Oscar growth rate?

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I added a recent picture of my Oscar to my post on pg. 2 as a comparsion of the growth in the last 2 months and the change in its pattern.
 
When I was just getting into the hobby, I was a real noob, but went all out on a tank. Had a 110 with 3 AquaClear110s on it. Started with three oscars and a bunch of other fish that didn't match either temperature, temperament, or nutritional needs (really noob). I bought three oscars to start, two red tiger and one red albino, at about 2-3" each. They reached 6" in 4-5 weeks and started gulping down several of my other fish. By the time I got them a new home 2 weeks later, they were 7.5" each (measured them for the new owner). So I would believe that your Oscar has tripled in size. They are a fast growing cichlid, which is uncommon for large sized fish that generally tend to grow at a slow to medium growth rate. Once they hit about 8-10", they slow down, but are still not that slow. Will grow about an inch every 2 months rather than 2 inches every month after hitting the 8-10" mark.

And yes, your frequent water changes remove toxins and make the water more pristine, which means there is less in the tank that will stunt or slow his growth. The two big reasons why many fish get stunted is because of small tank size and poor water quality. It's one reason why many fish keepers (especially breeders) recommend twice weekly water changes or more frequent. The breeder I bought my angelfish from online recommended I do 3-4 water changes a week for optimal growth rate.


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I got mine about mid February and they were about 1.5" and now they are about 5 inches about 2 months later?

I have 4 in the tank right now and only 2 of them grew that fast. The other 2 I got separately within 1 to 2 weeks later and their growth rate is obviously slower. Perhaps it might be a dominance thing? Whatever the case fast growth isn't too surprising.

I got a Midevil that was not even an inch long at the end of December/early January and now he's about 6 - 7 inches.
 
They are fast growers if you keep their water clean and feed them well (most of the time its hard to do both with how dirty they are). I do 30% wc 3x week with two hob filters and 2 canister filters, and mine grow fast! My newest Oscar has grown a little over an inch in the last 3 weeks... I just wish my Green Terror grew that fast haha
 
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