Oscar questions.

[illbethejudge]

okay so i have a 2 years old oscar but he is only around 9 to 10 inches which i think is too small.
i feed him hikari cichlid gold large pellets and he is in a 120 gallon tank with 4 Blood parrots 2 of them are temporary residents since they will be move in 2 weeks to a different tank.
70 to 75% water change every 8 to 10 days.
Tank is filtered by sunsun HW304B.
Questions why is he so small?
How many pellets should i feed?
Basically asking how can i make him grow faster and is there a possibility that he is stunned?

 

[tlindsey]

okay so i have a 2 years old oscar but he is only around 9 to 10 inches which i think is too small.
i feed him hikari cichlid gold large pellets and he is in a 120 gallon tank with 4 Blood parrots 2 of them are temporary residents since they will be move in 2 weeks to a different tank.
70 to 75% water change every 8 to 10 days.
Tank is filtered by sunsun HW304B.
Questions why is he so small?
How many pellets should i feed?
Basically asking how can i make him grow faster and is there a possibility that he is stunned?View attachment 1377182View attachment 1377183

Jexnell

 

[AnthonyFish20]

He seems to be fine most oscars get around 10inches and dont grow as fast after Mine are 9 pushing 10 inches and are about the same age.
The only way I reccomend to get him to grow faster is to do more waterchanges Id be doing 50-75% every week at least. Oscars are messy and need lots of waterchanges.

 

[Jexnell]

A few questions

Only the one filter?
Maintenance frequency of the filter?
Anything in the tank besides the tile bottom we see?

Like already said up the water changes, I do them every third day 75%or more.

To me he looks sad and bored. An adult fish will want to dig a pit to attract a mate. Put in some rocks and branches to swim around and hide.
I get why you used tile easy to clean, but having sand or gravel in there really changes the activity of the fish. Gives them something to root around in. Just hours ago this was all even, excavator Casper has his fun

 

[illbethejudge]

A few questions

Only the one filter?
Maintenance frequency of the filter?
Anything in the tank besides the tile bottom we see?

Like already said up the water changes, I do them every third day 75%or more.

To me he looks sad and bored. An adult fish will want to dig a pit to attract a mate. Put in some rocks and branches to swim around and hide.
I get why you used tile easy to clean, but having sand or gravel in there really changes the activity of the fish. Gives them something to root around in. Just hours ago this was all even, excavator Casper has his fun
View attachment 1377203

I have another hw304b but i haven't set it up yet due to thinking about adding 2 aquaclear 110 instead of an extra canister.
I clean the filter once a month.
I have made a decoration but took it out because it looked bad.
And as far as sand i took it out because i got tired of cleaning it.

 

[mattybecks]

Your oscar looks great. As the others have mentioned I would up that water change regime. At least 60 - 70% once a week.
You wont always visually notice the nitrates in your water, but these do effect the growth of fish.
How full of media is your sun sun? What type of media is in there?

Regarding size keep in mind that fish, animals in general wont all reach exactly the same. For instance a human males average is around 6ft. This dosnt mean all human males have to grow to this size. Some are smaller, some are bigger. Its just genetics. 12 inches for Os is like a standard guideline. Not all of them will reach that.

I know growth rate slows as they get older. Give him more time and he may slowly get there.

Regarding food - I always noticed that the best growth rates came from meaty foods combined with pellets (shrimp, tilapia, pangasius, crickets, worms, other insects etc) rather than just pellets. If I fed just pellets the growth slowed a little. More variety and food mentioned above I saw much faster growth rates. (along with frequent, large water changes)

Have you only fed him pellet food these past two years?

 

[Rocksor]

Fish is not stunted. It's only been 2 years. It will still grow.

 

[TheReefer]

Some oscars stay small, some get huge.

 

[illbethejudge]

Your oscar looks great. As the others have mentioned I would up that water change regime. At least 60 - 70% once a week.
You wont always visually notice the nitrates in your water, but these do effect the growth of fish.
How full of media is your sun sun? What type of media is in there?

Regarding size keep in mind that fish, animals in general wont all reach exactly the same. For instance a human males average is around 6ft. This dosnt mean all human males have to grow to this size. Some are smaller, some are bigger. Its just genetics. 12 inches for Os is like a standard guideline. Not all of them will reach that.

I know growth rate slows as they get older. Give him more time and he may slowly get there.

Regarding food - I always noticed that the best growth rates came from meaty foods combined with pellets (shrimp, tilapia, pangasius, crickets, worms, other insects etc) rather than just pellets. If I fed just pellets the growth slowed a little. More variety and food mentioned above I saw much faster growth rates. (along with frequent, large water changes)

Have you only fed him pellet food these past two years?

No i feed him shrimp once a month and crickets every 2 weeks.
My sunsun has 2 trays full of ceramic rings and 1 full of bio balls.

 

[LBDave]

I'm with Sean. Tankmates, substrate, plants. To me they are necessities.
On the size question, my oscars are also a little small. Now about 7 inches and they are about 9-10 months old. I know a lot of people post about their fantastic growth rate with their oscars. To me their size doesn't really bother me. Gives them more room to swim.
Their health is #1.
As far as advice, I would give them some substrate. Mine like to move stuff a little bit when they are pissed off at me or at other oscars.
So that is going to help mentally. Then lots of water changes. At least twice a week and 60+ percent. Many see growth spurts after water changes. If you are absolutely all about getting the size up feed smaller portions but feed in morning and afternoon. At age 2 you may notice the oscar will get bulkier rather than longer.

In reality, at age 2 the oscar just needs what is described above for the tank. Getting an oscar too fat will shorten the life span.