oscar stocking...

[cogburn]

okay i know im months away from getting this tank but im so flipping excited i keep talking about it... ive decided on a perfecto 120 gal tank because its the biggest i can get for the 4ft wall im putting it against... for stocking... i want the centerpiece(s) of the aquarium to be 2 oscars... with kind of a rock work barrier in between them so they can stay on opposite sides of the aquarium... so i want the 2 oscars, 1 common pleco, 3 tinfoil barbs, and probably 3 clown loaches... i would be getting them all roughly around the same size... a lfs near me always has medium sized of each of these fish... so none would really be bigger than another... do you guys think thats over stocked for a 120 gal. or will that work... if overstocked ill just scratch the clown loaches... lemme know what you guys think... thanks in advance...

-Larry

 

[cogburn]

and by the way... ill definately be doing a FISHLESS cycle this time... itll be much easier to set this tank up knowing im informed now...

 

[JessieVB]

Sounds exciting! I kept tin foil barbs successfully with oscars before and loved the combo. I don't know about it being overstocked... doesn't sound it to me (but I do know that the oscars and pleco are high bio loads becuase of their waste and what not).

Shouldn't the barbs and/or loaches be kept in groups of 5+ since they're schooling/shoaling fish?

 

[cogburn]

ummm... yeah youre right they probably should... maybe ill scratch the loaches and get 5 barbs

 

[cogburn]

anybody else?... bueller?... bueller?...

 

[cogburn]

killing me.... no other opinions?

 

[JessieVB]

Wow, you got a tough crowd on this thread.

 

[cogburn]

tell me about it... guess noone else likes oscars...

 

[JessieVB]

Yeah. Hey, I red somewhere that you can keep Pacu's with oscars. But then I think you'd have to scratch an oscar and just do a pacu and an oscar. What about the red parrots? I'm not so found of them, but when I was at Wal-mart a few months ago they had a red parrot and an oscar in the same tank. (Then again, may not be best to follow Wal-marts lead. . . they also had a betta in the same tank as a crab. . .)

 

[rich311k]

Pacus grow to 3 feet long leave them in the Amazon. That is a lot of potentially big fish for that tank. I would do the oscars and the barbs. Clowns grow slowly and the Oscars may get aggresive with them. A comman pleco is a messy fish and may out grow eeven that tank. You will have plenty of fish to clean up after without the pleco.

I would also suggest you do not feed the oscars live fish. They will become more aggresive and they are not really made to eat other fish.

 

[cogburn]

hmmm sounds good to me... i thought i would need the pleco to clean up... i would be perfectly happy with just the oscars and barbs... if i dont need cleanup ill scratch the pleco too... i dont plan to feed live fish... maybe one or 2 rarely as a treat... but dont wanna risk disease

 

[JessieVB]

What about snails for clean up?

When I had oscars, we used a filter that was rated for a tank twice as big as ours. That could be an idea. We had 3 oscars, 2 tinfoil barbs (which I only learned recently should be kept in larger groups), and a common pleco. Way overstocked as I have since learned. But now I know not to do that again, but like I said, we had a filter rated for a much larger tank and did frequent water changes.

 

[cogburn]

im gonna get 2 fluval 305's... that will have me for 140 gallons on a 120 gal tank thought that would be good

 

[cogburn]

didnt even think of snails... touche...

 

[cogburn]

would the 2 fluval 305's be good or should i go for the fx5? seems like its high flow... can it be turned down?

 

[JessieVB]

No idea on the filters, although that sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[rich311k]

I think a pair of Rena XP3s would do a great job. I think the 305s would be adequate as well.

 

[cogburn]

awesome thanks... one xp3 is 350 gph... wouldnt one be enough... with 2 it would be 700 gph... wouldnt that be over kill? 350 is 3x the water volume an hour... also whats the gravel rule of thumb... 1 lb per gallon? 2 lbs per gallon... i dont remember?

 

[JessieVB]

I read some where (i think in my tank's "guide") that there should be 2 to 3 inch covering. I think thats about what we had in my oscar tank. What kind of substrate are you using out of curiosity?

 

[cogburn]

biggers stones... not fine gravel... something like this... Walnut Gravel | Colored Freshwater Gravel | Gravel & Substrate | Aquarium - ThatPetPlace.com im not gonna have any plants... real or other wise... just the substrate rocks and driftwood