# Oscars?



## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Hello everyone! I've taken quite an interest in Oscars. Albino Oscars to be exact. There's only the color difference but I love them more than Tigers. Do any of you have them? My dad had one before and he loved it.  I think it runs in the family. My dad said in a few years I'd get to have one or two! Do you guys have them? Any advice? I already know that they need REALLY big tanks, if they eat live foods too much they can get HITH, really aggressive, even more. With all the information in the internet, I don't know which one to follow. Can you guys/gals help me out? Proper tank size, best food, how to do water changes with them in it O_O, filtration, heating, etc.
Any advice or tips will be appreciated. Thanks! :-D


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Oscars are really awesome fish with loads of personality, playful and messy....Not just poop machines but eating habits too.....It almost looked like all the food is being expelled through their gills than what is going in their stomach....lol.....
This is my albino...









I had 2 in my 75gal and in about 12months they had outgrown it and I had to re-home them to a friend that had a 225gal after they spawned for long term keeping....I miss them too...such cool fish and I swear....if they could have gotten out they would have followed me around the house....lol......They never liked the way I scaped the tank and would rearrange it and would even take the plastic plants and toss them out of the tank after they got done playing with it. They would carry it around, play tug-o-war with it. They killed a couple of heaters, destroyed the intake on one of the filters.

Water changes-they loved water changes....lol.....I would siphon all the water out with one python that I would have on gravity to drain outside and another python I had hooked up to the sink to refill. First I would vacuum really good removing about 75% of the water-Then I would start refilling the tank and when it was almost full-I would start draining the tank again until nearly empty and the Oscars laying on their side-Then I would start the refill and they would play in the fresh water as it flowed in...so fun to watch....I did this on a weekly basis in the 75gal with 2 Emperor 400 running (_turned off for water changes_)

I fed them-fish that I culled, marble crayfish, my homemade food, fresh crappie filets and cichlid sticks....I wouldn't recommend feeding feeder fish-due to poor nutrition and parasites-unless you raise them yourself and gut load them.

HITH-as long as you provide proper nutrition and maintain good water quality-it shouldn't be an issue

I miss my Oscars....but I didn't have a big enough tank to keep them and I wanted to plant the that tank...lol.....So I got one spawn from them and re-homed.....


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Hm... Is a 100-150 gallon enough for 2? If that's too small I'll just get 1 in the future. They must roughhouse a lot.  Sorry you had to rehome them. At least they have more space. Your Oscar is really beautiful.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Thank you...I had that one Albino and 1 Tiger-the albino was more friendly and would let you touch him and attack you anytime you put your hand, siphon, net..etc... in the tank and the Tiger was more on the shy side-she never really tamed down all that much....

IMO...a 125-150gal would be fine for long term keeping of a pair....
I need to make a place for a 150-225gal and setup a cichlid tank-but I would be so tempted to plant it and live plants usually don't fair well with most of the big cichlids..especially Oscars and that is what I would want....lol.....The only cichlids I have now are Angelfish I have in my 55gal NPT and are fine with plants. But next to Betta....I love cichlids..awesome species that come in a lot of colors too....


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Yeah, Cichlids are the most colorful of freshwater, right? I guess I'll tell my dad that we need a 125-150 gallon with massive filtration. I think I'll get plants that don't need anchoring. I've heard that they can mess those up. I'm also planning to get an Albino and Tiger because I could name it Yin and Yang.  Probably something else but I like those names. Good luck with those Cichlids! Thanks for helping me!


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## Relic (Jul 14, 2012)

Back in my younger days I had one in a 75 gal aquarium and with in a year he was so big he was knocking everything over and making a mess of the tank. I gave him to my grandparents who had an empty 175 gallon tank...the bought another big oscar and the only issues they had was that the oscars would sometime knock the hood off the aquarium...they had to put bricks on top to keep em from doing it. My grandparents went on vacation and I was in charge of taking care of the pets....went back to the fish room one day and found the biggest oscar dead on the floor and the hood and bricks laying inside the tank. They are awesome fish but they can also be a headache to care for.


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## Curlyfatbottom (Sep 29, 2011)

Oscar
Use to have one a few years back
It was a red tiger long fin n I have it in a 125
Within a 1/2 year that fish grew 4x as big
Oscar is not a really picky eater
Anything small u toss in they will try to eat


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Thanks for your experience with them! My dad said he had a little baby one and it got so big! I'm willing to go through some tough times with them. I'll probably convince him to get a 125 g. Instead of a 100 g. I heard you can pet them once they get to know you? What about their slime coat?


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## CharStarr (Jul 3, 2012)

*The one thing I can tell you that I know from my dad also having an oscar in the past is do not feed them feeder fish. Theres a high chance the feeder fish are sick and they will pass it on to your oscar.*


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

That, I know. They don't have much nutrients anyway. I plan to give the Oscars the feeders 1x a month. I'm still going to QT, and hardly feed him any.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

LebronTheBetta said:


> I heard you can pet them once they get to know you? What about their slime coat?


Just make sure your hands are wet....plus you don't want to over handle them or rub...etc.....Same with nets...always have your nets wet before you catch any fish to avoid injury...


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

If you do that be sure to have shatter proof equipment. They can go wild when chasing food and smash things like heaters which ends badly..
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Thanks OFL and Olympia. I'm learning more things on this Oscar Forum...


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## Pilot00 (Jul 24, 2012)

Had three in a 36 gallon tank. Lived more than a decade. They will eat anything smaller than them. I had a school of silver dollars in there and the oscar out grew them. When that happened they had breakfast (literally each morning there was a dollar in the oscars mouth alive with the tail outside the mouth, he was trying to gulp it down) with one dollar each day for 4 days. The fifth survived because it grew larger than their mouths.

Also they love rock environments and will 'decorate' anything not rooted firmly. I have an old airfix Renaissance battleship cut in half and thrown in the aquarium. One of the buggers grabbed it from the prow and moved it one day here, the next day there and so on. Oh and for some reason they dig and munch the gravel and then spit it. One got fungus probably from that. 

When they depopulated and rearranged everything inside i tossed a yellow parrot in there. Stayed about 7 years but they were afraid of her. Kept ramming them. They also say that they can have blue acara in the tank since they are somehow related. I got one didnt work. He literally bitten chunks of the largest oscar and i returned it to the pet store.

Hardy fish, beautiful if you like their constant angry faces. Their habits aside they are the kings of the tank and they wont hesitate to prove it.
Also they grow fairly large so they need space.


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Pilot00 said:


> Had three in a 36 gallon tank. Lived more than a decade. They will eat anything smaller than them. I had a school of silver dollars in there and the oscar out grew them. When that happened they had breakfast (literally each morning there was a dollar in the oscars mouth alive with the tail outside the mouth, he was trying to gulp it down) with one dollar each day for 4 days. The fifth survived because it grew larger than their mouths.
> 
> Also they love rock environments and will 'decorate' anything not rooted firmly. I have an old airfix Renaissance battleship cut in half and thrown in the aquarium. One of the buggers grabbed it from the prow and moved it one day here, the next day there and so on. Oh and for some reason they dig and munch the gravel and then spit it. One got fungus probably from that.
> 
> ...


I don't mean to be rude and thank you for the advice but isn't your tank overstocked? I mean, isn't the bare minimum for them to be happy 75 gallons? And you can add more than 1 Oscar in a 100+ gallon tank? I don't plan on tankmates because of their aggressive behaviors. Thanks for the advice, though. Sorry about your Dollars and the Acara's aggressiveness.


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## Pilot00 (Jul 24, 2012)

Yep but i was kind of 10 years old at the time, no real experience. When i got them they were about 3 cm each. And after they ate the dollars it was only the two of them along with a cynodis (the third had died from fungus) which they didnt even dare to approach. Into that 10+ years they grew 15cm+ (dont know the inches sorry).

EDIT: BTW i am not sure how much a US gallon is. My tank is 160 liters. I say 36 due to a converter.


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

I'm 11 right now. O_O They grow so fast. ^^ I'm probably going to buy them at a LFS. At least not my Petsmart.


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## tpocicat (Aug 8, 2011)

I have two oscars in my 120g tank. They are pink. They know where we keep their food, and any time someone goes near where the food is, they swim quickly to that side of the tank! They are quite smart and very aware of their surroundings.


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## Pilot00 (Jul 24, 2012)

Oh a reminder: The old saying: 'Dont bite the hand that feeds you' doesnt apply to them. They are little gluttons... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dgF0BLLJ94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYcvodtqMec&feature=related

Both happened to me


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

I wish that was a rule to them... It would be so much easier. They could draw blood. 0.0


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## tpocicat (Aug 8, 2011)

That's too true! My tank has two lids, so when the oscars are fed, we open one and wait until they are under it waiting for the food, and put the food quickly in on the other side. Not only do they bite, but they jump!


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

I need to have a sturdy lid then. O.O


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## Crowntailed (Apr 19, 2012)

And yes they can draw blood, they wont take a finger or anything like that but they can make bleed a drop or two. And here is a good oscar forums http://www.oscarfish.com/oscar-forum/viewforum.php/f,1


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## LebronTheBetta (Apr 23, 2012)

Thanks Crowntailed! I'll look into that forum!


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