Mission: Save the Tiger Oscar!!!

[Gatito]

Hey guys, the cafe across the road from my work has a tank (that they inherited when they bought the cafe from the old owners). At a guess, it is no bigger than 70cm long, 45cm front to back and 70cm tall. It houses 5 fish - a pleco roughly 20cm, and 4 of what i'm 99% sure are Tiger Oscars (never kept them myself so maybe there's something that looks really similar, but i'm pretty sure). These 4 are up to about 25cm long, the tank water is green, and though the fish look healthy enough, they act lethargic and need to get outta there.

Not the worlds expert on Oscars, but even I know this tank is too small. I told them so a couple of times last week, and today they asked where they could get smaller fish, and enquired about selling the Oscars. Wahoo!! My comment has not gone unnoticed!!!

So i was wondering what someone would normally pay for one of these fish. Two are black/orange, the others are that creamy colour/orange. The cafe people asked where they could buy other fish, so I doubt that they will be able to find a good home for these guys (probably offload them to a family member with a slightly larger (but still too small) tank. And i doubt anyone here would want to buy them in questionable health.

So (getting to the point, promise), I was thinking that if i could borrow or obtain cheaply a big enough tank, and get hold of the fish, I could give them a good caring home until they were fighting fit, before finding them permanent home/s.

What would someone pay for a tiger of this size (privately, not retail), and also, what should I offer the cafe, considering that they want to get rid of them and the fish are probably not feeling so hot because of the conditions. It's not the cafe people's fault - they know nothing about fish aside from that you have to feed them and maybe change the water, and the tank came with the premises (though maybe they should have picked up a book :roll: ).

Help, advice, tank loans, any one that can help or offer an opinion on this bleeding heart cause of mine, please speak up. :roll: )

[HummingBird]

Hard to say what might be paid for them, it varies. They're often hard to sell when they get to this size. Good luck saving them though! Oscars are awesome fish.

[jayci]

I sold a red tiger oscar to te LFS for $15.00. It was around the 25cm mark. I brought it for $10.00.

[jayci]

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Bill.

[HaNs]

Get us some pics! A friend is after a oscar, just need to get his tanks sorted

[Gatito]

I sold a red tiger oscar to te LFS for $15.00. It was around the 25cm mark. I brought it for $10.00.

Thanks jayci. If anyone else knows what someone paid for one, it would be a great help, as I am going to offer to take them this week.

Had an idea housing-wise - while i'm babysitting, rather than try and locate a big tank, i have a few of those big storage containers - the white ones on wheels. Does anyone think i would have a problem housing them in those temporarily? Pretty simple to set them up with heater and filter.

[Gatito]

Get us some pics! A friend is after a oscar, just need to get his tanks sorted

Ok will take some pics with my phone today

[HummingBird]

Had an idea housing-wise - while i'm babysitting, rather than try and locate a big tank, i have a few of those big storage containers - the white ones on wheels. Does anyone think i would have a problem housing them in those temporarily? Pretty simple to set them up with heater and filter.

How big are the storage containers? If they're big enough they'd be perfect.

[new2discus]

I have an old and in questionable condition 4ft tank that you can have. Was going to put it on TM for $1 reserve. Just be aware that i dont know of its current water holding ability.... :roll: but your more than welcome to look, its in ellerslie

[Loopy]

Just an idea but how do you think the cafe might like the idea of instead of buying the fish, offer to fix/repair/nurse and maintain the tank for them? Perhapes you could come to an arrangement where you could do their water changes and stuff for unlimited coffees!

I would imagine that going to a cafe to chill out and relax with a coffee and stare at some fish for a while is an appeal to some of the cafes customers and perhapes the regular customers and the cafe might be a bit attached to their funky pets, I know oscars are so cool they can be hard not to fall in love with!

[jayci]

Sorry Bill, I was been silly.

[Gatito]

How big are the storage containers? If they're big enough they'd be perfect.

They’d hold about 300L each. Not ideal but have more than one, and easier than sourcing/moving a big tank.

I have an old and in questionable condition 4ft tank that you can have. Was going to put it on TM for $1 reserve. Just be aware that i dont know of its current water holding ability.... :roll: but your more than welcome to look, its in ellerslie

Thanks!! Am in Sandringham and not driving, so will ask my partner if he will take me out (not his fave past-time, running me around for fishy things, am just glad he hasn’t kicked the bucket about the oscars). I will give you a buzz if I can come have a look, but thanks regardless for the gesture!!

Just an idea but how do you think the cafe might like the idea of instead of buying the fish, offer to fix/repair/nurse and maintain the tank for them?

My first suggestion was that they get a bigger tank, and they’re not keen at all. They inherited the fish from the old owner, and the green water and sluggish activity doesn’t make them too nice to look at. They want them gone, and replaced with something smaller.

And if the customers are attached to the fish, and giving them a decent home and life will make the customers miss them, too bad. They can get over it by looking at the pretty, healthy replacements instead

I'm not forcing the cafe guys to get rid of the fish - if they want to continue as things are, i can't stop them. I mentioned twice that the tank was too small, and gave them the name of the fish so they could look into it themselves. Then they came to me asking how they could get rid of them and get something more suitable.

[sharn]

A 300L bin will fit two in comfortably.

Long term to house all 4 together your looking at over 450L-500L, the bigger the better. Remember oscars are super messy fish so if you decide to take them on for a while have some good filtration or do frequent w/c's

I do warn you though, they are easy to get attatched to so start eyeing up some space for a 6 footer now :lol:

[Gatito]

A 300L bin will fit two in comfortably.

Long term to house all 4 together your looking at over 450L-500L, the bigger the better. Remember oscars are super messy fish so if you decide to take them on for a while have some good filtration or do frequent w/c's

I do warn you though, they are easy to get attatched to so start eyeing up some space for a 6 footer now :lol:

Oh yeah - i took over some printouts of smaller fish for them to have a look at, and two of the oscars came up to say hello. They've got such charachter, but i think if i brought a tank that size home, my partner would decide i can live in it too

The owners don't have a clue, so i gave them some photos and info and told them to have a think about what they want to do. She wants me to source smaller fish, and do a trade rather than buy the oscars and her have to get new ones. They've asked if i can go over after work, remove the oscars and set the new fish up, so that they don't have an empty tank when they're open.

See how we go