The Texas and gold saum come from high ph hard water, the oscar, severums and most geos come from low to neutral ph soft water.
I agree with the soloPersonally, I’d get rid of everything but the severums and then add some geos, but if the Oscar is your favorite, then ditch everything else and get some dithers like silver dollars and a catfish or two…or better yet just have the Oscar solo as a wetpet so it can truly reach its full potential
You’re telling me a a 135 gallon tank can only support one Oscar, and that’s it? what in your opinion is a water change routine that’s not “woefully lacking” as you put it.Step One: Remove the Texas, the Saum and all of the Severums.
Step Two: There is no Step Two.
Easy peasy.
With your current stocking there is no such thing as "overkill" filtration, and your water change routine is woefully lacking.
If you want more fish in your tank, you can try Texas, Gold Saum, and some smaller/mid sized Central American cichlids like convicts/firemouths/HRPs. You can also try something unorthodox and try jewel cichlids as well though they can be hit or miss (mine was a hit luckily). Oscars get to the size of a football so they take up a lot of space, even in a 135.You’re telling me a a 135 gallon tank can only support one Oscar, and that’s it? what in your opinion is a water change routine that’s not “woefully lacking” as you put it.
Got it. Thanks for this perspective, this makes a lot of sense.If you want more fish in your tank, you can try Texas, Gold Saum, and some smaller/mid sized Central American cichlids like convicts/firemouths/HRPs. You can also try something unorthodox and try jewel cichlids as well though they can be hit or miss (mine was a hit luckily). Oscars get to the size of a football so they take up a lot of space, even in a 135.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean. I don't know how large your fish are now, but an Oscar can easily hit 12-14" within a year or so, and will get considerably larger than that. A foot-long Oscar represents a much bigger bioload than a foot-long Arowana or Poly or almost anything else...there's a lot of meat on it and it's an active fish that is always swimming around, so a 6-foot tank just doesn't seem big anymore when an Oscar grows up in it. Even alone, the fish will still likely require more than a single 50% water change per week.You’re telling me a a 135 gallon tank can only support one Oscar, and that’s it? what in your opinion is a water change routine that’s not “woefully lacking” as you put it.
If you want more fish in your tank, you can try Texas, Gold Saum, and some smaller/mid sized Central American cichlids like convicts/firemouths/HRPs. You can also try something unorthodox and try jewel cichlids as well though they can be hit or miss (mine was a hit luckily). Oscars get to the size of a football so they take up a lot of space, even in a 135.
Like I said earlier...spectacular and interesting. Brick looks impressive in a picture; in person he must be amazing.L LycheeScape Here's what you could be looking at. This is a recent shot of my red oscar, Brick. He just turned 4 in December and is a hair under 15" now. He's in a 6ft 225 tank. Still appears to be growing though its a tiny creep at this point. I clean the filters twice a week. Tank size, genetics and water quality are the big three factors. Then good food, lol. Oscars usually bulk up noticeably once they pass 11-12 inches. Water change schedule is 90% once a week.