HummingBird Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 Ok, so I've just acquired a new 1200x900x500mm tank. That's four feet by three feet by almost two feet. I'd planned on keeping a trio or perhaps five oscars in it (how many would be appropriate?) but just thought I'd see if you guys had any interesting alternatives - I'd like something reasonably intelligent and interactive which is why I was thinking oscars - also their appetite for guppies makes for good entertainment. What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayci Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 I had a oscar in a 50ltr tank. Both nitrites and nitrates were off the scale in 3 days. I suggest only two oscars and lots and lots of filtration. Maybe two cf1200's or evailant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayci Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 oscars was 20cm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 Well an oscar in a 50 liter tank will do that in any case(in fact that's bordering on cruelty, could he even turn around?), and the nitrites would indicate the tank wasn't fully cycled. I've kept two oscars in an almost 400 litre tank with an eheim pro 2128 before and that was fine, but I've read that you should keep them in odd numbers to prevent ganging up. For filtration for this tank I'd planned on just one cd1200, the tank is about 540 litres and the filter does 1550 lph so I would've thought that was sufficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smcoleman Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 wot u want is a nice pair of jags mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 You could start off with 5 smaller oscars... grow them up to they pair up. Hopefully they don't knock each other off. I agree, wtf is a 20cm Oscar doing in a 50 litre tank? :evil: Whats that a 2x1x1? Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 I had a pair of oscars, one jag and a breeding pair of blue acaras in a 4'x2'x2' not so long ago. I ran a fluval 404 (from memory 1200L/Hr) without any problems in the tank - apart from the jag eating the blue acara fry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayci Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 it was only for three days. Had no where else to put him in the interim. Was doing 50% water changes daily, and still nitrates were 110ppm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 Of course it would be. Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted April 1, 2007 Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 general rule for O's is roughly 55gal/200L for first then 25+ gals/100L for each extra fish (can ya tell i use american sites too much? :lol: ). as you mentioned never have odd numbers if you can help it, 99% of the time it just ends up causing hassles because one will get bullied as the others buddy up. try to aim for at least 5x turnover per hr when using a canister, im about to setup a 2200lph aquis on my 460L and i might keep my 304 running on it. oscars are very messy fish and need good filtration to match up with their output. IMO four oscars would be fine in that size tank and you could perhaps add some dithers like silver dollars or something. Severums make nice big, generally placid fish but IME my boy isnt as interactive as my O, close though. There are several large species of cichlids that are very impressive but from what IME most dont match the personality of the good old oscar. Jags are another possibility but to save heartache dont add tankmates unless your prepared to lose them unexpectedly one day- countless stories out there of them snapping and killing everything in the tank good luck with choosing your new fishies, if you go with oscars you wont be dissapointed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2007 Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'll go with just three oscars, given my filtration capacity and the mentioned potential problems with bullying if I had four (and five doesn't seem like a viable option). I'm also planning to put a Eheim 2010 internal filter in the tank to initially seed the tank and also increase circulation long term (basically just acting as a powerhead) - supposedly it can put out up to 500 lph so that'll help filtration wise too. I hadn't considered Silver Dollars as a potential tankmate, but now that it's mentioned I'm definitely interested. I've never seen them in real life, only pictures on the net, so I'll have to have a look round a few pet stores and see what they're like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Spent most of today building the stand for the tank, the stand is about 1.15m tall so the tank'll be roughly at eye level. When the tank's on there there'll be a piece of wood on top as well to distribute the weight. Eventually I'll put some paneling on the sides too so it'll look nicer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becc4 Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 I think you'd be better off going for 4 instead of 3. I had 3 and one of them was forever getting ppicked on until I got another one to even things up. If you have the space it would be worth it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 Yeah after talking to some people on Oscarfish.com they recommend only two in this size of tank, so I'll just be getting two and a Datnoid Tiger. Anyways, I got the tank this morning and it's been mostly filled up. Going out now to try and find some appropriately sized driftwood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becc4 Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I found severums really good with oscars. The tiger datnoid looks really cool, but I wonder whether it will go ok with oscars. Having fish with not much pattern make the oscars more of a show. I also had tinfoil barbs with oscars (different tank to sev's), they grew bloody big though and needed a few of them to keep them happy. You're tank will look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 I wouldnt follow Ofishs advice too closely, and the info they have given you is a good example of why :-? You can most certanly keep more than two oscars in that size tank! Sure, two would be in heaven with a 540L to themselves but as a fairly experienced oscar keeper i can safely say that you can keep a fair amount more in a tank that size. Odd numbers = bad in an oscar tank so either go two with more tankmates of different species(even then when they hit puberty its anyones game as to if they get along) or four with no tankmates (maybe a plec or something though). With two that gives you a good range of other possible tank mates. I agree with Bec, Sevs go wonderfully with O's (mine live very happily together). I also have silver dollars, a RT shark and a common plec in my 460L with my O. Tinfoil barbs get big (12" or so) and prefer to be in schools, they need lots of room and may take the focus off your O's although you could fit them in. Silver dollars are a great fish to go with them as they get large, are fast and arent super flashy. Jack dempsies are a nice flashy fish but they like a cave to call their own. Alot of the plecs that get large enough to not be eaten are a good choice too. Synos can be a neat addition, along with talking cats. Oscars really arent as bad as everyone makes out on a whole, you can keep quite a good amount of species with them if you have a tolerant fish and go about mixing them wisely. Of course every now and again youll get a fish that wants to be on its own regardless of tank size... I havent had much experience with dats (if theyre the borneo tigers i think they might be a bit nasty?) so will leave that to someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted April 8, 2007 Report Share Posted April 8, 2007 With keeping Oscars in the past I reckon their "naughty period" as you can put it, is in their juvenile stage, they seem to mellow out with age and maturity I have found. I think the more room you can have for an Oscar the better. I would definately stick with an even number of Oscars, what sharn said is definately right. If you are going to go for a Dat tho, I would stick with the 2 Oscars as the Dats can get very large.. however might need to think on, if the Oscars end up being a "pair" and look at spawning eventually down the track, you might end up with a cracked Dats... We had two large Dats in with our Oscars in a big tank and they got on fine, however this tank is 1500 litres plus.. There were no problems from the Dats tho in regards to aggression. They are just as much foodaholics as Oscars tho, so feeding time at the zoo is interesting :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2007 The tank's up and running now, fully cycled and stocked with two tiger dats - I couldn't resist buying both of them. They were $60 each, and they're probably just a bit more than 7ish centimeters. They refuse to come out of their caves so I can get a good picture of them though - oh well, I'm sure once they're comfortable in their new home they will. Once the dats get bigger I'll be getting the Oscars (give the dats some time to get a head start on the oscars, because I think O's grow much faster) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2007 Screw waiting for them to come out of their homes, I just used a flash to get a pic of one of them. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 cool tank Hummingbird, are you going to secure the heaters more out of sight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 13, 2007 Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 Cute little nubbers. The tank looks wicked but 90cm is a lot of space from front to back and you'll need to aquascape with a plan to make sure it doesn't end up looking two dimensional. Here's a quick layout. - are tall items (plants/wood), l is medium/tall rocks & plants, y is medium/short height and x would be your centrepiece. I'd recommend a well rooted sword but make sure it won't grow larger than 30cm or you'll loose too much view of the back. back -------------------------lllllll - are tall items (plants/wood) -------------......lllllllllllllllllll l is medium/tall height -------...............lllllllllllllllll y is short/medium height ---yyyyyy..........yyllllllllllll x centrepiece ---yyy.......xx..........yylllll . gravel --............xxxx..........yyll .................................yy front I'm not sure how destructive oscars can be, but I assume that some crypts or grasses like val would be okay? The java fern looks nice, will look wicked the way things are when it grows out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2007 Thanks melovefishy - yeah those heaters are just temporary till I get some higher wattage ones that'll be placed a little more strategically. B&K- With Oscars, basically nothing is safe. I've kept them with Val and crypts before and they tore them up as soon as I planted them. But yeah, the java fern does look good, thanks again for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 Well I got two Oscars yesterday, and already one of the Dats is getting a lot bolder and coming out of his cave a lot, and the Oscars seem to get along with him and each other. I think the other dat is getting bullied by the bolder dat though, so I'm probably going to have to get rid of him (on that note, anyone looking to get a 3 inch Datnoid Tiger? PM me). The albino isn't quite as pure-white as the photo makes him out to be, it's just the flash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 I added some backing paper today and put a 2ft tank in the bottom of the stand to house feeder fish for the guys. The tiger's won't even deign to look at anything that isn't alive. Eventually I'll be putting some wood paneling on the outside of the stand so it looks better. A close up of death row (currently inhabited by 45 WCMM's)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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