Oscar Tank Filtration and Nutrition

[Eazy]

I have a 120 gallon with 2 Emperor 400's and a 1500gph powerhead. I currently have:

(5) 5-8" Tinfoil Barbs
11" Florida Gar
8" Pleco

I did a water change a week ago and right now my tank has 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 chlorine, pH of about 6.8, alkalinity a little less than 80 ppm, and hardness a little less than 150 ppm.

I want to get an oscar again, but I realize my bioload would probably be too much. Do you think my nitrates would be under control if I traded in the gar, and just had the 5 tinfoils, pleco, and oscar? How often would you expect I'd need to do water changes?

I feed my fish Hikari Cichlid Gold (medium pellets) and Tetra JumboKrill (freeze dried krill). Is this a good oscar diet?

Thanks.

 

[xEchOx]

IMO you'll have to lose more than just the gar. I have a 125g with an oscar and 2 tinfoils and some SD's. My tinfoils are both well over 13 inches. I'm seriously thinking about re-homing mine because its just getting too crowded in my tank. If you keep all 5 of yours they you will need to upgrade that tank for sure.

That sounds like a good diet. Any quality pellet should serve as a majority staple. Variety doesn't hurt either. Trying different pellets and even more frozen/freeze dried foods can be good too.

Also, I'm not sure what test kit you are using, but after one week, you should have some nitrates. A reading of 0 nitrates means that the cycle is not complete or you have a faulty test kit.

 

[steelshade]

Those tinfoils will end up with enough bioload of their own. Reduce to two tinfoils and one oscar.

Good Oscar Diet:
Pellets, worms, and a few small crickets, etc. Soaking pellets in Vitamin solution is a good way of avoiding hole in head.

 

[Venom SS]

Oscars are super messy eaters, and will foul a tank quick even with good filtration. Yes the cichlid gold and krill are a fine Oscar diet. Mine get pretty much the same thing, but I use the Hikari brand krill, and they also get meaty foods from time to time like raw shrimp, silversides, and live.

 

[Eazy]

Hmm. I might trade in 2 of the tinfoils and the gar then. So I'd have 3 tinfoils, 1 oscar, and 1 pleco. I'll probably buy an oscar around 4".

I used 6 in 1 test strips to test the water tonight and it showed between 0 and 20 ppm, leaning heavily more toward 0 (it shows you a 0 ppm color and a 20 ppm color and nothing inbetween), but I used a nitrate specific test kit with the bottled solutions and I got somewhere between 20 and 40 ppm.

 

[Eazy]

IMO you'll have to lose more than just the gar. I have a 125g with an oscar and 2 tinfoils and some SD's. My tinfoils are both well over 13 inches. I'm seriously thinking about re-homing mine because its just getting too crowded in my tank. If you keep all 5 of yours they you will need to upgrade that tank for sure.

xEchOx, how often do you do water changes and how much? How are your nitrates?

Everyone else, how often do you feed your fish?

 

[Venom SS]

xEchOx, how often do you do water changes and how much? How are your nitrates?

Everyone else, how often do you feed your fish?

I feed my Oscars Cichlid Gold twice a day. Once in the morning and again in the evening. Not much though, 4-5 of the large size pellets per feeding. One is 10" and the other is about 8".

 

[Ang]

Hmm. I might trade in 2 of the tinfoils and the gar then. So I'd have 3 tinfoils, 1 oscar, and 1 pleco. I'll probably buy an oscar around 4".
.

thats a good stock. but once they grow to adult sizes. you'll absolutely need to keep up on water changes. no less than once a week.

the food you have will do fine. but make sure to offer up some bugs and worms a few times a week while your Oscar is growing. Especially earthworms and grasshoppers.
Good stuff. And its best to have a varied diet with Oscars to help avoid HITH

 

[Cakilla]

I would down size get rid of couple barbs and the gar and it should be fine I think your diet is great but I would feed worms and crickets too , steelshade what kind of vitamen soaking solution do you use and where do you get it ?

 

[xEchOx]

Hmm. I might trade in 2 of the tinfoils and the gar then. So I'd have 3 tinfoils, 1 oscar, and 1 pleco. I'll probably buy an oscar around 4".

I used 6 in 1 test strips to test the water tonight and it showed between 0 and 20 ppm, leaning heavily more toward 0 (it shows you a 0 ppm color and a 20 ppm color and nothing inbetween), but I used a nitrate specific test kit with the bottled solutions and I got somewhere between 20 and 40 ppm.

Three tinfoils, one oscar and a pleco sounds more manageable, though I still would think eventually a 120g probably won't be big enough. That will probably be several years down the road though.

The dip strip tests are notoriously inaccurate. I would definitely be more inclined to rely on the liquid solution for nitrate testing. Although some say up to 40ppm Nitrates is acceptable, I prefer to keep my Nitrates below 20ppm at all times if possible. Especially with with an oscar suceptible to HITH.

I do two water changes per week, usually 60%. With that regimen I'm able to stay below 20ppm most of the time. If I go away for the weekend or on vacation sometimes they get above 20 into the 30-40ppm range, but that is rare. Almost all of my fish are full grown, so they don't need to eat every day. Most of the time I feed once a day, but I often skip a day inbetween feedings and go every other day.