Long term success? Oscar and JD 75gal?

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mudbuttjones

mudbuttjones

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2014
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Wisconsin
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I've got a 10" oscar and a 6" JD
Together in a 75gal bare bottom tank. It's filtered by 2 whisper 60's w/ biofoam and a fluval 406 packed full of bio media.

I recently setup this tank and I have a 185gph pump filtering water through several pounds of old gravel. This is probably only temporary
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they Seem to Be getting along just fine. I believe the tank is adequately filtered, before when I had gravel I did weekly gravel vacs and fin level water changes.

Assuming aggression isn't an issue, would you consider this an adequate long term home? considering I do well with keeping up on water changes and filter maintenance.

Should I think about rehoming the JD?

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I think the tank is too small for two big fish like that. Water changes or not. The Oscar will get 12" and the Jack Dempsey has the potential too.
I have a lone midevil in a 75 and I plan on moving him to a 125 when I move because I feel the 75 is a little cramped.


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Could it work long term--yes, but as previously mentioned I don't think a 75 gallon is ideal for a 12+ inch fish
 
Well I guess until I buy a house the 75g is all I can cram into the bedroom of my tiny apartment without my wife having a heart attack. Lol.

I think ill keep the JD for the short term and start looking for a new home for him.

Both the Oscar and Jack Dempsey were basically "rescues" I got the Oscar from a petshop @ about 8". He was traded in and looked nearly dead, fins rotted off, fungus, missing scales, what looked like HITH, totally lethargic, etc. The JD I got from a woman my mother knew who was planning on releasing him into a 40° glacial stream because he killed all of her community fish....:mad::banghead:

So anyway I know the tank is on the small side, but at least for the time being they are in a better place then they have been their entire lives.


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Rehome the Oscar if you cannot upgrade in a few years. All the water changes and filtration will not make up for lack of physical swimming space.

The Jack has the potential to be quite large and has good personality.

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What would you recommend? A 6ft tank? Like a 125g?

Could a 48x24 footprint 120g work?

Im hoping to be moved out of my apartment in the next year. So a big tank is definite possibility. And my 75g would be an awesome sump.

Is depth or length more important for an Oscar? (I know probably both ideally). A 12" fish probably wont want to turn around in an 18" tank..... which astounds me that 12" 55g tanks are so commonly recommended lol.

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If your water changes are on par, they'd both be fine IMO. If you had a shelter the JD would just hide under that anyway.

I agree that a bigger footprint would probably be better in an ideal world; but you're likely giving the fish a better home than they would have if you traded them back in.

Just watch their behaviour, its pretty easy to tell if fish are comfortable or not in their tank.

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Oh, how MFK has changed over the years... Used to be full of debates over whether the minimum tank size for an oscar was a 40 breeder or a 75, and now everyone is saying a 75 is too small. Lol.

IMO, a 75 is a perfectly acceptable long term home for an oscar, even on the off chance that the oscar grows to 14"+. As long as aggression doesn't get bad, I don't see a reason why this shouldn't work out for you.
 
flagtail said:
Oscars don't swim....they just hang around and suspend....JD's jsut hang around next to some decor or sit inside some pot.
75 gallon fine in my opinion
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this is not true, large Oscar patrol there tanks none stop long as they have the tank size to do so. my large oscars in the 180 tall make use of the full tank, top to bottom. A male JD and A Oscar can get along great, add a another of either and that will go out the window. but agreed you need a 6ft 125, the 75 is to small. its only big enough for one oscar, and a few SD perhaps.
 
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