Gday Forum Folk at OFL.

My Name is Steve by as there are so many people on the net using the name Steve even if there not I prefer the alias DadMac. I'm a Dad of three boys and live at Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia.

I have owned an Oscar (Roy: For the big 'O', get it?) for about 6 years and about 14 months ago had to give him up as we were moving. It was a 5 hour trip along a very rough road and we just did think it was fair on Roy to move him. He was 11" in size and getting pretty grumpy in his old age so I left him with one of my scouts who is taking very good care of him.

Now in our new home, settled and finished moving all around the country side I have decided to start the tank up again but this time get more than 1 and socialise them together. Hopefully I might find a breeding pair as I have a second tank just for the occasion should it present itself.

I have called all around the district and found a shop that I know from past experience takes very good care of its stock and is also run be a fellow Oscar fanatic. Sheridan is happy to stock me with 6 Oscars being a Tiger, Red, Albino, Albino Red, Albine Tiger and a Longfin. Needless I say I am very excited to not only score all six without to much chasing but discover this great site on the same day.

So, I guess I should say Hi to all my new friends. Hopefully I won't have to ask to many questions as it looks like there is a fairly comprehensive history to draw from here in the forum alone. I will be sure to post some pictures when I get my new babies in the next couple of days.

Happy New Year and warm regards,

DadMac (Lake Macquarie, Australia)

welcome to the site Steve aka DadMac

g,day BUTTY and welcome;)

Welcome to the site

How big is your tank?

Hi OFL.

Yeah I have two tanks at present and about to purchase a 6' or probably the materials for the 6'.

I have a 4' which is about 160 litres and a smaller 2' which is just over 100 litres. I'm only starting off with the 4' and have the 2' cycling at present in the garage.

The 6' will be fairly massive asif I buil it myself. I have a nice room that I'm going to put a projector in and the screen will come down from the roof to sit on the 6' tank. 'Very nice'.

Looking forward to Thursday as I pick up my first 6 fish. Yay!

DM

Hi dadmac and welcome

You have to wait till the Oscars are mature before they pair off. You have to keep a very close eye on the water conditions. When I did it with six Oscars in a 125 gallon tank, I ran into water quality problems when they were around seven or 8 inches, luckily I then had my 300 gallon tank setup. Six relatively large Oscars will produce a lots of waste. You're going to need to have some really good filtration. Personally, I would advise you to go for four Oscars, not six. There's still a better than average chance of having a male and female. Having already done exactly the same myself, I wouldn't attempt it again using that many Oscars.

welcome to the site steve

i agree with ofl on the number of oscars you should go with. i had 4 oscars in a 6 foot tank and when they reached about 8 inches in length the maintenance started getting a little heavy.