New Oscar Tank

[Zaqyshadows]

I am starting up an Oscar tank. I want input and opinions. I have never owned Oscars or a tank this size. 125 gallon. I will have an FX6, two Aquaclear 110s, and I have a old Fluval plus 4 (and maybe a plus 2) I'm going to put in there for a bit of agitation. I have some Driftwood I got from the river bank that I am currently trying to treat (too big to boil). Some rocks from the same river and from my backyard. Have vinegar tested, yet to boil. Ill use black gravel and and fake decor since Oscars like to tear up ****. I want to use some of that artificial water grass but idk if it will mess with the loaches. For lighting Ill have a USA Satellite Freshwater LED 40-60" which I know nothing about other than amazon reviews. I'm thinking about using a mirror as the background, but use solid black or natural vinyl and cut natural shaped holes and tears into it to show bits of the mirror... May be interesting. Maybe a waste of time and effort. I'm going to build my own stand out of 2x4's with double brace the design. I don't trust the composite wood the current one is made from to support 1000 plus lbs for ten plus years. Im just going to use standard glass lids. Maybe later down the road get a couple of the underwater filters that replaced the plus 4. As for Fish; Two Oscars, 3-5 clown loaches, 5ish silver dollars. maybe add some other cichlids later. (convicts, fire mouth, Jack Dempsey.) I don't want to over crowd the tank. (big input on this please) I want to see how it looks and feels when they grow a good bit. but I do want a bit more variety. Also what is the best thing to feed the loaches to get them to grow faster in the first year.

 

[LayzorBeams]

Sounds good. 2 Oscars should be manageable in that tank.

However, in regards to the Loaches; if you're using Clown Loaches, then you will have a hard time. They grow slow but get as big as an Oscar and very high-bodied as adults. They arent a small fish. I would not use loaches; a lot are small enough to get eaten, and the rest are too big for the tank as adults with Oscars.

Imagine having 7 foot-long (or longer) fish in that tank. That would be really overstocked.

I would do like 2-3 Syno Catfish, there are lots of varieties and most will work in the tank. They make excellent clean-up crews, and they don't need to school.

The Silver Dollars should work fine.

I wouldn't add too many more cichlids, or fish at all. The issue is that, unless you pull it off really carefully, you are going to have fish fighting over territory. Even as babies. My Firemouths are about 2.5 inches long, both male, in a 75 gallon with others. They don't bother other fish but are very aggressive to each other. They have both claimed half the tank and guard it ferociously against the other FM, but they don't cause physical damage yet.

So i would do:
2x Oscar
2x Syno Catfish
6x Silver Dollar

And stick with that.



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[sinibotia]

I agree, you'd need a minimum of 5 loaches and that would be a ton for that tank. Plus, as mentioned, there's a big difference in loach and oscar growth rate. Not mentioned was the fact that loaches have spines beneath their eyes, and if an oscar tried to eat one it's possible the loach could get lodged in his throat with those spines and end up killing both of them. Plus, loaches aren't especially aggressive so they might be bullied a lot.

 

[Zaqyshadows]

Sounds good. 2 Oscars should be manageable in that tank.

However, in regards to the Loaches; if you're using Clown Loaches, then you will have a hard time. They grow slow but get as big as an Oscar and very high-bodied as adults. They arent a small fish. I would not use loaches; a lot are small enough to get eaten, and the rest are too big for the tank as adults with Oscars.

Imagine having 7 foot-long (or longer) fish in that tank. That would be really overstocked.

I would do like 2-3 Syno Catfish, there are lots of varieties and most will work in the tank. They make excellent clean-up crews, and they don't need to school.

The Silver Dollars should work fine.

I wouldn't add too many more cichlids, or fish at all. The issue is that, unless you pull it off really carefully, you are going to have fish fighting over territory. Even as babies. My Firemouths are about 2.5 inches long, both male, in a 75 gallon with others. They don't bother other fish but are very aggressive to each other. They have both claimed half the tank and guard it ferociously against the other FM, but they don't cause physical damage yet.

So i would do:
2x Oscar
2x Syno Catfish
6x Silver Dollar

And stick with that.



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Do the Synos not also have spines? Also I was talking to the local aquarium store guy about doing a bunch of convicts as opposed to the silvers. Since the females are relatively easy to pick out from the males I could have x5 female convicts and they wouldn't really get aggressive or territorial because they aren't paring. However this is just a theory I haven't found any other opinions on this.

 

[ImACoolguy]

As a juvenile I could see about all those fish working except the loaches.

Once they mature though you would have to ditch some. It's unbelievable just how much waste 1 Oscar can produce.

Final stock IMO the Oscar, JD, and some silver dollars.


Caleb

 

[LayzorBeams]

Do the Synos not also have spines? Also I was talking to the local aquarium store guy about doing a bunch of convicts as opposed to the silvers. Since the females are relatively easy to pick out from the males I could have x5 female convicts and they wouldn't really get aggressive or territorial because they aren't paring. However this is just a theory I haven't found any other opinions on this.

Syno do have spines, but if you buy a large one, which isn't too hard to find at an LFS, they are too big for and O to eat.

Female Cons are aggressive and territorial. Also, females can pair woth other females. They wouldnt have fertilized eggs without a male, but they will atill guard them viciously.

Also, in regards to ImACoolguy's last post; yes they are very messy. I kept one and he had around the same bioload as what the tank was stocked at a few days ago, which is 10 cichlids ranging from 2-5 inches.

So a BIG filter, and a LOT of water changes.

No Cons.


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[TMRC Exotics]

Syno do have spines, but if you buy a large one, which isn't too hard to find at an LFS, they are too big for and O to eat.

Female Cons are aggressive and territorial. Also, females can pair woth other females. They wouldnt have fertilized eggs without a male, but they will atill guard them viciously.

Also, in regards to ImACoolguy's last post; yes they are very messy. I kept one and he had around the same bioload as what the tank was stocked at a few days ago, which is 10 cichlids ranging from 2-5 inches.

So a BIG filter, and a LOT of water changes.

No Cons.


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Large synos aren't available everywhere. Synos of any size are not available near me.

Convicts can be aggressive but in comparison to an Oscar they are fairly docile. I wouldn't worry too much about a sorority causing problems, if concerned keep it to one female, they as a single fish are quite chill. At full size their mouth is much smaller than a half grown Oscars mouth. They are spunky but don't have the size to back it up. I don't understand your "no cons" statement, one can undoubtedly be kept without issue.

 

[TMRC Exotics]

I am starting up an Oscar tank. I want input and opinions. I have never owned Oscars or a tank this size. 125 gallon. I will have an FX6, two Aquaclear 110s, and I have a old Fluval plus 4 (and maybe a plus 2) I'm going to put in there for a bit of agitation. I have some Driftwood I got from the river bank that I am currently trying to treat (too big to boil). Some rocks from the same river and from my backyard. Have vinegar tested, yet to boil. Ill use black gravel and and fake decor since Oscars like to tear up ****. I want to use some of that artificial water grass but idk if it will mess with the loaches. For lighting Ill have a USA Satellite Freshwater LED 40-60" which I know nothing about other than amazon reviews. I'm thinking about using a mirror as the background, but use solid black or natural vinyl and cut natural shaped holes and tears into it to show bits of the mirror... May be interesting. Maybe a waste of time and effort. I'm going to build my own stand out of 2x4's with double brace the design. I don't trust the composite wood the current one is made from to support 1000 plus lbs for ten plus years. Im just going to use standard glass lids. Maybe later down the road get a couple of the underwater filters that replaced the plus 4. As for Fish; Two Oscars, 3-5 clown loaches, 5ish silver dollars. maybe add some other cichlids later. (convicts, fire mouth, Jack Dempsey.) I don't want to over crowd the tank. (big input on this please) I want to see how it looks and feels when they grow a good bit. but I do want a bit more variety. Also what is the best thing to feed the loaches to get them to grow faster in the first year.

First I would stick to one Oscar as females and males look the same, two males could be quite the issue. I personally would avoid the loaches as I feel loaches have no place in a cichlid tank. The silver dollars will work fine.
As tank mates, the firemouth will likely get ran over so I wouldn't.. a single convict male or female should be fine. The jack is big and mean, likely it will butt heads with the Oscar. It seems like I saw mention of acaras in this thread, they would likely be fine. I would add some dithers but I think 12 cories sounds like a bit much(read as poor idea). Maybe a school of 6 cories with a group of 8-10 lemon or Buenos Aires tetras or tiger barbs. If using silver dollars remove the group of tetras and include the silver dollars. I could write paragraphs on this but let's see where this goes......

 

[PassengerTN]

Large synos aren't available everywhere. Synos of any size are not available near me.

Convicts can be aggressive but in comparison to an Oscar they are fairly docile. I wouldn't worry too much about a sorority causing problems, if concerned keep it to one female, they as a single fish are quite chill. At full size their mouth is much smaller than a half grown Oscars mouth. They are spunky but don't have the size to back it up. I don't understand your "no cons" statement, one can undoubtedly be kept without issue.

I've got to disagree with this. IME, Oscars aren't necessarily aggressive. They just grow to a good bulky size, and have the appetite to match. A breeding pair of Cons can (and probably will) kill an adult Oscar, especially if the cons are 4-6" adult sizes. I'd put money on that too. As far as compatibility, they work fine together but you need to be prepared to make adjustments as needed.

Jesse

 

[TMRC Exotics]

I've got to disagree with this. IME, Oscars aren't necessarily aggressive. They just grow to a good bulky size, and have the appetite to match. A breeding pair of Cons can (and probably will) kill an adult Oscar, especially if the cons are 4-6" adult sizes. I'd put money on that too. As far as compatibility, they work fine together but you need to be prepared to make adjustments as needed.

Jesse

I disagree with that. Ive watched 2 different Oscars destroy fish decently bigger than them in my personal tanks. It happened so fast I couldn't stop it and realized they honestly only need strong tank mates.

Fatalities included
5 inch Oscar claimed:
5 inch pictus cat
3.5 inch JD
2 smaller cons(3 inch)
Any combo of dithers I tried including cherry barbs and giant danios which are supposedly "too fast for them" according to this forum.


An 8 inch I adopted and put with Africans (in my less educated days) destroyed 2 electric yellows and an auratus and red zebra before I returned him 6 days after purchase.

I understand some people think they are teddybears but I have not had this experience in the least. I wouldn't hesitate to put a Oscar with my con and I would worry for the con, not the Oscar. I've kept them 4 different times and each were killers, only two had the chance to inflict the damage they did. Personally with my experiences with Oscars I'll debate anyone who says otherwise, its from personal experience, not conjecture parroted which this site is full of (not saying your experience is).


Edit: and if you disagree with my post please state what specifically you disagree with because in my response I was only guessing. You took a 3 paragraph statement that covered many topics and just said you disagreed. I need to know what specifically you disagreed with. I tried my best to answer and hope I actually covered what u were referring to. I hope I didn't misrepresent what you were saying at all, it was not my intent what so ever

 

[PassengerTN]

A stressed out fish in a crappy environment isn't going to yield good results. This is especially true with something that has the mass that an Oscar does. Que Sera, Sera.

Jesse

 

[TMRC Exotics]

A stressed out fish in a crappy environment isn't going to yield good results. This is especially true with something that has the mass that an Oscar does. Que Sera, Sera.

Jesse

I understand the point your trying to make, Oscars aren't relentless killers, but they are killers of fish vulnerable to them. They aim for dominance and its unnecessary to deny their abilities. I never kept oscars with "crappy fish" while the oscars were stressed. They are fully capable of atrocious acts, I've seen it first hand. I don't know how much experience with them you have but I have approximately 3 years total time with Oscars and they are not prone to weakness and in fact seem to target tank mates that pose a threat to dominance. Again, this is observation, not conjecture.

 

[TMRC Exotics]

Jesse, you really think that one female convict would throw a monkey wrench in this tank? This isnt my experience with them, but mine's limited. Have non breeding pairs been that bad for you?

 

[PassengerTN]

Read below.

As far as compatibility, they work fine together but you need to be prepared to make adjustments as needed.

Jesse

You could throw a single con and have mass troubles, or 8 of them and be heavenly, there are no real guarantees in fish keeping. Each fish has their own personality. A breeding pair (can be 2x females!) is rough for anything in the tank, period. The female con I just got rid of was aggro at all times. Hated every thing. This became much worse once she decided to try to win the affection of my JD and attempt to breed. Once I noticed what she was trying to do, it was promptly rehomed.

Jesse

 

[TMRC Exotics]

Interesting. Guess I've been lucky on pretty docile convicts. I hope mine doesn't try to pair with FM or sev.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Interesting. Guess I've been lucky on pretty docile convicts. I hope mine doesn't try to pair with FM or sev.

As an unbiased side, my convict is quite the bully, at least he tries. The JD and parrot kick him out of the way but he keeps trying to pick fights he can't win and he's still 2 inches.


Caleb

 

[LayzorBeams]

Large synos aren't available everywhere. Synos of any size are not available near me.

Convicts can be aggressive but in comparison to an Oscar they are fairly docile. I wouldn't worry too much about a sorority causing problems, if concerned keep it to one female, they as a single fish are quite chill. At full size their mouth is much smaller than a half grown Oscars mouth. They are spunky but don't have the size to back it up. I don't understand your "no cons" statement, one can undoubtedly be kept without issue.

Syno arent available near you? Huh, they are in great abundance here.

Also, i didn't mean "no Cons" as in that he couldn't have cons, i meant "no Cons" as a plural; he shouldn't have more than 1, even though he could and it might work. But there are a good few stories about how groups of female cons get wrecked by a female-female pair.


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[Zaqyshadows]

Does anyone have any advice on the setup I have listed. Mainly the light as I know next to nothing about it.

 

[Zaqyshadows]

And what about Birchirs

 

[TMRC Exotics]

Does anyone have any advice on the setup I have listed. Mainly the light as I know next to nothing about it.

Sorry, me and Jesse (whose opinion I respect a lot) got kinda into discussion. As for the light you won't be able to do plants with this stock so its really all about aesthetics. That is a good light with a good reputation but possibly a bit overkill. But if its what you want it should work nicely. Keep it on 8 hours or less daily to help avoid algae.

As for the birchirs I cannot answer.