Oscars

[Fullmoon]

I have two Tiger Osars in a 55 tank ..... The tank went green with algae and got very cloudy
I did a water change 30% and now they wont eat ......I have tried flake ,shrimp pellets,floating stick and
some algae shrimp pellet combination Its been 5 days now

 

[josh_g]

Im gunna say it before someone else does. Your gunna need a bigger tank. As for eating im not to sure. Has the tank cleared up?

 

[dbanner]

A 55 is only just big enough for 1 and that's at a push. They should have a minimum of 75 gal per Oscar. For 2 oscars in a small tank like a 55 you should be doing 40-50% water changes once a week.

What filtration do you have?

Oscars are messy fish and so they need lots of filtration. Around 10x your tank volume would be what your aiming for. So around 2000lph (500gph)

How long have you had the oscars? What are your water stats? (Ammonia nitrites and nitrates)? What is your tank temp?

Also you can cut down the risk of algae by reducing how long the lights are on each day and making sure the tank is out of direct sunlight. My lights are set on a timer to come on for 5 hours a day. If you have no real plants in the tank then you could reduce the time your tank lights are on to around 2-3 hours a day

 

[Fullmoon]

Would a 120 be big enough for them? They are only about 2 ins right now.
The tank has all cleared up but they still are not eat.
Do I need to get some feeder fish so they can have live food?
I have only had them for three weeks ....All the tests are within the limits I
am told . I had them done at the store that i bought them at ....
As far as filtration I just have a Topfin 60 right now ..,but open to any
suggestions .

 

[dbanner]

Would a 120 be big enough for them? They are only about 2 ins right now.
The tank has all cleared up but they still are not eat.
Do I need to get some feeder fish so they can have live food?

A 120 would be better but not as big as they should have. A 150 would be better. I have a single flowerhorn in a 120 and he will soon fill it up. No need to feed live food like feeder fish. It may be that they are still settling in. It may also be that you have ammonia or/nitrites in the tank so really we would need answers to the questions in my above post^^^. We can then assist you further

 

[Fullmoon]

The nitrite is 0 ppm
nitrate is 0 ppm
Ammonia is 0.25 ppm




They were eating before I did the water change.
What ever it takes ,a bigger tank,better filters
I will do what ever it takes

 

[star4]

Was your tank cycled to start with? that size tank for 2 baby oscars is fine for the time being, bearing in mind they do grow fast, upto 1" per month and around 6" you should be looking at a bigger tank for the two. At 2" I suspect you have not had them long. Oscars can be really fussy eaters, not normally babies they will eat anything, but they are clever devils and will start only eating what they like (been there got the t-shirt). I would suggest monitor your water stats and do wc accordingly and feed the oscars same time each day, what they dont eat net out. They will soon learn if they dont eat it they loose out (trust me oscars are always hungry) Some oscars will sulk after a wc, sometimes for a couple of hours sometimes days. One of mine when it was small used to not eat for 2 days after a wc, now he attacks me while I do a wc.

 

[dbanner]

What star4 said is spot on as usual they are very clever in the sense they will only eat what they like.. And the point that oscars sulk. They are very well known for sulking and it's not only in cases where you've may of just did a water change. Mine used to sulk at random times. Wouldn't eat and would just sit at the bottom of the tank. Did it for 5 days at one point but this wasn't long after purchase so I think he/she was also at the stage of still settling in. It can take up to (and sometimes over) 2 weeks for a fish to settle in a new tank. After settling in it wasn't uncommon for my oscars to randomly sulk for a couple of days at a time.

Keep up the weekly water changes and take star4's advice and I can't see you having any problems that can't be solved

 

[Fullmoon]

Thanks for the advice everyone ....Time to start looking for a bigger tank

 

[Skal]

I would disagree with some of those replies. I have many friends who have kept three oscars permanently in a fifty five and they were just fine. As far as food sometimes they just take a while to want to eat. However that may not be your case.

 

[talisker]

no way would 3 oscars in a 55 gallon be ok, they are big messy fish, if you get one fully grown oscar in that size tank it looks cramped.

 

[dbanner]

Indeed... The above post by "talisker" is correct. A fully grown Oscar will be a very chunky 14 inches or so. So it would be very cramped in a tank as small as 55 gallons. As stated above a single Oscar is said to be ok in a 55 gallon as a minimum but its only when you see a full size Oscar at its full size that you realise 55 simply isn't big enough... It may fit (just) but it isn't suitable at all. A 75 gal for a single Oscar is much better.

I had my single tiger Oscar in my 120 gal. I only had him up til he/she was 7-8 inches so it had a lot of room to swim around. Their size is not the only reason they need large tanks, it's also because they produce so much waste. The more water you have (bigger the tank), the more stable the water conditions.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

3 in a tank WOW! Well, its a shame about your friends. It's a good thing that I am not one to jump off cliffs because my freidns do it. All that aside, Star4 is dead on. She is a Cichlid master and everything she said is spot on.

 

[Skal]

These people are kind crazy about fish. I would recommend you get advice on here. But get some more advice else where because these people like I said are like fish maniacs. You don't need to buy a freakin 200 gallon for two oscars. Truelly the choice is yours you should know if they need a new tank or not just by looking at them. If you think they are happy and you don't want to spend like $800 bucks on a new tank that's your decision. You just have to remember man it comes down to your decision and that's all that matters.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Sure and its acceptable to raise a cat in a box. It's not about being fish maniacs, its about what is right when it comes your pets. They may be just fish to you Skal, but they are pets whether you like it or not. If you are happy with your stunted fish, then fine, but don't push that fate on those who don't know better.