Hi,

I've recently just got back into keeping Oscars (I used to have a lovely large tank with 2 red oscars and a nice big plec in my teens when I lived at home, but had to sell them when I moved out ).

I've had a Juwel 120 community tank for several years, but when it came to restocking after the death of a couple of Gouramis 2 months back, I couldn't help but fall for a very young 3" Tiger Oscar. Foolish, I know - given that the tank still contains a few flying foxes, a Kribb, a red-tailed shark and a humbug catfish, and a few harlequins - but I thought that it would take a little while for the new Oscar to get big enough to be a problem...

The Oscar (we called him "Homer", since all he ever does is eat!) seemed to have settled in OK - even if he gets a little boisterous at feeding time, and has definitely established himself as king-of-the-tank. However, in the last month he seems to have been more aggressive to the other fish - and then at the weekend we noticed that he was chasing and biting one of the harlequins; next morning we came down to find that he'd killed it and was half way through eating it too (with a little help from the kribb...!). Over the last 2 days, he's now worked his way through the other remaining 3 harlequins...!

I know in the wild that Oscars would eat smaller fish - but he's not even twice the size of the harlequins yet, so I thought we'd be OK for a year or so yet. So is this "normal" behaviour - or have we got a murderous fish?

Or maybe he's just insanely hungry? We're feeding him twice a day (3-4 Hinari pellets each time, plus a few freeze-dried shrimp or tubifex if he's still hungry) - but is this perhaps not enough?

I *know* that I'm going to need a bigger tank! (we've budgeted for this at Christmas, and are looking at either a Juwel 300 or Vision 400) - will this make Homer less aggressive, and less likely to eat his way through all his tank-mates?

We'd also thought to team him up with some Clown loaches and possibly a bristle-nose in the new tank - but will we have enough space...?

man i'm kinda new to this oscar keeping stuff too... but when i bought my first oscar back in august i put 6 rummy noses with him you know ... cuz they were already there to cycle the tank..... and i though well they are both the same size and it's gonna take a while befor he eats them .... but for my surprise next morning he already had one of them in his mouth .... but after that he gave a lil 3 to 4 weeks to start chasing the other ones..... well i guess they learn from their own mistakes.....


good luck:woohoo:


God Bless You!!

D1

post a picture of the little guy too.... keep me informed!!!

to start with welcome to the site.

now your tank a jewel 120 i beleive that is a 120 liter tank which works out to about 28 imp gallons which is way to small for an oscar. the problem you are encountering might have to do with the undersized tank you o is presently in. oscar though semi peaceful are still predatory in nature and could possibly kill smaller tankmates if they dont have places to hide in.

the first thing you should do is to get homer a bigger tank asap. oscar grow about 1 inch a month when small and a 30 gallon tank will only last one or two months at most. unfortunetly it can take up to 6 weeks to properly cycle a new tank so you see where the problems start arriving.

as for if you have enough space for tankmates after purcahsing the new tank keep in mind that a solitary oscar need a MINIMUM of 55 imp gallons and any additional tankmates will need extra gallonage. if you plan on having an oscar plus some clown loaches and a bristlenose you should look into something in the 90 gallon range. also you will have to look at filtration for at least twice the size of the tank you are purchasing. keep in mind that oscars grow very quickly and any tankmates should have plenty of spots to hide from your o until they become to big to be considered food.

good luck to you with your new oscar