135 Gallon Oscar Tank

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R

Rob Martin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 30, 2009
49
0
6
Ontario, Canada
Hey guys,

This is gonna be long, so I'll say sorry in advance.

Well, I had been plotting my way along to set up a 180 gallon for a freshwater ray or two but then just last night I came upon a deal on a 135 gallon I just couldn't pass up. As it is 72"long x 18"wide x 24"high I can't go stingray due to the insufficient width. I may still setup a ray tank later, but for the time being I'm going to get this one up and running first.

I already have a 135 gallon setup with a mixed lot of African Cichlids. For this identical sized tank I wanted to go with a couple of bigger fish so decided why not get some with both size and personality?

Ultimately I'd like to house two oscars together (no tank mates at all) in this 135. I don't necessarily care if they are an actual male/female breeding pair or not, as long as I can find two that will get along I don't care what their sexes are.

I figured the best way to do this would be to buy 5 or 6 young ones and grow them out some then re-home all but the two I choose to keep based on colouration and who gets along. Here's my concern....

I live in a small city in Northern Ontario where big tanks are pretty darn rare. Here most people think a 35 is HUGE. To boot, the unemployment percentage here is pretty high which means alot of people who can't afford animals get them anyway. I honestly believe that when people around here see a "free" animal many of them just HAVE to have it and don't give a crap about whether or not they can actually provide for it properly or not. (I worked as an agent with the S.P.C.A. doing Animal Cruelty Investigations for five years, so I'm a little jaded against the local populous where pets are concerned). If I inquire about their tank's size it is so easy for somebody to just flat out lie because they know what I want to hear, heck even emailed pics of "their" tanks could be fakes pulled off google for all I know. Since I'd feel responsible for these fish I'd be giving away, I'd like to be sure they are going to be housed properly in their new homes. Giving these fish away will not be a problem, I'd bet they could all go in 24 hours easy. However, giving these fish away in good conscience and being confident that they will end up in proper sized tanks may be much tougher. Any ideas?

On another note for those experienced with O's, I plan on running two Filstar XP4's for filtration on this tank. Will that be sufficient for two messy adult O's? I do 40% to 50% water changes every Wednesday and Sunday on my African tank and will do the same for the Oscars.

Thanks for anybody with an answer to the filtration question, and if anybody has tips on how to insure big fish go to proper homes I'm all ears.
 
That sounds like a good filtration setup, and 40-50% twice a week should be a fine wc schedule.

It's going to be really difficult finding homes for 4 large oscars. They're common fish, there are probably as many O's needing homes as anything. What you could do is try to find a couple of O's that need a home and go that route. Pros to that approach is they'll be well-grown and you'll know what they look like when you get them. Also if you get them from the same person they might already be compatible. Cons are you don't get to grow them out yourself, and they might not have gotten the best care growing up.
 
Yeah, initially I thought I would just go with adults from somebody, but my concerns are mainly the potential they'd be stunted (I want really BIG, happy bouncing O's eventually) and that they'll have been fed garbage their whole life. That's really why I want to grow my own, to be sure.

My guys will NEVER see a goldfish for as long as they live. lol.

Maybe I should just buy two babies, chuck 'em in the 135 and hope for the best since they'll have grown up together? Would save me having to re-home the others....
 
um i wouldnt both with oscars even though there some pretty ones like the long fins and tiger oscar but imo the 180 wouldnt house a stingray for long..but id get like possibly um different cichlids or piranhas?
 
yeah i think if you dont care about getting a pair then i would just buy two and if they are grown up together then they should be fine, thats what i did with my Os back when i kept them and i never had problems with them fighting, and then if they did end up fighting then you would just have to worry about rehoming one and not 4, and then you could look for someone else re-homing a larger oscar and keep trying that way until you find one that is compatible if the original one you get doesnt work out (which i doubt you will have problems anyways), but yeah best way to make sure the person knows what they are doing is to at least charge a small re-homing fee and then make sure to talk to the person when they come and see how you feel about them, you can usually tell when they are all BS
 
Right on guys, I think I'll just go with 2 then if I go the oscar route. The only other contenders at this point are maybe an eartheater setup. I'm leaning toward the oscars right now though as I'd like some BIG bulky fish as a change of pace.
 
Rob Martin;4332741; said:
Maybe I should just buy two babies, chuck 'em in the 135 and hope for the best since they'll have grown up together? Would save me having to re-home the others....
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this is what I was going to suggest. The other issue with growing out a few and then rehoming them is it may change the order of things in the tank and the 2 that you keep that got along may no longer get along. I'd also add some smaller cichlids to act as clean up crews for what comes out of the oscars gills. I use convicts, cutteri and jewels. Personally I'd order wild caught or F1 O's if you can get them shipped were you live. Much nicer and unique looking fish. I dont know if Rapps can ship to CA.
 
Rob Martin;4332818; said:
Right on guys, I think I'll just go with 2 then if I go the oscar route. The only other contenders at this point are maybe an eartheater setup. I'm leaning toward the oscars right now though as I'd like some BIG bulky fish as a change of pace.
Click to expand...

I think you'd probably be alright just getting 2. Are you looking to get wild ones or one of the color morphs like red, tiger, albino?

If you like eartheaters you could go that route with a single oscar as a centerpiece. You'd want one of the larger species, but 5-6 geos with one oscar would look pretty sweet.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I've never seen any of the wild type O's up here before... I've searched around online a little but everything I found was in the USA. Shipping live animals across borders is usually a nightmare from what I've heard, not to mention the closest airport to me that would be able to receive an international shipment like that is about a 4 hour drive one way. On top of that I've heard that the CITES (I think that is what it is called anyway) paperwork is really expensive to obtain.

If I could find wild, or better yet F1, oscars I'd probably go with that. Since that is highly unlikely however, I'll probably either go Red tiger or Red as the Lutino types don't appeal to me as much.
 
Not sure where in Ontario you live so I don't know how much help this will be but here in Winnipeg aFISHonados is currently selling wild Oscars. http://cichlaholic.com/index.html. This is where I purchased my Oscars from. I took his suggestion and bought 6 Oscars, they were <2", so that I could "ensure" that I could get 2 that would get along well once they reach adulthood.

Once they get bigger I will take the remaining 4 back to Spencer Jack (the owner). Spencer routinely travels around the world to pick out his stock personally.
 
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