2 Oscars In 55 Gallon Tank?

[ScubaMolley]

Well this all started about 2 months ago. My sister was moving out of her house and told me If I wanted two aquariums, sitting in her garage, I could have them. I have not previously owned a aquarium until then. One of them was a 20 gal and the other was a 10. 2 weeks later I finally found my way over her house and picked them up The next day I woke up and hurried off to PetSmart to buy fish. I came home with 2 mollies, 2 platies, Bristlenose Pleco, and Albino Bristlenose. I set the tank up and threw the fish in (yes without cycling) It was a nice aquarium and I didn't have any casualties but it was not large enough. I got on Craigslist and found a 55 gallon aquarium with EVERYTHING but fish. I ended up buying it that night but I had to wait till the next day before I could set it up. The next morning I was up at 6 am (thats way early for me). By 7 oclock I had everything set up and was ready to put the fish in. I emptied the 10 gallons into the 55 gallon Aquarium and the fish did great until I went and purchased 3 silver dollars from Wal Mart. Four days after purchasing the Silver Dollars they ended up getting Ich and I started the Ich treatment. The first treatment went really well and had no problems but the second treatment was deadly. It killed my Mollies, Glass Cats and African Spotted Frog.When everything was said and done I had 4 guppies, 2 plecos, 1 blood parrot and 2 patties left. After contemplating what to do with my tank I decided I would start a Cichlid tank. So I had a spare 10 gallon tank so I put my 4 guppies, 2 platies and my 10 gallon tank for free on Craigslist. In about 2 hours I had a taker and they took my fish away. After the person came by to get the fish tank I made my way to the LFS. There I bought Convict Cichlid, Blood Parrot and a Tiger Oscar. Before placing these into the tank I had about 6 ghost shrimp in the tank that they wiped out pretty quickly after placing them into the tank. After noticing how much they enjoyed Ghost Shrimp I decided to goto the LFS and to buy some more. While at the LFS I noticed they had two (2) one (1) year old Oscars. After much contemplation I decided to come home with one of them. The contemplating was where I would put my Albino Pleco that is only about a 2 inches long. I decided that I would get a 10 gallon tank (gave to me by my neighbor) and put him in there with some feeders. The Convict and Blood parrot got extremely aggressive towards my Tiger Oscar so I decided to take them back to the LFS and return them for a store credit. While I was there I ended up talking to the original owner of the Oscars and he started telling me that those fish have NEVER been in different tanks. He said he bought them basically as guppies and he had them for a year before he recently traded them into the pet store for Alligator Gars. I must say that it kind of broke my heart that I separated the fish and tomorrow I will be trading my small Tiger Oscar for the brother fish I got today.
 
So this is my 55 gallon tank now. 2 One year old Oscars and 1 small Regular Pleco and One Albino Pleco. As of right now the Albino Pleco will stay in the tank with Feeders UNTIL it's large enough that I think it will not be eaten by the Oscars.
 
Is this a good set up? I know Oscars are messy eater so will a Marineland 350 and 160 (I'm running 2 HOB filters) be enough to filter the tank?
 
I know this is long so Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

[sawickib]

Well oscars should be kept in a 75 gallon tank minimum. And if your reg pleco is a common pleco then it needs to be rehomed to as it grows to be 2ft. is the albino pleco a bushy nose pleco? And housing 2 oscars together usually requires a minimum of 150 gallons. They need large tanks due to how much ammonia they produce and how bug they get and very good filtration so i suggest rehoming them. 
 
Sorry if im coming off as rude just what should be done for the best life of your fish. 

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

That is a recipe for disaster.
 
Oscars need a 75g minimum, and 150g for two. They will soon eat the BN as they triple in size

 

[Ryan10]

Oscars can be 12-16 in and weigh over 3lbs.  They can grow about an inch a month when they are small.  Plus they will tear a tank apart.  They will dig up your plants and usually pile all of your gravel up on one side of your tank.  It's one of those types of fish you have to really like and dedicate a whole tank only to it.  If you are just starting out I would start out with a peaceful or semi aggressive community tank.  You are going to learn a lot of new things you will like to try, like aquascaping with live plants.  If you have an Oscar, you just have an Oscar.  I would save the owning the Oscar until you start your second/bigger new tank ( it happens to all of us and before you know it, you will have three tanks

 . 

 

[AeonMapa]

If you must, keep only one Oscar there, no tankmates. That is already a little overstocked for the 55 gallon. I appreciate that you feel bad for the Oscars but trust me they'll be fine separated and might even be better off. Don't worry, soon that little Oscar will find a new best buddy in you!

 

[ScubaMolley]

Well here it was I did and what I am going to do. I did obtain the other Oscar. Right now one Oscar is about 5 inches long while the other is about 4" BUT in the next few months I will be upgrading to a 120 gallon tank. That's 9 inches of Fish in a 48" tank. They have 3 1/2 foot of running room and 6-7" of turn around room. This is NOT going to be their permanent tank. I went and bought another Penguin 350 which will run with another Penguin 350. So I have two pumps that are rated for a 70 gallon (each) tank so hopefully that will keep my Ammonia levels down. I will change my filter PRN but that will depend on how my water levels are.

 

[AeonMapa]

Sounds good! In a 120 with those Oscars you could probably put in a few silver dollars or a pleco too

 

[ScubaMolley]

My Wife and I were just talking about putting some Sliver Dollars in the tank. I would eventually like to get a full size pleco.