Oscars?

[matt28781]

at the end of the day we will always disagree but you are right i just know alot of oscar breeders that havent been out and spent 1500 on a huge 6x2x2 just for the sake of keeping 2 oscars.

so its not really me being a arseole here its what iv seen even on the oscar website 100s of breeders use rio300 and 400.

sorry for being an arse.

 

[SamUK]

we dont think you an arese m8.


its jus people keep goldfish in bowls and claim they live for years yet in truth they mite survive but they wont grow properly or be totally healthy.


its the same with oscars.


yea you could put one in a tank as small as 55 gallons and yea it would probably survive but i doubt it would reach its full 16" and be as healthy as something with twice the space.



also looking at breeders isnt the best idea as for starters they kno what there doing and will have more than one tank so if anything goes wrong its easy to sort and breeders will have a formed pair not jus some random oscars put together so there much more likely to get along (atleast for a while.)

 

[Tolak]

There's a difference between surviving & thriving. A fish with the potential to grow to that size needs room to turn around comfortably. I've seen tanks for sale with an 18"x48" footprint that are somewhere around 13" deep and hold 50 gallons. This might be an option for an experienced breeder, but it isn't a starting point for someone's first oscar experience. A standard 55 would be the same, an option for a breeding pair owned by an experienced breeder, not for the newbie.

I do things with angels that I would not suggest for the person who keeps them for a pet. Breeding is a whole different ball game, and you need to be aware of problems that can occur by putting fish in an undersized tank, and have options available and on hand, as well as the knowledge to be able to act upon any perceived or actual problems. Someone new to oscars won't have the knowledge a breeder does, comparing an experienced breeder to a first time owner is apples & oranges.

 

[LisaLQ]

at the end of the day we will always disagree but you are right i just know alot of oscar breeders that havent been out and spent 1500 on a huge 6x2x2 just for the sake of keeping 2 oscars.

so its not really me being a arseole here its what iv seen even on the oscar website 100s of breeders use rio300 and 400.

sorry for being an arse.

I'm sorry if come across as an arse too.

To be fair though, you dont need to spend £1500 on a big tank. Our 6 x 2 x 2 only cost in the region of £100-150. And I'm skint, so so skint, and yet when I bought my oscar and found out he needed a big tank - I saved up and bought one - all in all spending over £600. I wouldn't do it again, I'm not daft enough to pay out for a new one when you can get really decent second hand ones lol - but even so, if I can do that - on benefits with 5 kids - it makes me very sad to hear when other people say they're not going to bother.

It's simple to me - if someone doesn't have a big enough tank - an oscar's not the right fish for them. If they've gone out and got an oscar - they should either provide it with the right sized tank, or return it. Not cram it in a small tank and say "It's only a fish" or "It'll do, the bloke at the LFS keeps 10 in his" or the like.

Do you get me? If I had a 3ft tank or something, and I wanted an oscar, and several people on a fish forum with experience told me my tank wasn't big enough - I either wouldn't bother getting an oscar, or I'd go out and find a way of getting a bigger tank. But instead you see people posting on here asking for advice, and then when it doesn't match what they want to hear - they just go out and do it anyway.

Must admit, it gets saddening and very tiring reading it over and over again - hence me sometimes being short with people now. There's so many sites that with a quick google search will all confirm - 55g is the absolute bare minimum for an oscar, with 75g being more suitable. All those sites saying that, and all those people with experience here saying that, and yet folks still come along after reading all that and say "Well my dad did....blah blah blah".