Oscar...

[Southern Rebel]

Alright for years I've seen heard how cool Oscar's are and have such great personalities...I have a empty 75gal I am putting sand in and I have driftwood pieces and fake plants...was gonna do a community of angels, corys, tetras etc...then I saw a youtube video of a tiger oscar and it was so pretty to me and it was playing and what not..are these true wet pets? I know I can only keep 1 in a 75 gal by itself and I have to take all my plants out..that's fine...so my question is...are they pretty cool? I work 9 -15hr a day in my office at home the tank is beside my desk..so he'd have a lot of attention...another thing is do I just buy one at petsmart or petco? I mean if i'm gonna get 1 fish only I want a very good breed of an oscar...I can pay up to 300$ for 1 fish...idk about diff kinds and if the ones at petsmart/petco suck or what...just saying if I did get an oscar (1 fish for my tank) I'd be willing to pay big bucks for a healthy one..if needed...(they may all just be cheap 5$ fish idk...) anyways thanks..

p.s. forgot to add I have a 30gal sump on this tank, with a very powerful pump...filtration should be fine I would imagine...btw do I need a 125 gal to house 2 oscars?

 

[Nick1223]

I don't know your thoughts on this, but If it were me I would buy two, three or maybe even four. As they grow you will see which one (or two) have the personality you like. I know others may not agree, but I think two O's in a 75 (with good filtration) is fine. I started with five O's in a community 150. As they grew I sold the community fish. Over the last year and a half I have weeded out the O's down to my favorite two, and added other fish that work better with Oscars.

Yes, they are great pets. If you work with them you can hand feed them, pet them, give them toys (be careful). A great fish.


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[Southern Rebel]

I was thinking of two..did some googling, saw where if you have a male+male they will fight, male+female 75% they will be fine , and female+female 90% they will be fine (all this in a 75gal that is) and they said its just bout impossible to sex juvie oscars....so idk, i was wanting to do 2, but i dont want anyone getting hurt here....

 

[cebosound]

i think your on the right track. one will do great in there. they are a fish that interacts with you. and i think they interact with humans a lot more when there aren't other fish in there to distract him.

good luck.

 

[Southern Rebel]

thanks for the replies yall...now should i get my oscar at petco/petsmart? (tiger is my fav) or is there somewhere i dont know about that sells better ones? ty again

 

[ryansmith83]

I was thinking of two..did some googling, saw where if you have a male+male they will fight, male+female 75% they will be fine , and female+female 90% they will be fine (all this in a 75gal that is) and they said its just bout impossible to sex juvie oscars....so idk, i was wanting to do 2, but i dont want anyone getting hurt here....

I don't know if I'd trust the whole male/male, male/female, female/female thing you read. I'm not arguing that it's wrong, but I think that it's really up to the individual personality of the fish. For me, most of the male cichlids I have get along fine without a female present. It's often the adult females who fight for me (and lay eggs together, which causes them to turn on other females). Also, cichlids that are raised together from a small size tend to be a bit more tolerant of each other than if you were to try mixing semi-adult or adult cichlids. There are exceptions with very aggressive species, of course.

You could easily buy a group of 4 and then grow them out to 5 - 6" until you have a favorite or two. Just make sure to keep up with water changes. The downside would be having to rehome the oscars as you weeded them out. You may end up attached and find yourself upgrading to a big tank to keep them all.

 

[rgonzales]

thanks for the replies yall...now should i get my oscar at petco/petsmart? (tiger is my fav) or is there somewhere i dont know about that sells better ones? ty again

Id go to a lfs but thats because i dont like to give the box stores my money

 

[Southern Rebel]

hmmm yeah the more I read it could be possible to have 2 in a 75..and buying 4 or so and weeding out the ones I don't like would be the thing to do...I can easily donate them to the lfs here...she has no oscars and can sell'em easily...so I got the rehome issue resolved already I'd have to buy my oscars from petsmart or petco as the only lfs here don't carry any oscars

 

[ryansmith83]

I know a lot of people try to avoid Petsmart and Petco, but truthfully their oscars are probably farm-raised here in Florida and most LFS around the country order their fish from similar fish farms. At the end of the day, they're all going to be similar unless you order something specific and uncommon from a vendor like Jeff Rapps. It depends on how much you want to spend (factoring in high shipping costs for a handful of fish) and what is most important to you.

Personally, my Petsmart usually has pretty healthy looking oscars. Use your best judgment. Petco and Petsmart have their tanks on central filtration systems, so if one tank has a sick fish (say, a fish infested with ich), all fish have been exposed. I wouldn't buy anything if you see sickly fish. If things look okay, just stand and observe the oscar tank for a while. They should be active, alert, and happy. If you put your hand up to the top of the tank, they should all rush up to greet you for food. Look for fish with bright, clear eyes, erect fins, clean, smooth bodies (no haziness, no excessive slime coat, etc.), and no defects. Make sure it has all its fins (I've seen culls at big chain stores that are missing one or both pelvic fins, for example). It should be fairly plump and healthy looking; avoid oscars that appear razor-thin or who look to have giant heads and eyes with disproportionately small bodies.

I think if you just want an active, happy wet pet and you're not concerned with genetics for breeding and whatnot, chain store oscars are probably just fine as long as they are healthy and eating.

 

[Southern Rebel]

thanks everyone who has replied and yeah I'll probably just get them at petco or petsmart..I'll check for what you said thanks