Oscar Tank Setup

Oscars must be kept in large aquariums

The Oscar Fish require special attention when it comes to choosing an aquarium and filtration system. Oscars can easily exceed 12 inches from the tip of the nose to the end of their tail. They can also be seven or 8 inches in depth, they are fairly large cichlids so you just can't put them in any old tank and expect them to live a long and healthy life. The Oscar Fish loves food, they eat a lot of food and therefore create quite a lot of waste. A large aquarium is vital so that this waste does not pollute the water too quickly. With all the will in the world, tank maintenance will be a regular and ongoing procedure for the entirety of the Oscars life. If you house your Oscar in an unsuitably small aquarium then you are going to have an uphill battle keeping the water in good condition. Poor water conditions are very bad for Oscars and nearly always leads to illness and disease, and even death.

Filtration is absolutely paramount, it is the lifeline of your aquarium, whether you are keeping Oscars or not. Without a filtration system, all you have is a tank full of water. Fish would not survive for more than a few days without a filter. Your filter will remove the dangerous toxins such as ammonia and nitrite, but will also help to remove solid waste such as fish feces and uneaten food. Having a large aquarium is only the half of it. You must install plenty of filtration on your Oscar Fish aquarium.

The Oscar Fish really does require some thought when you are setting up an aquarium. Continued exposure to poor water conditions will more than likely lead to disease and illness, or even fatalities in your fish.

A Suitable Aquarium for Your Oscar

An Oscar Fish can often reach 12 inches in captivity, sometimes they have been known to far exceed this. A very large Oscar could easily exceed 2 pounds in weight.

Fish do not do well if they are kept in poor conditions. If you are planning to keep Oscars then you really must provide them with an aquarium that is set up specifically to cater for their requirements. We always recommend going for the absolute largest tank you can afford, or house into your property. Many people seem to agree that 55 gallons is about the minimum size aquarium if you want to keep one adult Oscar. I would actually recommend no less than 75 gallons for one adult Oscar. The extra room will really benefit your fish and will significantly reduce the amount of maintenance needed if accompanied with a good filtration system. Once you start thinking about more than one Oscar then you are looking at tanks in excess of 100 gallons. People choose from attempt to keep Oscars in very small aquariums nearly always run into water quality problems so a large aquarium is absolutely imperative for more than one Oscar Fish.

How Many Oscars?

Again, it all depends on how big your aquarium is. Basically, if you've got less than 100 gallons I wouldn't recommend any more than one Oscar. A 125 gallon tank is more than capable of housing two adult Oscars. Given the chance, Oscars will happily breed in captivity. When animals breed they often become aggressive towards any other animal that encroaches into their space. So if you intend on keeping more than two Oscars this is something you may want to consider. It is perfectly acceptable to keep more than two Oscars in a tank together, just make sure you give them plenty of space, this will greatly reduce the chance of aggression if two Oscars do you happen to pair off. 

Levelling your Aquarium

Before you fill your aquarium with water, get yourself a spirit level and check that it is completely level with the floor. If it isn't, you may run the risk of broken seals or cracked panel. You can use foam board or thin pieces of wood to get the level right. You may also want to consider putting a very thin layer of padding between the tank and the stand. This wil help prevent the tank cracking if there is any debris left on top of the cabinet. A piece of polystyre cut to the surface area of your tank and around a quarter of an inch thick is often a very good material to use. You can obtain these from builders merchants. If you choose not to put anything under the tank, you must brush the top of the stand thoroughly, you may have missed some debris, or there may be a slight flaw that could crack the bottom of the aquarium.

You also might want to consider filling your tank up in three stages, especially if it is a large one. This will allow the base and floor to settle. I better finish of this section by mentioning just how heavy a fish tank is when it is full of water. A 55 gallon tank will weigh in excess of 460lb (quarter of a ton). A 125 gallon tank will weigh in excess of half a ton (1000lb+) So taking this into account, be careful where you put your tank. It's always best to put these large tanks against a supporting wall. If in doubt, contact a reputable builder. The last thing you want is a tank crashing through your floor. If you have a nice solid concrete floor, then you have nothing to worry about. 

An Oscars Home Is Its Own

There is one thing every new Oscar owner should know. Oscars love moving things around inside the aquarium. You can bet your bottom dollar that if you arrange the tank in a way you like it, they will prefer it completely the opposite way, and boy will you know about it. Oscars are very powerful fish, they can move just about anything in a tank, even large rocks. Don't be surprised if you wake up to find a large pit dug out in the substrate, heaters detached from side of the tank, plants ripped to shreds and you thinking "I'm sure I didn't put that rock there" If you want a pretty tank that looks nice, don't bother getting Oscars. There really isn't any point in you putting things back to where you like them, I can promise you that you will give up before the Oscar does.

Filtration

Fish would not survive for more than a few days in a tank without any filtration. The Oscar fish is a particularly messy Cichlid that eats a lot of food, therefore it will create a sizable amount of waste and ammonia. Using the incorrect filters on an aquarium will result in poor water quality and a dirty tank. Using plenty of filtration when keeping Oscar fish will help keep your water clear and clean and free from toxins. Failure to use the correct filtration will almost certainly result in health problems with your fish.

Many people just don't understand just how important filtration is on a fish tank. They buy a tank set up, fill it with water and then just plonk the fish in. Then they wonder why the fish start dying off. It would be lovely and convenient if that's all you had to do. Unfortunately, there is little bit more to it than just filling the tank with water and putting the fish in it. You have to establish a biological filter before you can safely house your fish. This may sound complicated but honestly it isn't. To explain this in its simplest form is to look at your toilet. Why do we clean our toilets with disinfectant? To kill all the horrible bacteria that feed off all the horrible stuff that goes into a toilet. This is basically what goes on inside your filtration system, although we don't want to kill the bacteria, the bacteria are our best friend when it comes to keeping a healthy aquarium. In an established filtration system, you have a huge bacteria colony that live on your media, whether this be sponges or little ceramic balls. These bacteria feed off fish waste. So what happens is that the water gets sucked into your filtration system. It passes through the media inside your filters and the bacteria start processing fish waste. First of all they get to work on the ammonia, this is what the fish produces first. Once the ammonia has been processed, this is turned into nitrite. The bacteria then start gorging themselves on nitrite. Once the nitrite has been processed you end up with nitrate. The bacteria can't eat nitrate, this is why you have to do water changes, to reduce the amount of nitrate in the water.

We would normally recommend filtering the equivalent of twice your tank size in one hour if you are keeping Oscars. Basically that means if your tank contains 500 L of water, you want to be filtering at least 1000 L of water an hour. There are various ways of achieving this. You can either opt for a very large filter, or alternatively install two filters. I'm actually in favor of installing two filters. This is really for backup purposes, if one filter goes down, at least you got one still working on your tank, you can also clean them intimately.

You may well have heard of different kinds of filtration. Mechanical, biological and chemical, I will try and explain as briefly and simply as I can what these three types of media do, and how they affect your filtration system.

Changes in Oscars Aquarium

The Oscar could quite rightly be described as being quite an intelligent fish. However an Oscars brain is still very primitive so their intelligence shouldn't be compared to that of a dog, or even an octopus. Oscars are very inquisitive fish and will notice changes in their environment. For instance, they can sometimes show what people would class as an annoyance when things are moved around in their tank. I have observed my Oscars investigating a large crater that was formed by water coming from the hosepipe during a water change. It wasn't there before and they were obviously well aware of this. If your Oscars do show signs of stress or anger when things change, just give them time, they should settle down except and get used to changes.

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