Oscars

[Yanbbrox]

You could grow them out and then get a larger tank, I've got 2 in a over filtered 65 with a twice weekly water change. They are doing great but they are far from monsters yet. I have no plans to adding any other fish to this tank,


Hope it works out for you.

Almost forgot I don't have any carbon in the canister

 

[Yanbbrox]

This guy doesn't know what hes talking about^^ HITH occurs commonly in oscars due to bad water quality, not tank size. Filters will not keep your water clean though, you'll have to change their water as of often as you can to remove nitrates and ammonia which no filter can remove.

I know you already know but please research the fish before buying them. Clown loaches should be kept in groups of 5 or more, plecos will grow just as large and just as fast as oscars. Cories do not do good by themselves either, groups of 3+ are good for them but you don't have the room. Get the biggest tank you can find, where are you located? I'm in Michigan too.

Heres a tank that would hold them over for a while and you could use your filter on, you'd probably just need a new heater. (visi-therm stealths are the best for large cichlids because they are shatterproof and very reliable, petsmart sells them too so they're easy to find.) You can have them pricematch their online price for the heater too if you print the page off of their website and take it in there you can save yourself about $12 or so dollars.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&item=280266844307

otherwise start looking on craigslist, new tanks are a waste of money unless you can afford them.

Posted while I was posted. As above oscars are really messy in general, although my tank is over filtered the best way is change the water often which I do and so should you. It used to be a discus tank and I've never really got out of the habit of doing lots of changes, should avoid hith as much as possible, something I'm fortunate never to had in my fish.

I'm on the limit as to the size to maintain fully grown oscars in that tank and as with every other one if an upgrade is needed when the fish need it, it will be done

 

[Danger_Chicken]

If this does develop, how would I treat it?

Prevention is the best medicine. Buy a test kit and keep the nitrates below 20 and feed a good quailty food and a varied diet. On your tank you'll proabaly need to do at least 2 water changes a week. The bio media will remove amonia but the only thing that will remove nirates are plants and water changes. The carbon theroy is unproven but I still stay away from it just to play it safe. I've never had it but I've read it can take months to cure if it gets bad. I'm getting ready to rescue an Oscar this weekend that I suspect is going to have it bad considering the water is so dirty I can see him in the pic's.

 

[destro]

I just rescued my first Oscar today, my first "real" fish in my 4000 gallon indoor pond. Second Oscar will be coming tomorrow. I hope they get along, as the second one is about 2X the size of the first. I figure it should be OK as they will have plenty of room (pond is 15'8" X 15'8" X 28").

~K

 

[jaguartooth]

It's pretty common knowledge that HITH is caused by bad water quality. A lot of fish diseases are caused by that, but I've had an occurence of HITH with my oscar in a very clean healthy tank. This led me to do some research about it. I came across all sorts of reasons people threw out there... things like dirty water, vitamin deficiencies, hexamita, carbon filter, stray electrical current.

I just quarantined the oscar, fed it pellets soaked in metronidazole (5 days) and liquid vitamins (2weeks) and did water changes (50%) every 3 days. It recovered, and I haven't had a recurrence since.

3-4 oscars should be housed in at least 125gallons with very minimal tankmates. Depending on aggression, you may need to go bigger. At 125 gallons, you will need to do at least once a week 20-40% water changes.