasnt dirrty
the tank its self was not dirty
they were perfectly heathly because they are still alive today and never had any diseases while i had them
what would you suggest me put in the 55 with the oscar then?


i know people who have 2 or 3other big fish in with there oscars in  55

Most tanks with small oscars do fine for a while, as they get bigger thou, most fish that are smaller and long in body,  will be eaten.. NOT worth the argument here as he is moving his fish to other tanks.. Seems this is ONLY    here trying to tell some one about raising an Oscar with others..

POINT taken...

As he has had them before,  he knows what to expect.. WE all hope...

This    is not going to change the life in this tank. 

50% water changes is a  OVER BOARD NEED right now,,  as he is stil young.. When HE gets bigger at 6" plus, (NOT counting the tail))  then more filteration and more cleaning of the gravel is going to be needed... BUT not more than 30% of a TANK water VOLUME change in a 55 gal is really needed... IF youi take out to much, you could disrupt the bio in the tank and that is not good....

I recommend Emperor filters with Bio-Wheels to HELP keep the bio going strong and to help dispearse harmfull Nitrites and Ammonia that could build up.. YOU have time to get these filters and you really need 2 Emperor 400 on this tank.. ONE on each side.. I have this and my tanks are clearand running great with weekly FILTER CLEANINGS.. YES you need to do this too on tank cleaning day!! Take them to the sink and clean them good as food and waste falls down into the deep filter box, just changing out the filter pad does NOT help get all the crude out of the FILTER BOX its self.. So remember that..

when they are full grown.. nothing else goes in the tank with them.. in the 55 gallon thats my point
and it isnt an arguement its a statement about the bio load of a full grown oscar.

sorry for thinking about the FUTURE when the fish is grown up.

We appreciate your experience and input.  But like Barb suggested, once you've made your point, it's not productive to keep belaboring it.  We're not here to make laws -- we've all killed our share of fish.  We're just sharing whatever knowledge and experience we've gathered in the process.

The number of Oscars you can keep in a certain sized tank and with what tankmates is the subject of spirited debate, and always will be. There are very, very many variables in play and it's probably best for each fishkeeper to make his/her own decision based on study and experience. I keep grown Oscar pairs in 55g aquariums (well, only one aquarium now -- ) and do partial water changes approximately every 60 to 90 days. However, I recommend larger aquaria and more frequent water changes for anyone I send advice to, because experientially others don't seem to have the success I do when following my method (rather than following my advice).

Oscars have been kept in aquariums for a hundred years or longer. However, silicone aquarium sealant has only been around since the 1960s. What that means is that "large" aquariums (30g+) were, before the '60s, very exotic, rare and expensive. People that kept Oscars did so in tiny aquariums by our standards. Axelrod, in a 1950-ish book he wrote, suggests that you move your Oscars to a "large 30 gallon" aquarium when you are ready for a pair to mate! Which hints that Os were kept in small tanks when not paired off.

So, how did they keep Oscars healthy in those days? Water quality and obsessive care, certainly, but there were also tricks we learned (ha -- "we" -- I've now aged myself), using certain Oscar personality traits to lower their stress. For example, Oscars have no idea they are in an aquarium, and have no clue that they are unable to swim right out into the room. Therefore, we would try to keep lighting in the room brighter than lighting in the tank (eliminating reflection) and keeping all furniture away from the front of the tank (enlarging their "territory"), and thus lowering stress. Placement of tank decorations also plays a part, as does many other things; but the point is that for a very long time before larger (55+) tanks were available as inexpensively as they are today, Oscars were kept successfully.

Do I recommend that you keep Oscars in small tanks? Certainly not. With the aquariums/resources/equipment we have these days there's no reason to go through the gymnastics. Oscars are much easier to keep healthy and happy in larger aquariums, especially if the fishkeeper is inexperienced. But with the variables of water, filtration, feeding, noise, air quality, room size, temperature, etc. etc. I think it's best for each aquarist to study, experiment, and come up with his/her own conclusions.

--Mark