Oscar advice

[NinaPeas]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking at getting some oscars soon, and would like some general info.

1. What pH should the water be at?
2. What's a good staple food to feed them, and are there ant 'treats' you can feed them?

Please post any pictures you have, or any stories you have!

thanks,

Nina.

 

[mrmikk]

HI Nina,

I have a red & black oscar, not sure on exact Ph but they are pretty tolerant of not so ideal temps & Phs.

They are a great fish to keep, full of life and personality but require a lot more upkeep than your average goldfish. I feed mine on oscar pellets, but treat him with earthworms and fresh water crays evey now and then - be warned these make a huge mess in your tak. Your oscar will chew them up, suck down the good bits and then spectactularly expel the left overs. You will need a very good filter.

I have mine in a 3' tank, yes a bit small, and an external 1200L/hour filter, which just keeps up with things when I do a complete fortnightly clean out.

After saying that though, get an Oscar, they are truly great fish.

 

[Ned_fisch]

I used to have 4, beautiful fish. I believe the pH should be between 7.2 and 8.0. I fed them Cichlid food, theres baby, medium and large pellets, if i find a fly around the place i may chuck that it there, doesnt do any harm.

 

[Jen]

mine liked grasshoppers

 

[kakariki]

Oscars are a cool fish. I have 2, a black & red [ Fluffy pic 2 ]and an albino.[ Ollie pic 1 ] I feed the frozen cichlid blocks, bloodworms, feeder fish and flies. Be careful when cleaning their tank or putting hands in with them They DO bite! Fluffy [ our black & red ] got me last night when I was giving him a clean-out, made me jump more than anything. Kids had a giggle though :twisted: !

 

[Lewy]

Gday i have a huge Oscar he is beautiful the only problem that i c most people do is have them in 2 small of a tank just one Oscar need a minimum of 80gallons(300L) of water so if u wont 2 Oscars u need 160gallon and so on my Oscar is in a 85gallon tank and even that i feel is to small for the big fella pet stores will tell u other wise but they just wont to sell u the fish in my experience pet stores have no idea what they are talking about

I feed my Oscar frozen food all types and live yabbies crickets guppies grasshoppers flyes snails pretty much every thing u should never feed them stake as it can give them fatty liver disease

I even have a worm farm and he loves them

Lewy

 

[Spikie wanna cricket]

we used to give ours cricket, mealworm, feeder fish for treats. they look funni chasin them

 

[kandi]

i have recently bought oscars myself and from my experience ph of 6.0 to 7.6 and a freshwater master test kit wihich tests ph, high range ammonia, nitrate and nitrate also heavy duty flitration such as a fluval 304 . basicially u have to keep the water very very clean because big fish big faeces which = ammonia. 1 oscar to a 4ft tank. i have 2 oscars to 4ft tank but mine r only mid size yet. dirty water leads to hole in the head and other disaterous diseases. look on google under keeping oscar fish etc.