I have read that oscars live for around 15 to 20 yrs so this set me thinking. Who owns the oldest oscar on the site???? my oldest is 5 to 6 yrs old. its a white tiger 10" and can be seen left in the pic at the top. so how old is yours. size and type???? dose anyone own a captive oscar over 10yrs???

Remember that Oscars are normally around two months old when you buy them As babies. So taking this into account, my Oscars are around 21 months old at the moment, and they are laying eggs again in my 125 gallon tank.

I think as technology gets better, and we learn more about fish health, it will be easier to keep fish alive for longer periods. If you compare Sunfish books from 20 years ago the books now, some of the information is a little dubious back to then. I was reading about Oscars in one of my old books and it read that Oscars become sexually mature at 4 inches and one-year-old. Well we all know that Oscars should be much bigger than that at one year old. I don't think big tanks were readily available in those days so you would probably find that lots of stunted fish. Nowadays, there are companies that make tanks to any size you want so it's much easier to give your fish a safer environment for them. And of course all these new filtration systems are coming on the market as well.

well mine are still relatively young compared to yours. i ahve a pair of tigers that are about 10 - 12 inches and they are about 19 months old i figure

my oscars are relatively same old as yours granting that I got them (2 months provably) when they were just 1 inch long (head to tail), 17 months now. Just imagine that the tail alone is wider than the middle cross sectional cut of standard billiard ball.

I am trying to figure out how old mine are...can anyone tell from this picture? I had a tank and fish given to me and I am not sure how old they are.

Well nevermind...I cant get the picture to load but I have 2 that are about 9' long and one that is 7' long and 2 smaller ones about2-3.5' long

Use photobucket to add photos to the forum. Look on the front page, there is a tutorial that will show you how to use it.

The size of an Oscar will only give you a rough guess of how old it is. Various factors have to be taken into account, Has it been looked after properly? Ie, regular water changes and a suitable diet. Fish can often become stunted if the answer to these two questions are no.

If we assume that the fish has been looked after properly then an Oscar that is seven or 8 inches long could possibly be between eight months, and a couple of years old.Remember that not all Oscars grown uniformly. They also don't all get to the same size. However, I would expect a healthy Oscar to reach at least 9 inches. Oscars are fish that can reach well over a a foot long. This is why we advise people to house them in big tanks. There will always grow better if kept in a large environment

Thanks for responding:)

I think they were well taken care of by the previous owners but she didnt seem to know too much about them in terms of age or where she had gotten them.

Thanks so much for the helpful information. I am in love with these fish and want to learn everything I need to know to keep them healthy.

bekahj1 wrote:


That is what we are here for




Oscars are not difficult fish to look after. Regular water changes and a good diet will in theory keep them healthy for years. The hardiest part of caring for Oscars is being able to provide them with the tank size and filtration that they need. Well it's not really difficult, it's just something that not everybody is able to do.

my oscar tony is 8 years, and my other oscar (not named) is about seven months.

I still have no idea how old ours are. I'm hoping they arent old enough to lay eggs or anything. How big are yours? Is there an age to the size?

I have had various Oscars over the last few years and I would say that an Oscar will be around 8 inches by the time it reaches 12-month-old. Many people who buy Oscars when they are only a couple of inches long, sometimes smaller, don't include the time it took to reach their sides, which can be 2-3 months.

Like I said before, if an Oscar has been looked after from the word go, it should grow properly which means an Oscar of one year should be around eight or 9 inches. They do say that Oscars become sexually mature by the time they are one year old. I dispute this, I would say it's more like 18 months old before they actually start laying eggs

Thanks....I think two of these are well over a yr old then..they are pretty big.