markoshark Posted June 3, 2007 Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 So, I'm getting a new tank. And now I'm wondering what to do with my 3foot 3foot / 15" / 15" Would this be suitable for an oscar, and 2x firemouths, and 2 Jewels? (and possibly 2 convicts) The tank won't be planted, but i'll make hidey holes using pots (cheap enough...), and a lot of interesting driftwood. And some fake plants that the fish can destroy, if they feel like it. OR, would I be able to put, say 3 oscars in there, and the same deal with the planting etc. Oh yeah, and an albino plec And are Oscars REALLY the JDs they are made out to be? (I'm pretty sure that i know what the answer to this will be..) Doing large (and frequent) water changes won't be a problem. I have a handy hose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoshark Posted June 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2007 OOkay. I've been doing some more reading. New plan: 3 oscars + my silver sharks + common plec. When they start to outgrow my 3foot, they get upgraded to my 4foot tank. Any ideas on how long it will be before they start to outgrow that tank? Year? 18 months? *the 4foot is a 300 litre tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 A 3 foot isnt gonna be able to handle one lone oscar for very long. They grow around 1" a month until they get to around 10". Overcrowding just ends up with angry fish and missing scales Can you not use the 4 foot straight away and save the hassle of switching them up? Three oscars is *always* a bad number, two will buddy up and nail the third. You are best to stick with two (they will need a minimum of 300L-350L by themselves) or four (they will need at least 450L). Having said that you would only want to put one pair of oscars in your 4 foot and anything more will create extra work for you and possibly territorial issues, especially once those O's hit puberty (they can go a bit haywire sometimes during that stage :lol: ). Silver sharks also get big, around 12" i think and they are bullets. IMO a silver shark needs a larger tank than 300L. Common plecs arent too much of a big deal except with oscars already creating a heck of waste you may find its just too much poop. IMO they will need a tank at least 60cm wide to be happy long term as they can get fairly large. In your 4 foot i would say that an O, a Firemouth and possibly your common (he may need to be upgraded to a larger tank though) would be fine long term. Or you can have two lone oscars and possibly the plec. An adult oscar should have at least 200L worth of tank to himself so you are fairly limited as to the stocking. Oscars arent the nasty big lumps they are made out to be, mine is fairly laid back but that could partly be due to him having a largish tank (460L and shares it with a sev, 3 silver dollars, a common, a RT black shark and soon to be a synodontis), i have read of a few serial killers though so it really does depend on the individual fish. They are definatly worth the extra tank space, they are like dogs in tanks they way they carry on (drama queen anyone?) :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted June 4, 2007 Report Share Posted June 4, 2007 Yeah, a three foot is definitely too small for even one Oscar. I've got a single Oscar in a 490L tank with a tiger datnoid and a couple of full sized SAE's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoshark Posted June 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Well, i've got my Oscar, he will be living in my 3foot solo for about 6 months, until I get a larger tank for him lol Currently, in my 2foot isolation tank, and, i've got him handfeeding already (yay!). Still a little bit hidey, but comes out the front for a look whenever someone walks past the tank Also, I didnt buy the dominant Oscar in the tank because I was worried what it would do later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Its hard to judge a fishes adult personality by what its like as a juvenile, things often go crazy when they hit puberty. 3'x15x15 is way too small for even a single oscar, and you should probably be shopping for a bigger than sooner than in 6 months time. It's probably not a good idea to raise it by itself if you plan on trying to mix it with other fish at a larger size. I think one jewl and one firemouth might work in a 3' tank, but if one gets dominent over the other then be prepaired to seperate them. I had a 5" male convict in a 3'x18x18 tank, and he wouldn't share it with a similar sized firemouth. 3' isn't a big space for any CA cichlid to share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Yeah Oscars grow really, really quickly. The Oscar in my 490L tank is still a juvenile, I bought him two months ago and he's grown a heck of a lot in that time, he's 11cm now. I didn't measure him when I bought him but I got the smallest Oscar in the store's tank, and they were the normal size you buy Oscars at. Check out "my tanks" for pics of him, unfortunately there isn't much for scale in the pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayci Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Just keep a close eye on yr nitrites and nitrates. They can get up and over max VERY VERY quickly with a Oscar in a small tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoshark Posted June 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 i've got 3 internal filters running on that tank and currently doing 50% waterchanges every couple of days. Dammed messy fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 You think hes messy now! Wait until hes 12" and thinks blowing 75% of his food back out his gills is the greatest thing in the world :lol: Cherish the small amount of waste while you still can :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim r Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 The tank is too small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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