Oscar OK in bare tank?

[Ulu]

This is Felix the Oscar, taken a couple months ago.



Felix is currently in a 4 foot, 55 gal, with a 10 gal sump for filtration, but I built his stand to accommodate a custom 5 foot long tank. It will be 90 gal, with one or two 20 gal sumps, and I will upgrade him this winter. I am trying to plan a biotope of sorts.

I have had him 14 mos, bought at Pet Extreme as a 2" Lemon. Here he is at 3.5", & clearly NOT a lemon.



He has become 10" long, showing mostly yellow with red flecks and dung-mud-green on the cranium. The yellow is bright from feeding freeze-dried krill @ $100/lb. He gets lots of redworms & nightcrawlers, occasional crickets, and Hikari Cichlid Gold.

Felix was raised in "busy" aquascapes, but now is strong enough to destroy them overnight, doing so with great anger. I have had him in a bare-bottom 55 for 7 months now.

I don't know if the oscar is a true geophagus, but judging by his behavior with a sandy bottom, he is somewhat.

This leads me to ask, is it rough on the fish to be without sand? Is the lack mentally distressing or physically?

 

[Kvandy]

I think if a Oscar has good food , clean water and isnt shy or stressed he couldnt care less about decoration or substrate

 

[duanes]

Oscars are not Geophagines, but as with most cichlids they are diggers.
Beyond that, Oscars are sentient animals, and can become easily bored in a bland environment, so without things to do, and see, can be stuck in a very dull existence.
This does not mean they need substrate, but their natural environment has lots of stimuli.

Just as a zoo will provide balls and other toys for chimps, a fish keeper should be aware, a provide stimuli.
Balls, blocks, even old beer cans for them to plow around, whatever. (I know not the most atheistic, but you get my drift)
A friend of mine runs an octopi exhibit and uses Legos, the octopi use to constantly build stuff.
Without some stimuli, you may end up with an oscar that just sits and sulks all day.

 

[PhishMon84]

Wow, I would love to watch an octopus play with LEGOs.

 

[Rocksor]

Ronald Oldfield did a study on the Midas cichlid, and how an environment that was too small and devoid of "complexity" generally had the fish exhibiting harmful aggressive behaviors. The title of the study is "Aggression and Welfare in a Common Aquarium Fish, the Midas Cichlid"

Here's synopsis

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110922102241.htm

You can apply the same principals to an Oscar. Make a more stimulating environment, have the fish act more naturally. So keep the sand.

 

[Gourami Swami]

A friend of mine runs an octopi exhibit and uses Legos, the octopi use to constantly build stuff.

Recently read a book called "soul of an octopus" by Sy Montgomery, all about the author's interactions and "relationships" with a few giant pacific octopuses. Really fascinating how smart they are; in addition to the legos they would solve increasingly complex puzzles. Really smart creatures. Book overall I would give a mixed review, but the anecdotes about the octopuses learning and using their intellect were very intriguing.

To the OP- I do think the Oscar would prefer at least some décor, or if you do go for the bare bottom, providing some "toys" as suggested would be a good move. I had an Oscar in the past who used to like to push plastic plants around the tank, and would arrange them differently, almost as if he was "decorating his apartment". Was funny to watch and I'm sure was entertaining for the Oscar, or he wouldn't have kept doing it.

 

[jeaninel]

Before I moved my Oscar to my 150 gallon he was in a 55 with only sand and a single 3 ft tall fake plant. He kept busy moving the sand and plant around. I think without it he would have been extremely bored.

 

[Ulu]

Thanks a bunch folks.

Wow, I would love to watch an octopus play with LEGOs.

My wife's going to freak when I tell her I want to start an octopus tank.

Felix has it a few things to keep him busy but I took out the sand, so easier to keep clean, as he is a very messy fish.

This has been part of an ongoing series of improvements to his filtration. I went from HOB to in-tank canisters & multiple hybrids, skimmer and reverse ugf systems, and currently a wet/dry sump at ~150+ gph net.

His tank isn't 100% bare. Just no substrate. He has some unanchored plastic and cloth plants that he moves and shreds for fun. He bites at the big rocks that anchor my overflow Plumbing but can't really move them.

I crank on my extra circulation pump for a few hours every day so he can swim like crazy if he wants to, then he does.

He lives alone, but he can see other fish in other tanks and they watch him too.

His new tank will have a 66% greater footprint and hold over twice as much water, as I am increasing the sump size 4x. Total system volume should be 130 gallons at nominal.

I've been thinking about creating a system that uses an air pressurized under-sand bladder to constantly circulate substrate.

I might be able to make it heave in a pseudo-random manner, depending on how it's constructed.

 

[tlindsey]

View attachment 1350073 This is Felix the Oscar, taken a couple months ago.

View attachment 1350072

Felix is currently in a 4 foot, 55 gal, with a 10 gal sump for filtration, but I built his stand to accommodate a custom 5 foot long tank. It will be 90 gal, with one or two 20 gal sumps, and I will upgrade him this winter. I am trying to plan a biotope of sorts.

I have had him 14 mos, bought at Pet Extreme as a 2" Lemon. Here he is at 3.5", & clearly NOT a lemon.

View attachment 1350074

He has become 10" long, showing mostly yellow with red flecks and dung-mud-green on the cranium. The yellow is bright from feeding freeze-dried krill @ $100/lb. He gets lots of redworms & nightcrawlers, occasional crickets, and Hikari Cichlid Gold.

Felix was raised in "busy" aquascapes, but now is strong enough to destroy them overnight, doing so with great anger. I have had him in a bare-bottom 55 for 7 months now.

I don't know if the oscar is a true geophagus, but judging by his behavior with a sandy bottom, he is somewhat.

This leads me to ask, is it rough on the fish to be without sand? Is the lack mentally distressing or physically?

Thanks a bunch folks.


My wife's going to freak when I tell her I want to start an octopus tank.

Felix has it a few things to keep him busy but I took out the sand, so easier to keep clean, as he is a very messy fish.

This has been part of an ongoing series of improvements to his filtration. I went from HOB to in-tank canisters & multiple hybrids, skimmer and reverse ugf systems, and currently a wet/dry sump at ~150+ gph net.

His tank isn't 100% bare. Just no substrate. He has some unanchored plastic and cloth plants that he moves and shreds for fun. He bites at the big rocks that anchor my overflow Plumbing but can't really move them.

I crank on my extra circulation pump for a few hours every day so he can swim like crazy if he wants to, then he does.

He lives alone, but he can see other fish in other tanks and they watch him too.

His new tank will have a 66% greater footprint and hold over twice as much water, as I am increasing the sump size 4x. Total system volume should be 130 gallons at nominal.

I've been thinking about creating a system that uses an air pressurized under-sand bladder to constantly circulate substrate.

I might be able to make it heave in a pseudo-random manner, depending on how it's constructed.

Just wanted to let you know that octopus have short lives some only live for 6 months.

 

[PhishMon84]

Just wanted to let you know that octopus have short lives some only live for 6 months.

They also hide all the time and escape readily.