Hi there everyone!! im a new addition to this lovely community as well as in taking care of oscars..

PLS BARE WITH MY TONS OF QUESTIONS:unsure:

1.) i had my tiger oscar this last december. i have been noticing that my oscar keeps on lying on his side and seem no that active?? the only time he/she will be active is when it is feeding time or the lights are turned off.. any ideas wheter my O has a problem?

2.)Anybody knows what a dragon fin fish is?? can i mix it up with my oscar? the sales lady at the petshop told me it is a good tankmate for cichlids. need some verifications from experts:P

3.) in line with my 2nd question. may i have 2 oscar and 3 of that dragon fin fish in a 100+g tank?

Thank you guyz and more power to all of you..

Firstly welcome to OFL.

Question one. Oscars can and do lie on their sides for all sorts of reasons, but without knowing your water stats (Temperature,Ammonia,Nitrite and Nitrate), its difficult to give you any indication as to why yours is doing this.

Second question. Most people refer to the Arowana as the dragon fish, these can grow into huge 3ft monsters.

Third question. It is best to keep Arowana singularly mainly because of how big these fella's get. I would suggest for two Oscar's and one Arowana, your tank should be at least 8ft x 2ft x 2ft.

Here is a picture of an Arowana (Dragon Fish)


I hope this helps.

lascanoza7 wrote:

welcome to the site and to this addicting oscar fish keeping


perhaps your o is affected by to much light. or may be it suffering from swim bladder problem.


dragon fish is also known as arowana, a surface swimmer fish. although they thrive with the same water parameter of that oscar, arowna requires alot bigger tank. on grown up needs 125 gallons size tank. and tank set up may also differ. arowana, a surface fish do not mind everything down below the tank. they can be happy for a tank 1 foot deep but wide in area, say 6 ft x 6 ft.
my answer is no. 2 full grown oscars already need a 125 gal tank to live happy. adding arowana in there will be chaotic; for the fishes space and for your water maintenance.

just my 2 cents ideas.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH SIR PAUL AND SPIKE:laugh:

first of all let me show u what my so called "dragon fin fish" looked like. it was very different from an arowana. mysteriously all i found in the net were couple of arowanas when searching for a pic. luckily i found a picture matching what i have bought and it was called "Gobioides broussonnetii". this is the picture guyz

PICS HERE***

sorry mates i cant post a picture basically because i dont know how to:unsure:
TNX again 2 u all..

thats a dragon goby, and if im not mistaken,dragon gobys are brackish, which means they thrive in slightly salted water. they do grow to a decent size, around 12" but since they are long and slender, the oscar might be see him as an easy target, which he probally is. although hes mean looking and has teeth, they rarely defend themselves. so i dont think they would be such a good tankmate

so, i did a bit of research for ya and they are indeed brackish. heres some info from the site. if you need more info search "dragon goby" instead of dragon fin fish.

"A highly territorial, solitary fish that should be kept in a species tank. If not kept in brackish water (1.005 to 1.010sg) , you will have continuous problems with these guys and they wont live very long. Feed them a mixed diet consisting of frozen and freeze-dried foods. In nature this species is an opportunistic scavenger and feeds on small organisms in the substrate, by sifting mud in its mouth. The Dragon Goby has Teeth, and should be fed crunchy foods at time, like snails, in order to keep his teeth from growing too long, which will result in not eating and death.
If kept in a community setting, They can be picked on by more aggressive tank mates. They love to stay hidden, especially from the aggressor. He will get aggressive in order to defend himself, but it will take a lot bullying for this to happen. Good tankmates include other brackish water fish species such as larger Liverbearers, Scats and Monos. The tank should have a substrate of fine gravel or preferably, sand. Because this fish likes to bury itself, sharp rocks can injure the fish. Provide hiding places with smooth rocks, bogwood,roots, caves, tubes, and tunnels. Leave large open areas for foraging. The Dragon Goby has Modified ventral fins allow them to cling to the glass, if they choose too. If you find your DG is hiding too much and you would like to see him, you can trick him by place a slab of rock leaning on the front wall, and he will “hide” and be in your view."

i dont use salt in my tank, so im not sure if that amount of salt would be compatable with your oscar.

i also fear that your oscar may be suffering from bad water conditions. if this tank is less then a month old, you can be pretty much certain that this is the problem. get a test kit for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite so you can counter the problem

your 3rd question was on tank size. at 100 gallons all 5 fish would be ok, with a decent amount of maintenance and a good filter system. the bigger the tank, the better, so i'd aim for something a little larger.

thank you so much mr. metal head im so sad to hear that because i have already bought the fish.anyway maybe ill just think of other tank mates. say, do you advice getting 3 silver dollars to accompany my lone oscar at 100g tank?? thanks so much brother..ur of very great help

no problem, 3 silver dollars would be absolutely perfect. but before you do that get the test kit. high levels of ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite will quickly turn out in the death of your fish. so you dont want to add anymore fish until your sure that your water levels are ok.

the test kits can be a little pricey in my opinion, but its a very good thing to have. you can bring a bag of your water to just about any petstore and they'll give ya a free test if you dont want to buy it at the moment.

MetalHead88 wrote:


I know where you are coming from with the price comment Metal Head, but what price can you put on a tank full of loved pet fish? I think test kits are obligatory not optional.

Spike wrote:


i agree. i personally would rather spend the $30 on a test kit than to lose hundreds of dollars of fish because i didnt know what was going on in my tank

Thanks to all of you! Im planning to buy a test kit as soon as possible. sorry again but i have another set of newbie questions:unsure: ..

1.) would you personally advice giving oscars a daily treat of superworms? i thought of these because as many say giving feeder is very dangerous that is why i thought maybe giving worms would be a substitute.

2.)Can silver dollars actually compete for food with O's and what particular food should i be giving those cute babies:lol:

3.) what type and brand of filter would u advise on a 110g tank? do you prefer dual filters?

Thank you so much again for your warm welcome to me guys and more power. hope ill be able to help others as as you are doing to me now in the future.

IMHO no probs with dollars and oscars on the food issue the dollars will get ther share....the filter if cost is not an issue should be a fluval fx5 and that filter will do you even if you upgrade in the future to 200gals but a fluval 405 will do the job for you but my recomendation is the fx5 the prices have come down a lot lateley and if it dont pack up its all you will ever need....only my little bit tho