need some Oscar advice

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
F

Fishman0

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 3, 2009
342
0
0
New York
For Christmas my gf got me a 4" red tiger oscar.

I cant put it in my large tank yet, as I am positive it will get eaten by my 9" PBass...

Currently he is only temporarily in a 10gal, planted. Temp is at 79F, 50%WC's every 4days, pH= 7.5, Amm=0ppm, Nitrite=0ppm, Nitrate<15ppm, Filter=AC30

Questions/Issues;

1) Starting yesterday he has been only swimming in the lower portion of the tank and doesnt want to come up for food. Prior to this he ate anything i put in the tank (i.e. krill, Cichlid Gold pellets, tetra flakes). Whats up with him?

2) How fast can i grow him out to put him in my larger tank so he doesnt become a feeder?

Any advice is appreciated
 
i dont think the 10 gallon should be used as a "grow out" for an oscar at all. either take him back or put him in the bigger tank...which is how big??

on the other hand...meh, its just a fish, im sure it could live in that 10 gallon for a long time. it wont grow much though
 
How big does he need to be to go into the larger tank?

Also, how recently have you checked the levels. I would think that even at 4" an oscar could dirty up a 10 gallon really quickly. Have you messed with anything in the tank? When I do pretty much anything in my oscars's tank including water changes or moving things around, he'll go into a corner and lay on the bottom for a little while. They can be very moody
 
i would up the wc to every 2 days, keeping the nitrates as low as possible will help the O to grow faster, should grow like an inch a month, while a 10g is certainly not an ideal grow out it is possible to use it as long as you do ALOT of wc and he should be fine with the bass once he reaches like 6in but iv never kept peacock bass so i dont know how adamant they are about eating anything smaller than them (had large mouth bass before and you literally couldnt put anything in there that was even minutely smaller than him or it was dinner), if possible though try to get a little bigger grow out tank because this will also affect how fast he grows
 
I know the 10gal isnt ideal, but for now its all i have to put him in.

the PBass will eat anything they think can fit into their mouth. He tried to eat my pleco, which didnt fit, almost killed both.

Im going away tmrw and cannot do much right now. Just did a water test and everything is still perfect. Im going to do a WC later tonight as a precaution.

when i get back i will either put him in a 30gal or buy a 55 if i can find somewhere to put it
 
A 10g is awfully small for an oscar, even temporarily. Do you have enough room in your main tank to put him in there with a divider?
 
when i put my 7'' oscar in our temporary 15 gallon tank (back when he was 5'') he was very stressed and the syptoms were very similar to what is happening to your fish after that i put him in my 150 gallon and he was as happy as a.... anyway put him in your big tank and buy a divider, which is alot cheaper then buying a new tank, but who doesn't want a new tank? lol =)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom