considering new tank with questions

[hakova]

Hi all,

I am considering to set up a new FW tank. My favorite fish is oscar but I don't know if I can ever set things right for that. Here are my questions:

1. The minimum tank size recommended for oscars is 70 gallons (and it isn't indicated how many of them is good for that tank). I don't have space in my house right now for such a tank. I want to put my new tank above the fireplace and that area measures around 36x10.5 inches. These measurements are consistent with a 25-30 gallon tank at most, as far as I can tell. I don't think I will be able to upgrade the tank within the next couple of years, and I don't want to make the fish suffer. The only solution I could come up with was to buy some oscars(how many?) and give/sell them back to the store when they grow to a certain size and buy smaller ones again. If somebody can give me some numbers (e.g. x number of small oscars for a 30 gallon tank, until they reach to a size of y inches), it will be greatly appreciated.

2. I like glass tanks but I am not sure if pet shops have them any more. The web pages of the pet shops are full of acryllic tanks, and I didn't really check the stores. Are there any other alternative places where I can get one?

3. The shelf on the fireplace is only 10.5 inches deep. A typical Seaclear 20-30 galoon tank is 12 inch at the shortest edge. Do you think it would be safe to place the tank with 1.5 inch extending over the edge?

4. I kind of liked the Eclipse system (for the sizes above, Eclipse 2/3 particularly). Anybody had any experience with those? Is there anything better for the setup outlined above?

Enough questions for the first message I guess. Thanks in advance for the answers.