Oscar help

[Joehays]

I really like Oscars and was wondering whether or not I had appropriate conditions in my tank. My ph is always 6.8-7.0, temp is at 78. my tank is 55 gallon.
My fish are:
6" Senegal Bichir
8" Chocolate Pleco
4" Jack Dempsey
6" Needle Nose Gar

I was planning on buying the Oscar small so that it would give the other fish time to get larger.

 

[danny2875]

You can start with a 6in Oscar. As long as you dont have any fish small enough to fit in its mouth then your good. Oscar's are not that aggressive. They can be but are tolerable to tankmates. The only thing is you have a 55g. Too small for the fish you already have. Going to upgrade anytime soon. Need at least a 150g.

 

[Joshooo]

Yeah, I'm with danny2875, that O is gunna need about 55-60G of water to dilute its waste.. And thats with a 75% (ish) water change weekly.. It is however a good excuse for a bigger tank!

 

[marauders30]

u have waaay too many fish for an oscar. a 55 would work for just 1 oscar by itself maybe and even then i would say uprgrade. u gotta go real large for everything in your tank to be together

 

[Joehays]

Thanks for the input everyone, I'm glad I researched first because I was very close to impulse buying today.

 

[gt1009]

I would say 75 gallon minimum for your stock list. Lots of people will argue against me, but just have 10x turnover for filtration and do a weekly w/c and you will be fine.

 

[bdevilcasey]

marauders30 has it right.