Oscar problem

Hi I Just bought tank a few weeks a go and put my Oscar in It.
He/She has a 2m *45cm*45cm tank to himself and want to put another Oscar with he/she.
He/She is very aggressive and I would not mind he/she breeding.
He is very lonely. :s:

 

Hey Oscar

That tank is easily large enough to house two oscars, maybe more if you are sure to have no breeding pairs.

Sexing oscars can be rather difficult. The only definite way to determine males and females is to observe them during spawning. The female will be the one laying the eggs

However, if you do want a breeding pair, you can do one of two things. You can buy a group of young individuals. From there, you'll grow them up, and from there you can easily see pairs. Seperate your desired pair from the group.
Otherwise you can ask around for an adult female - the person selling it will know from previous spawns that it is definitely a female.

Cheers

 

Rule of thumb for keeping Oscars is 75 gallons (around 283 liters per fish) so if you want to keep two in a tank 566 liters should be enough without you running into water quality issues. Sexing Oscars are pretty hard I have had mine for well over 6 months now and I still dont know what sex he/she is. Also keep in mind they get big I mean really big +- 30cm's and over 2KG, so if you want a breeding pair make sure you have a big enough tank because they get pretty rough and aggressive during breeding time that also means no tank mates they will get killed.

Also you might run into a slight problem if you put another Oscar in your tank now because the fish is territorial so it view the entire tank as its territory, now and will give any other Oscar a hard time you put in there irrespective of what sex it is, most Oscars live on their own till they find a mate which they mate for live then. Might I suggest getting a fish but putting in some sort of divider so they can get used to each others presence, that way the new fish can acclimatize to the new tank and the old fish can get used to this new presence. Also make sure they are about the same size that way they wot bully each other for food.

Lastly there is a excellent online resource called: http://www.oscarfishlover.com/ they have excellent reading material and advice for people like us who keep Oscar fish and since they solely deal with only Oscars there advice is suited to your needs.

I will also not worry about him being lonely they are loner fish by nature so him being in a tank on his own is not a big issue if you want to keep other types of fish with him you can go for:

Source: http://www.aquariumlife.net/articles/new-world-cichlid/43.asp

Enjoy!

 

So you think I should get a bigger tank if I want two Oscars and my oscar is about 18cm long so would a 1400lth external filter be ok

 

rearrange tank decor.

Hi there,
I have found that when introducing an Oscar into a tank that has an Oscar or Oscars, I firstly remove the Oscar/s from the tank, rearrange all the decorations and rocks etc. then reintroduce the Oscar/s with the new one/s back into the tank. Lights off and aquarium salt helps too.
I attached a picture of one my albino Oscars.

 

Well what is the capacity of your tank (in liters) I have seen people keeping two Oscars in a 400 liters tank (not recommended though) but that is about the minimum you can go for two fish firstly due to space and secondly due to them being very messy as you might have noticed so you are going to need to do weekly water changes to keep the water quality high because if it gets too low it will make them more susceptible to hole in the head disease.

Rule of thumb is if your filter can cycle your tank 5 times in a single hour then you should be fine. What I did is get a canister filter that does 1200 liters an hour and I supplemented it with an internal filter that does 700 liters an hour so my tank gets cycled about 7-8 times in a single hour keeping the water nice and clean. You can check out my Oscar setup and how I improved it as i was learning here: http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=4255

Not the same size as your tank but it might give you some general ideas on how to make a better home for your Oscar fish you can also check out my picture album here:http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/album.php?albumid=176 If you need any more questions sent me a e-mail or a private message and I will gladly help you as I am limited by the amount of posts I can make on the forum per day.

Cheers
Charl.

 

quick question,if the oscar is being kept alone who is he being aggressive to?

 

If an Oscar is showing aggression in isolation, it may be linked to boredom. Oscars are intellegent fish that need an interesting environment to interact with if they are being kept by themselves. Usually having some fake plants to move around, as well as rocks and woodwork to move around will help keep the Oscar happy. Some people float a ping-pong ball on the surface of the tank, which some Oscars will play with

 

Oscars are intellegent fish

totally agree with you salmon,its not in their best interest to be alone.

 

Oscar fish are loners by nature they dont need constant company of other fish with the exception when they mate they do it for life. Other than that they stake claim to a piece of river and defend it till they die or till they find a mate. So having company for your Oscar is not a necessity. Also when a Oscar gets bored it gets naughty not agressive just my observation by watching my fish go about its daily life.

 

iv never really been privy to oscar behaviour in the wild so whether or not they stake a piece of river and defend it i do not know.in all the years i'v been keeping oscars(in excess of 10) i have yet to keep one that is territorial i dunno maybe its cause i always keep more than one.

 

Not my images, borrowed

I've never heard of oscars being loners. The only thing I have ever heard of (and come across when keeping oscars) is that they can be aggressive when they're crammed into a tank that is too small, or if several males/established pairs are mixed. My oscars loved each other's company.

Neither is feeding your fish every day, or doing water changes every week. It just makes the quality of life of the fish a little bit better. Which is what I would believe for the oscar. If you have space, give it company; if not, give it something else to interact with (ie: an interesting environment).

 

Larch, you clearly stated your point and opinion based on your research.
SA, you stated your point and opinion based on your research.
Singularity, there is no need for you to climb onto this bandwagon as well.

It is the fact that people feel they need to argue their point to death, or to try and prove themselves right that has caused so many uproars in the past. If you all Google the same flipping topic, each and every one of us will come up with a different opinion, even if we all google the same thing point.

You guys should have agreed to disagree a long time ago.

Thread will be closed if this persists. Which is sad because Oscar has a very valid question and need here.

And on another topic... certain members are abusing the "I approve, I disapprove" function. Just because a person does not agree with your OPINION, that does not mean you can go and remove rep points by "I disapprove." Any future abuse of this will result in you loosing this priveledge. (You know who you are).

Anyone challenging this in the open forum will only be allowed back on TASA in 31 days time!