CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

We have a bar that serpeates our kitchen/breakfastnook from our dining room. On the bar we have my tank with my goldfish and the tank with my husband's oscars. We like putting them here because they can be viewed from both sides. What I am wondering is if we should have one side of the tank, with the oscars, covered to block out more light.

In my first post I asked about their behavior, pouting and only swimming when we turned out the light. Since then they have become more adapted and are greeting us when we walk to the tank. We have dimmed the light and they swim more. I spoke with a friend of mine today, he keeps oscars, and he said that the lights and noises around their new environment they will have to get used to. My house is far from quiet, I have a 1 year old and a 2 year old. :wow!

Anyway, would it be more beneficial for the fish to have one side of the tank covered? Or is it OK to leave it open?

Thanks,
Kim

From an oscars point of view, having the tank open all around will give the impression,of a larger area. I assume the tank's long side face each room and the short ends the wall and pass through.
You could put a background on the short side, still allowing the visabilty through the two rooms . Most back grounds are there to either hide the wires,filter lines, or whats behind the tank, not for a real reason invovling the tank inhabitants.
As for the busy house, your Oscars will show how they feel about it. If your youngsters come into view, and the O's try and hide, well then maybe there is a problem, you need to try and fix. I think if the kids don't actually splash in the tank water, or bang on the glass, your O's will adjust to the households behaviour. Just keep the tank free of objects the O's might
swim into, when they dart in the tank. I think they will get there share of being spooked. However, even my Oscars spook, sometimes when I enter the room. They are just like any other creature, if they don't see you, they get spooked. I don't think it really harms them.

i don't have any covers on any of my tanks. i just think they get in the way most of the time. as far as my o's tank. it is against a breakfast bar like your. just not up on top, but my o's can see things in the living room and love that. they can figure out what is going on around them and seem less skidish. personaly i think if you want one like on the side like fuzzy said that would be fine but as far as "needing one" you don't. plus you don't block your view of the o's and they get the drift of what is happening around them.

Yes, we have the tank positioned so you can view from both rooms. They don't seem to be too scraed of the kids, they actaully swam to the side when I put the baby up there. I have to keep the 2 year old from trying to fish in there! I also broke him of tapping on the glass. When I saw him do that I tapped my finger on his forehead and asked if he liked that? When he said no I told him that's how the fish feel when he taps on the glass. He hasn't done it again.

They are doing great now. Thanks fuzzy and caboose for all the help.

Kim

There's only 1 reason I can think of off the top of my head that ya may run into trouble with having your tank like that - Algae.
Having the tank located where light could pass though from any & all sides might encourage the growth of algae.

If ya do get a bloom happening, slowly dropping your tank temp to under 77F will help as algae doesn't like cool water.

if you drop your tanks temp you can reduce algee but also cause other out breaks like ich, so when you lower your temp make sure your lower slowly as not ot cause an out break and to keep stress levels down