Water volume vs. length vs. width, too much conflicting info...

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By the way, I absolutely HATE silver dollars. I know everyone mentions them as tank mates. I have tried them twice and both times the got ich and they were/are the only type of fish that I have ever bought that got ich. I tried for 5 each time and they were skittish and annoying and cost me a lot of time and wasted effort, needless to say I wont ever be keeping SD's again.
 
when your oscar gets 12 to 14 inch he wont be able to swim width way that much even with a 24 inch wide tank but will appreciate the 6 ft length,
 
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Oscars use the whole tank, up, down, back and forth, side to side. I have my pair in a 180 tall, I have never had a Oscar not swim the full tank, regardless of tank size. That is one of the reasons I love em.
 
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I'd go for the length on the 125g....then you can debate what else to give him as tankmates. Really no need for caves and aquascaping w/ Oscars, what you really want is a bunch of well-established Java ferns. Now if you add some convicts or firemouths or something else that won't beat him up to much, then some caves will work nicely. Jack Dempseys tend to work well in Oscar tanks...just make sure any fish you add is a good 2x the diameter of the Oscar's mouth but still considerably smaller than him. Oscars are big hungry fish, but they are punks when it comes to scrappin' so they NEED size as an intimidation factor.

I had an Oscar and a Salvini killed by a damn Electric Blue Acara that was the same size!!! Who ever heard of that nonsense? Acaras are supposed to be mild-mannered lol
 
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Frank Castle said:
I'd go for the length on the 125g....then you can debate what else to give him as tankmates. Really no need for caves and aquascaping w/ Oscars, what you really want is a bunch of well-established Java ferns. Now if you add some convicts or firemouths or something else that won't beat him up to much, then some caves will work nicely. Jack Dempseys tend to work well in Oscar tanks...just make sure any fish you add is a good 2x the diameter of the Oscar's mouth but still considerably smaller than him. Oscars are big hungry fish, but they are punks when it comes to scrappin' so they NEED size as an intimidation factor.

I had an Oscar and a Salvini killed by a damn Electric Blue Acara that was the same size!!! Who ever heard of that nonsense? Acaras are supposed to be mild-mannered lol
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Since you mentioned JD's... I have a male 7" and female 4" in a seperate tank. They were rescues. Ive had them for about 4 months. I never see them. If they see me enter the room they will dart for cover and lose all color (they are beautifully dark and speckled on the rare occassion I see them before they see me). Ive tried to give them plenty of caves and decor in their tank but they just will not interact with me whatsoever. The plan was always to put them with my O, but I will be honest I don't like them at all. I have tried to sit in front of the tank, lights on, lights off, move slowly, etc. For whatever reason they will not accept my presence. And because of that and the fact that they aren't even breeding, I'm thinking that rehoming them will be the best option for them and for me..,
 
FlanBurberry said:
Since you mentioned JD's... I have a male 7" and female 4" in a seperate tank. They were rescues. Ive had them for about 4 months. I never see them. If they see me enter the room they will dart for cover and lose all color (they are beautifully dark and speckled on the rare occassion I see them before they see me). Ive tried to give them plenty of caves and decor in their tank but they just will not interact with me whatsoever. The plan was always to put them with my O, but I will be honest I don't like them at all. I have tried to sit in front of the tank, lights on, lights off, move slowly, etc. For whatever reason they will not accept my presence. And because of that and the fact that they aren't even breeding, I'm thinking that rehoming them will be the best option for them and for me..,
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Ya, that's how Jacks are....every Jack I ever owned loved it's caves more than any other cichlid I had. They will perk up, but you don't have enough entertainment for them. Try adding a couple female Convicts, a school of Tiger Barbs or Giant Danios or Rainbow fish (generally 5-6 constitutes a school), and mix some other semi-aggressive to aggressive community cichlids in there, and they will be much much more active. I have 3 male Jacks in with Jags, Cons, a Devil, a GT, FMs, a Pike, plus catfish and polypterus and more.
Eventually after doing all that, you will be able to merge that tank with your 125g once the residents have established themselves, then it's time to introduce them to the Oscar, which is the correct order since you want the Oscar to claim it's territory since it will be the weaker, less aggressive resident. In other words, you WANT the Oscar to be the Tank-Boss
 
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FlanBurberry said:
Since you mentioned JD's... I have a male 7" and female 4" in a seperate tank. They were rescues. Ive had them for about 4 months. I never see them. If they see me enter the room they will dart for cover and lose all color (they are beautifully dark and speckled on the rare occassion I see them before they see me). Ive tried to give them plenty of caves and decor in their tank but they just will not interact with me whatsoever. The plan was always to put them with my O, but I will be honest I don't like them at all. I have tried to sit in front of the tank, lights on, lights off, move slowly, etc. For whatever reason they will not accept my presence. And because of that and the fact that they aren't even breeding, I'm thinking that rehoming them will be the best option for them and for me..,
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That sucks i have a little 1.5 inch EBJD and she will either be looking for me as i enter the room or will see me from one of her caves and come out to see me. Then she will get bored of me and swim away lol. Are your cave entrances facing away from you or towards you? I have most of my caves entrances facing towards me when i am sitting. When i first got the ebjd she just stayed in the cave looking at me through the holes and eventually came out to see me.
 
Frank Castle said:
I'd go for the length on the 125g....then you can debate what else to give him as tankmates. Really no need for caves and aquascaping w/ Oscars, what you really want is a bunch of well-established Java ferns. Now if you add some convicts or firemouths or something else that won't beat him up to much, then some caves will work nicely. Jack Dempseys tend to work well in Oscar tanks...just make sure any fish you add is a good 2x the diameter of the Oscar's mouth but still considerably smaller than him. Oscars are big hungry fish, but they are punks when it comes to scrappin' so they NEED size as an intimidation factor.

I had an Oscar and a Salvini killed by a damn Electric Blue Acara that was the same size!!! Who ever heard of that nonsense? Acaras are supposed to be mild-mannered lol
Click to expand...

Hahaha samething happen to me though i was able to seperate them before anyone died. Had a yellow acara take over a 150 and completely beat the crap out of a pearsei who was much smaller at the time. Had to rehome the metae probably one of the nicest looking fish ive had smh. And before the metae went nuts i had an oscar that was a s.o.b

Funny now the pearsei is all grown up he turned into a bully too
 
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