Hello everybody.

Found this site on one of my google searches looking for info on my white tiger oscar. I must say I believe I've found a gold mine here.

My name is Brad and i live in Southwest Missouri, USA

I am new to fishkeeping and admittedly jumped in the deep end before learning to tread water...

I've got a 55 gallon aquarium stocked with a beautiful "White" Tiger Oscar and an Orange Pike. (pictures soon, I promise. ) and after a scary bout w/ an ammonia spike, both seem happy and healthy.

From research done on here and around the internet, i think i caused a mini cycle when i added both fish at the same time.

I have no idea how old either fish is, but I've only had them since last Friday (1/23)

The oscar (currently yet-to-be-named) is about 4 to 5 inches long and "Kip" the pike is around 5 to 6 inches long. Any estimates as to ages are welcome.

Cant wait to get my feet wet and meet some fellow oscar lovers and get to know more about them. (the owners and the fish )

welcome to the site!

4 to 5 inches oscar ranges from the same month 4 to 5 months.
juvinile usually grows at a rate of 1 inch per month with
proper keeping: good water parameters; good tank size; and
good diet.

sorry.... it is difficult to get your feet wet in fish keeping.
it should be your hands.....

PAUL wrote:


That's what i've been doing wrong

thanks for the quick welcome.

He's already starting to recognize me and looks me right in the eye when I'm near the tank. Was kinda creepy at first, but kinda cool now.

Having a hard time convincing him to eat regular fish food... I think the pet store (Petland) may have only been feeding him feeders...

Is there any way to convince him to eat the "regular" fish food? Just keep trying?

And before you ask, i only leave it in there for no more than 10 minutes, and only a couple pellets at a time...

Welcome, I haven't been here long but it's been fun so far. I got my oscar about 7 or 8 weeks ago and he made his/her first kill just yesterday.

hello and welcome to the forum...

biggamehunter wrote:


Hello and TY.

I've just decided to name my oscar "Blick" it means "stare" in German (according to google) and it suits him perfectly.

Been reading a lot, i'm sure i'll have questions at some point, but untill then its read, read, read.

Oscars do grow at different rates so to estimate an exact age is difficult. However, I would say around four or five months. Is your other fish a pike cichlid? Unfortunately I don't know anything about these fish apart than they are South American.

It is extremely important to cycle a fish tank before adding your fish. Ammonia is very dangerous and will cause serious harm to fish even at small levels so if you have got ammonia present, I would get something like prime to neutralise it. In the meantime carry out regular water changes until your tank is cycled.

welcome to the site

OFL wrote:


Thanks for the input OFL...

The tank was already cycled before I put the fish in. I think i just temporarily overloaded the bio filter adding the two fish at the same time.

I've had ammo chips in my filter (fluval 305) since day one, and the ammonia that i had for a bit was chemically bound (have the proper test kit) So yeah, i got a little greedy with adding both at the same time, but they're both doing fine, showing no signs of stress and most importantly my Ammonia and Nitrites are at 0 again with Nitrates steadily climbing.

As far as the pike goes, i dont know much about them either, it was sold to me as an "Orange Pike Cichlid" and the guy at Petland said they would get along fine, and they are. They were in the same tank @ the store and i watched them swim around for 20 minutes w/o showing any aggression, so i was sold.

I've got a couple pics of my O, but the pike hides a lot and is still a little skittish around me, so pics of him are harder to get.

I'll start another thread shortly in the pics section for that.

Sorry for the Wall of Text, i get a little windy sometimes.