oscar planted tank

[fishpets101]

hi! i was wondering how common is it for oscars to dig into sand? i also want to have have plants with him, so any ideas for the plants?

 

[tlindsey]

hi! i was wondering how common is it for oscars to dig into sand? i also want to have have plants with him, so any ideas for the plants?

I personally know for sure Oscar and most Cichlid species will dig up substrate. You will have a difficult task keeping plants in the substrate with a Oscar.

 

[LBDave]

My 2 oscars (2 years old) do not allow plants. I gave up on plants for these guys.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Kelly_Aquatics , you have an Oscar, and when didn’t you attempt a nice space for them, but they recked it?

 

[Gourami Swami]

Attach plants to driftwood with cable ties. Anubias and java fern work well for this. Tough, thick leafed plants will work well. Delicate fragile or stringy plants will be shredded, and all will likely be uprooted.

 

[robmcd]

Oscars with plants are like kittens with toilet paper rolls. Fun to picture but a pain in the *** to clean up after.

 

[tiger15]

Attach plants to driftwood with cable ties. Anubias and java fern work well for this. Tough, thick leafed plants will work well. Delicate fragile or stringy plants will be shredded, and all will likely be uprooted.

Yes, it will work. You can superglue epiphytes on rock or driftwood and anchoing roots will develop over time. Cichlid like to dig on the substrate level and tend to ignore objects high up. Anubias, Java fern and bolbitis have tough leaves and bitter taste that even herbivores will ignore.

 

[FINWIN]

My O has a wide open bare glass pit in his area approx 17" across (his bed). It's surrounded by plants like a nest. He places stones around the perimeter in an irregular pattern. Sometimes he messes with plants but everything is either large or 'tangled' so he doesn't spend too much energy moving them. He likes to swim through plants or shove them away to get food. During water changes he shoves plants away to make more space as the water level goes down.

The only time he got destructive was last year when I added a fish. He threw a tantrum and started ripping up plants randomly. He also wrecked the tank when I was sick a few days and didn't deal with the fishroom. Plants were everywhere like tossed salad.

 

[Gunfleet]

your options are to use floating plants or put the plants in flower pots. I kept a pair of Oscars in a 125 with a couple amazon swords in terra cotta pots with no issues.

 

[Kelly_Aquatics]

The Masked Shadow thanks for tagging me just saw this thread now ya a little while ago i had a nice corner rock scape left came home to rocks thrown everywhere and not like little pebbles these were 1-2 pound rocks my two oscars would pick them up and ram the glass or pick up these big rocks and drop them hard on the bottom which is a problem since its a bare bottom they shred any fake plants I put in even if I glue them down so never tried live plants because I know they will end up as a expensive salad . I have tried duck weed a big container and it was gone in a day or two recently I added sand and now half the tank is bare bottom and the other half has 10 inches of sand and is riddled with craters sooooooo long story short if you want a Nice tank dont get oscars maybe mine are just more psycho then most they try to kill everything including me during water changes they have made me bleed and bite the filter intake a lot try to bite me through the glass. I cant leave any food containers on the glass lid because they will jump at the lid trying to get it like I said maybe mine are just killers but I think its safe to say dont add plants