My 13 year old son has just got an oscar - his cousin had one and he knew a little about it, but in trying to do the right things, we have just been bombarded with all sorts of information - like, one shop says feed it no more than 4 pellets once a day, the other says feed it blood worms and other stuff twice a day - one site says feed it for two to three minutes?? We are confused with the cleaning as well, some sites say weekly clean with 50% new water, some say 1/3, some say add the conditioner and the bio, others say don't. Some say filter the old water and put it back through. He has had the oscar probably around six weeks at least i guess, its grown quite well I guess -he is probably about 7 or 8 centimetres now, but is that too fast?. At first he was only feeding it the four pellets, but then we decided to give it a few at a time for a minute or two, but then someone else says the tank is too dirty, there is too much food on the bottom, you are feeding it too much??? I just want to help him look after his oscar in the best way, but we are all getting confused with all the conflicting information and he loves it so much we don't want to do the wrong thing. HELP!!!!

welcome to the site.

now on to your questions. you should feed your oscar what he will eat in about 3 minutes. if your oscar is still a juvenile you should feed it 3 times a day. when he reaches about 5 inches in lenght you can reduce the feedings to once a day and when he reaches maturity you can if you want even reduce it further to once every second day.(personallly i feed mine daily). you oscar should have a varied diet with a quality pellet as a staple. oscars are very messy eaters and food falling to the bottom is something you cant stop.


as for cleaning your tank you should test your water every second day for nitrates. when the reading reaches 40 i would suggest a 30% water change then retest again until it reaches 40 the so on. this should tell you often you can go between water changes.(a water testing kit is a must for all oscar owners) the way i do my water changes is to remove the amount of water i want to change the add the declorinator and refill.

on to oscar growth. oscars grow on average of one inch per month for the 9 months or so. afterwards they continue to grow but at a slower rate. a mature oscar can be anywhere between 10-16 inches in lenght.

now for something you havent mentioned is your tank size and filtration. oscars are large fish and therefore require large tanks. a solitary oscar should be housed in a minimum tank of 55 gallons. if you chose to have tankmates with him a larger tank will be required. filtration is another very important part of an oscar tank. your filtration should be rated for a tank at least twice the size of the aquarium your oscar is in (if you have a 75 gallon tank your filtration should be rated for a tank of 150 gallons 75x2)

hopefully this has answered a few of your questions and if you have anything else that you need clarification on im sure someone on the forums will help you out.

best of luck with your new oscar

hi and welcome to the forum!!!!!!!!!!!!!i agree 100% with everything necro has said..regardless of what "others" have said .

x3. necromancers spot on. necro 1 shops 0

x4, Necro got it spot in.
kateyj2 - alot of shops dont care about the fish once they have left the shop, their job is to sell the fish, thats about it.
you have come to the right place for info.
follow what necro said and you'll be fine.
what size tank do you have and what is your filteration?

just additional opinion......
if you ask your local fish shop/store (lfs), they will tell
you everything possible and make you buy this and that. they
are just after your money to buy things that are not needed.
others will tell you that your fish is fine but will be gone
the following day. only few lfs are good enough and have true
intention with their happy fish keeping.

so don't be confused, be on the safe side of happy fish keeping.
pristine water is always the first defense against any fish diseases
and doing some water change will not harm your fishes.

for more helpful info.... keep surfing in this site.