Large Fish?

[lukestanislaus]

I read that oscars can be kept in 50gallin tanks gatorbait? I've also read that 48x18x18 is a good sized oscar tank for a single oscar

I'm not trying to dispute your claim but why do some people say this then you can 60g is too small

I can easily not get an oscar and I probably wont know that you say this about tank size, i would prefer my fish to be happy obviously. although surely an oscar would be fine in 65g for at least until a year or so? Like I said this isn't going to be a permanent arrangement

anyway thanks for your input people,. i dont think ill get a parrot cichlid because i really dont like them for some reason =/

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thing is I know I will probably have to give them away to the local fish shop after 2 years or so, do lfs take large fish like oscars or other fish of size?

can be very tricky, i've contemplated closing down my big tank and re-homing my Oscar, but I only will if I can find a good home for him, not just to go back to the lfs. most people who want an O want to get them small, very few people will want to buy an adult O, as such it'll probably end up sat cramped into a small tank at the lfs and die there.

personally i think it's quite bad practice to buy fish knowing you can't house them for they're lifetime. can i ask why you think you'd have to re-home them after 2 years?

you'll hear lots of recommended minimum sizes for oscars, but bear in mind they can reach up to 16" long so you're only giving it 2" turning room which really isn't enough. a good guideline for tank sizes for big fish is to take the fish's maximum size time 4, this should be the length of the tank, then the width and height should be 1.5 times the fish's length.

as such if your oscar happened to get to 16" he'd need a tank 64"x27"x27"

the smallest an O is gonna get (if cared for well and not stunted) is 12" giving a min tank size of 48"x18"x18"

but again it's not good practice to keep fish in the smallest tank possible so if you can get more room then do.

so in conclusion I'd say no to an Oscar for that tank, it's the absolute bare minimum and will require more maintenance and filtration and if your oscar happens to get above 12" you're gonna need to upgrade.

 

[The-Wolf]

firstly you may wish to check this thread out
for what fish are actually allowed in Australia
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=186537

then from that list you should be able to
find out if they are suitable for your sized tank,
if in doubt ask here and we'll try and help further.

 

[Gatorbait]

I read that oscars can be kept in 50gallin tanks gatorbait? I've also read that 48x18x18 is a good sized oscar tank for a single oscar

I'm not trying to dispute your claim but why do some people say this then you can 60g is too small

I can easily not get an oscar and I probably wont know that you say this about tank size, i would prefer my fish to be happy obviously. although surely an oscar would be fine in 65g for at least until a year or so? Like I said this isn't going to be a permanent arrangement

anyway thanks for your input people,. i dont think ill get a parrot cichlid because i really dont like them for some reason =/

Miss Wiggle covered it pretty good and better than I would have probably.

First let me say that I wouldn't think you're trying to dispute me by asking what I mean. As you seen above, I was under the wrong impression and was wrong about which fish to advise you on so I'm glad you asked.

This is just my own personal opinion. Like 99% of my posts it's just stating what I believe, not science or what the norm is etc.

I believe that if you're going to get a fish that you won't want to have a chance of taking back in a few years, then you shouldn't get an Oscar. Male Oscars can grow to 14" very easily and most do, some, like Miss Wiggle mentioned even get to 16". Females aren't quite so large, they will grow to 10"-12", usually. I don't know how to tell the difference between a male or female Oscar when young without venting so I didn't think an Oscar was a good choice incase it got too big for you.

18" wide tank is fine for a 10"-12" fish, imo. 16" is too big for a 18" wide tank and even if it's a 75g it would be too big for it. You could take the chance of getting an Oscar and hope it turns out to be a female and not grow as large, though.

The other fish I mentioned won't get as large and a Red DevilxMidas will not get more than 10" in most cases. Mine were always between 8"-10", at least.

it's totally up to you and you probably have your own opinions and may disagree with mine. That's perfectly fine as I'm not saying I'm right.

 

[lukestanislaus]

im 20yr old uni student so my current situation isnt really that stable (long term), its likely i may end up moving house in the next few years

anyway thanks for the responces guys, ill let the tank cycle before i do anything with it

ill let you know what i choose

 

[Miss Wiggle]

im 20yr old uni student so my current situation isnt really that stable (long term), its likely i may end up moving house in the next few years

i thought that might be the case

i can definately sympathise with you wanting fish now but not knowing where you're going to be can definately cause problems.

not knocking your choices but personally I waitied until I'd done my moving around at uni etc and got my first tank when i got my first house of my own. In retrospect I could probably have managed moving a couple of smallish tanks when I moved house, however I'm absolutley dreading moving house with the bigger tanks we have now. At least with buying our own houses we'll have the freedom to choose not to get a place that can't fit the tanks in, if your looking at shared/rented accomodation the choice isn't always going to be yours.

i would try and stick with fish that can be fairly easily re-homed if I was you, so nothing that's gonna get seriously big.

 

[LisaLQ]

Incidentally, 4ft x 18" x 18" is 75g.

But yep, that'd be the bare minimum for an oscar. Why not get some smaller more sociable fish, there are cichlids that are ok for communities - rainbow cichlids, keyholes, etc. Or even just small/medium sized cichlids (rainbows again, firemouths, sajicas, acaras or similar). You could even get away with one JD in there at a push, but certainly nothing bigger. In your tank, you could have 3 or 4 rainbow cichlids (herotilapia multispinosa), and some tetras or peaceful community shoalers (rainbowfish, peaceful barbs, cories, smaller loaches etc).

I'd avoid oscars and convicts, or anything huge not only because of tank size but as you say you might need to rehome in the future, and oscars and convicts are notoriously hard to home.

You can still find cheaper fish, too - my rainbows were very cheap because my sister bought them from someone (on here I think?) privately rather than from a shop (less than a fiver each, definitely), and in the shops they're only £9 each anyway - which is only a couple of quid more than an oscar.

Anyhoo - quick recap - your tank is 75g, it's technically big enough for one oscar and nothing else, but as mentionned already that's presuming it stays at 10-12", not a bigger male - so I'd personally go for something smaller.

 

[lukestanislaus]

are we talking american gallons or british gallons... i get confused

what is the standard?

 

[OohFeeshy]

US is more standard, often it doesn't matter overly which ones people are talking about though, it's only normally a few each way.

Having a look at the legal fish list, there's a fair few 'medium' fish on there. What about a pair of festivums? Buy half a dozen youngsters, wait to see if a pair forms and sell the rest. It would be a lot easier to rehome a breeding pair of something than an individual. Lisa had a good list of other similar fish.