About Raising Oscars

Manifest What you Want, Whenever you Want....

A lot of people see a flashy looking oscar and think it would make an awesome addition to their small tank. What people don’t understand is that these fish get very big and although their tank size is listed at ten gallons they will outgrow this in short order. It is most common to setup a single oscar to live in a 90 to 100 gallon tank. If you plan on having three Oscars (two Oscars are typically not a good idea) you will need closer to a 150 to 200 gallon tank.

As a tropical fish, they prefer water temperatures in the mid 70s, making water heaters a must. How many   you need will depend on the size of tank.

You may have to purchase two heaters to get the temperature correct. A nicer canister filter might also be required due to the size of tank. The hang on back filters will not do it for an oscar. They are both a messy eater and a very dirty fish. It is much better to over filter their tank then under filtering. Plan on getting a filter that is rated for a 150 gallon tank or higher and putting it into your 100 gallon tank. It is ideal to have a good biological filter going for your oscar.

Oscars typically prefer rock or drift wood decorations over plastic plants or even real plants. Oscars seem to like to rearrage plants if they are able to move them so either a bare tank or a tank filled with things they can’t move may work best. When possible go with a fine rock substrate over the larger washed river stone. This is because Oscars do enjoy being able to move their tank bottoms around as they wish.

If you are considering purchasing an oscar, it would be highly recommended to do some research on them as there are a few things that are a bit unique to this cichlid. A great book to consider is Aquarium Care of Oscars It is really important to know what you are doing with this fish because you want them to have a quality life, as they have been know to live for over ten years.