Tiger oscar tankmates ???

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Insom1982 said:
http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/oscars/65-oscar-tankmates.html
Click to expand...

Did you read it?

Quoted directly from it.


The minimum size tank that is universally recommended for one full grown oscar is 55 gallons (4ft). In that size tank, no other tankmates can be recommended. There is not enough territory for two fish to establish separate claims, and therefore the aggression would be excessive. In a 75 gallon tank (4ft) a few tankmates are acceptable. One to two small cichlids (between 3-5 inches) or one medium cichlid (between 6-8 inches) is acceptable. The determining factor, of course, is will the oscar accept them. Highly aggressive males are not good candidates for tankmates, even in a 75g.
 
Something wrong with the way your doing nitrate test or the kit is expired. With those small water changes only once a week and that over stocking it would be a lot higher. One oscar in that tank or the large pleco but not much else. 8 inch oscar and 12 inch pleco in that tank alone would make nitrates sky high in a few days. I have one oscar and 10 silver dollars in my 6 foot 125 and I need to do 3 60-75% water changes a week and silver dollars are a low bio load fish and the oscar is only 9 inches.
 
Insom1982 said:
I have two pleco as one 12 inches one 5 inches a 8 inch tiger oscar and one 4 inch my ammonia and nitrate have never gone above 15 ppm I have two fluval c4 filters hob and one fluval 306 and do one wc of 30-50 % every 5-7 days
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You are way way overstocked you need a bare minimum of a 200 gallon tank for those kind of fish. You should do 3, 50 percent water changes a week to keep up with that bioload. I would hope also ammonia wouldn't get over 1 ppm let alone 15. So basically you need to upgrade tonmorow or sell the Plecos and 1 Oscar.
 
I'm seeing why so many people have left this forum community. The poor OP just needs a little realistic advice, not a bunch of snarky textbook (or wiki-ed for that matter) babble.

I can tell you this from experience, not because I can google Oscar cichlid, but because I've owned Oscars for the past 26 years of my life and I am 33 (I think, lol) this year. As Oscars have become more decorative and selectively bred they have become a true gentle giant, almost all bark and no bite, heck, I hear they even have balloon Oscars out there that only reach 6 inches (I can only imagine the genetic story behind that one). Truth be told with farm/ tank raised- and even a lot of 'wild caught' but not the truly wild variety, after they grow out of their juvi stage between 3 and 8 inches, they generally slow down and calm down, it appears that with beautiful genetics you get eerily Stepford wife like Oscars, lol. With all that said, Oscars will always be Oscars (isn't that why we love them?) The only way to truly know if your tank will work is to bring it together and realize that a) any SA/CA cichlid will be the judge of who they will share a tank with; b) bioload and biofeedback is irrelevant if you have the time and drive to realistically take on the workload (by the way for a 2 Oscar 2 pleco full grown tank, using my experiences, in an 80g you are looking at a realistic minimum of 2 hours maintenance every couple of days) and close monitoring it's possible, but it's not realistic, to most people...

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Aquaeanthused

The OP was asking about tank mates for his two oscars he has in with 2 common placos in a 80g

Nobody is reading text books or google we all have had oscars and it's cruel to subject them to such a bad quality of a tank space

The OP and previously had 2 Africans in this tank as well

Are suggesting we lie so any member who as a question doesn't get his or hers feelings hurt

Doesn't mean they will listen i have seen. Oscars in a 55g 2 of them with a common placo and a pacu certainly this is not as bad but it's not good either.

So I will continue to offer accurate advice to best of my knowledge so sorry I can't just say what they want to hear.

And by the way the OP had already stated he doesn't have aggression problems so please read the entire thread before you jump at us
 
xwing said:
Aquaeanthused

The OP was asking about tank mates for his two oscars he has in with 2 common placos in a 80g

Nobody is reading text books or google we all have had oscars and it's cruel to subject them to such a bad quality of a tank space

The OP and previously had 2 Africans in this tank as well

Are suggesting we lie so any member who as a question doesn't get his or hers feelings hurt

Doesn't mean they will listen i have seen. Oscars in a 55g 2 of them with a common placo and a pacu certainly this is not as bad but it's not good either.

So I will continue to offer accurate advice to best of my knowledge so sorry I can't just say what they want to hear.

And by the way the OP had already stated he doesn't have aggression problems so please read the entire thread before you jump at us
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I agree completely with this the op needs to know that this tank is destined to not succeed and you need to be honest not sugarcoat things and lie.
 
Aquaenthused said:
I'm seeing why so many people have left this forum community. The poor OP just needs a little realistic advice, not a bunch of snarky textbook (or wiki-ed for that matter) babble.

I can tell you this from experience, not because I can google Oscar cichlid, but because I've owned Oscars for the past 26 years of my life and I am 33 (I think, lol) this year. As Oscars have become more decorative and selectively bred they have become a true gentle giant, almost all bark and no bite, heck, I hear they even have balloon Oscars out there that only reach 6 inches (I can only imagine the genetic story behind that one). Truth be told with farm/ tank raised- and even a lot of 'wild caught' but not the truly wild variety, after they grow out of their juvi stage between 3 and 8 inches, they generally slow down and calm down,

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Click to expand...

Yes it's true that the farm/tank raised oscars tend to slow down as they get bigger and older but the op is going to have an issue with bioload more than aggression. Aggression is of course dependant on individual cichlids. With the size tank he has the bioload will be unmanageable with anything more than a full grown oscar. I have had oscars over the last almost 30 years and am well aware of the large amounts of clean water they require. As tough as oscars are, they are actually quite sensitive to water conditions. This is where most people run into problems with them. The get a small oscar not realizing how big and fast they grow. If you've never raised them it's hard to grasp without seeing it first hand. They quite often end up with this small oscar in too small of a tank or a tank that is overstocked then start to have problems as it gets bigger fast. Usually the oscar will go off its food then start to act funny then followed by a whole host of other conditions. I'm raising my first true wild caught oscar and I can say that yes the wilds are far more aggressive and at 9 inches, has shown no signs of slowing down yet. He has grown to 9 inches in 5 months. Not sure if he's on his way to being huge or if he's just getting up to size fast. Oscars grow best with lots of clean water and good diet. A liquid vitamin is a great, almost necessary addition to the diet as well. Vitamin c being the important one to aid in proper bone development. Fish also secrete a hormone into the water that slows growth and water changes keep this diluted as well.
 
I can also understand why people leave this forum as it's frustrating seeing so much bad advice given out on here. That's of course going to happen with a forum with so many members. I'm on the fence myself on whether to delete the app and walk away. There really is a lot of bad advice given out here. If 100 people said no you can't keep a large cichlid in a 10 gallon tank, someone would find that one dark spot on the internet where someone says it's ok. And since that's what they want to hear... well you know the rest of the story.
 
I wanna say not 1 person gives bad advice on this forum. It's misunderstood advice taken from 100 different people. At the end of the day here, yes multiple people will be right and a true fish keeper will take the right advice after further research and be done with it. If you want more fish in a tank its simple, do research before you buy. If you don't have research and come here asking for advice, take the advice and move forward. No one is out to get anyone, were all here to learn and help and grow stronger in our fish knowledge.
 
I actually hit send before I was done completely explaining my comment.

Truth is, these fish choose their own tankmates, and an 80g with 2 Oscar and 2 common pleco is possible.... If you're willing to put 2 hours of maintenance every other day and, of course, a crash course in blackwater biotopes, but that is more for the die hard aquarist, not a regular tank enthusiast. I agree with the majority of you- I have my Oscar pair in a 150g biotope and understand that a 15 inch Oscar cannot possibly even move in 10g, heck 2 of the 3 dimensions are smaller than his length. Me, personally, have never kept my Oscars in anything smaller than a 90g, other than the occasional 30g hospital tank stay for bacterial treatment (they have spawned and their love dance left a few battle scars).

My major point being- just about anything a person wants to try to do with their tanks, they are gonna try, regardless. My approach is not to lie, but rather give them the summary of how impractical, though possible, a tank idea can be through describing the work required and the time it takes. This method works a lot better than just shooting someone down with a barrage of comments about why he/ she is 'wrong' or 'cruel'... Just saying

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Jmunroe said:
Yes it's true that the farm/tank raised oscars tend to slow down as they get bigger and older but the op is going to have an issue with bioload more than aggression. Aggression is of course dependant on individual cichlids. With the size tank he has the bioload will be unmanageable with anything more than a full grown oscar. I have had oscars over the last almost 30 years and am well aware of the large amounts of clean water they require. As tough as oscars are, they are actually quite sensitive to water conditions. This is where most people run into problems with them. The get a small oscar not realizing how big and fast they grow. If you've never raised them it's hard to grasp without seeing it first hand. They quite often end up with this small oscar in too small of a tank or a tank that is overstocked then start to have problems as it gets bigger fast. Usually the oscar will go off its food then start to act funny then followed by a whole host of other conditions. I'm raising my first true wild caught oscar and I can say that yes the wilds are far more aggressive and at 9 inches, has shown no signs of slowing down yet. He has grown to 9 inches in 5 months. Not sure if he's on his way to being huge or if he's just getting up to size fast. Oscars grow best with lots of clean water and good diet. A liquid vitamin is a great, almost necessary addition to the diet as well. Vitamin c being the important one to aid in proper bone development. Fish also secrete a hormone into the water that slows growth and water changes keep this diluted as well.
Click to expand...

Good advice- I'm actually interested in taking on a true wild Oscar, not just wild caught like the 2 I have, because I am in love with the attitude and have a vacant 90g biotope tank because all my 150g residents get along very well and I am, to forum standards WAY overpopulated.

Thanks for the tips on balanced water quality and dietary needs, a lot of people wonder why their cichlids look 'drab' without realizing that unless their feeder fish/dither fish are gut loaded with beta carotene, vitamins b, c, d and K, along with natural enhancers like krill and spirulina, they are not going to achieve the colors they are looking for, their water quality will take a very fast hit and they won't see the optimal growth/ attitude potential of these creatures.



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Omg. See right there... horrible advice. "2 oscars and 2 common plecos in an 80 gallon is possible." That's just horrible advice. Unless it's a temp setup.
 
Don't feed them feeder fish. They are about as nutritious as paper and commonly carry disease. Unless it's some extra fish from your own spawn that your getting rid of once in awhile I wouldn't advise it.
 
Jmunroe said:
Omg. See right there... horrible advice. "2 oscars and 2 common plecos in an 80 gallon is possible." That's just horrible advice. Unless it's a temp setup.
Click to expand...

I would read the forum rules. Your not aloud to put others advice down. A simple correction or a "no please don't do that" would suffice. I'm pretty sure OP has come to realize he shouldn't be doing it.
 
Oh- and my big orange Oscar, Gino, went from a 'dead' half inch fry to 10 inch monster in 5 months he's now almost a year old and is 15 inches, I'm not sure if he's done growing yet or not. My 9month old Oscar piggy is now officially 12 inches and grew 3 inches in the past month. My impression is that the monster growth rate is partially dietary, I've seen a huge size and over all health difference between cichlids fed a balanced diet including fresh foods, staple flakes/pellets/ sticks, live foods including gut loaded and sanitized feeder fish, insects and worms and those fed only commercial foods

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