hi everyone

im very very new at being an oscar mommy...

my boyfriend recently purchased two teeny tiny baby tiger oscars. they are just about 2 inches each and are very very cute.

they are currently living in a 3ft tank with 2 gold gourami, 2 silver sharks, and two angels all of which are the same size as they are. now i do know that oscars grow up to 12 inches so we are upgrading to a 6ftx2ftx2ft tank very soon...

there have been no casualties or masssive territory issues so far, except when we first put the oscars in (arnie and schwarzenegger...lol dont ask) they decided that the pipe that gourami had established as their home would do quite nicely as their hideout. the gourami relocated themselves quite qucikly with no arguments... heh.

anyway

being very new at oscars (i raise guppies hehe)i wanted to know a few things...

ive read lots of conflicting information, some which say that oscars are aggressive, some that say they are like big under water puppies, some people say you can pat them, some people say to keep your hand out of the water...

all of this has been very confusing and im so unsure now!

i hope some of you can help me with my questions:

1. when i clean the tank, should i take them out first, or will they get used to my hand being in there while they are babies and not attack when they are bigger?

2. can i train them to be hand fed and be able to touch them?

3. what would be the best things (ornaments) to put in the 6ft tank? i have fake plants in the 3ft at them moment, plus some ornaments and i noticed arnie yesterday attempting to move one of the plants (he couldnt, hes too small...but it was very cute to watch him try heehehehehehe)...so i need some advice as to what to put in there that they cant really move too much when theyre bigger...

4. and lastly (for now hehe), if want to move things around in their tank, should i remove my boys first? or get them used to me?

thanks!

hope you guys can help

There is no need to remove the fish from the tank when you clean, they may not like maintenance that much, but they will soon get used to it

It depends on the Oscars, in most circumstances they become tame very quickly and will literally jump out of the water to grab food out of your hand.

I wouldn't encourage too much handling of your fish, however putting a hand in the tank and letting the Oscars make their own minds up whether they want to come near your hand is perfectly okay.

You can put ornaments and your tank any time you like, I would forget plants, the chances are they will just uproot them, or rip them to pieces, whether they are fake or not.

OFL nailed it. They wont like maintenance to begin with, but i've found with time, they come to enjoy it. My O loves it now, he'll follow the gravel vac around, and when its time to add more water, he'll actully swim into the bubbles being created by the water being poured into the tank! He really enjoys it!
Yes oscars are easily trained to be hand fed, i occasionally feed my guy meal worms and sometimes crickets by hand, but i try not to have him jump. I have to be quick in handling the food, or else he'll jump and on more than one occasion, nearly made it out of the tank.
A 6X2X2 is a great size tank, you'll have a great talking point and awesome piece of furniture to impress guest with, especially when the oscars get nice and big!
Hang in there cause oscars are great!

Dan

thanks heaps!

just to clarify with the decorations though...

i can move things around with the oscars in the tank? they wont be too upset that im moving their territory around?

i noticed yesterday that they sulked for an hour when we first put them in (i figured they felt displaced) but after that they were okay and happily swimming around.

if i move their stuff around, is that going to make them sulk? or nip me if they dont like what im doing?

They will be fine. Oscars are drama queens. Oscars are by far the best of the aquarium populous. Interesting fact is many people consider them the most intelligent aquarium fish. They are a member of the cichlid family which most ichthyologist consider the intellectuals of the aquarium world.

LOL, hi Hun... Oscars sulk, frequently... It doesn't aways have to be a particular reason. Food often brings them out of the sulk... but I will warn you, Oscars will rearrange their tank to their liking, no matter what you want! lol

on the decorations - try not to have anything with too sharp of edges - the O's as they get bigger tend to be very clumsy. I notice little scrapes and occasional missing scales on mine from bumping into the bogwood - not to worry, these little scratches heal very quickly.

dragonezz wrote:

for the time being, they will sulk at the bottom...but as time goesby,
they will rearrange the tank by themselves..

are you planing to leave your other fish in your smaller tank once you upgrade and just move your 2 oscars into the 6x2x2? if not you can prob say bye bye to your others,

they are all moving...

the oscars, the sharks, the angels and the gourami...

the oscars are still very small...

i know they will grow at different paces, but for now there is no aggression...so im clinging to the hope that the oscars will be used to their current tank mates and leave them be as they grow

i had keep an angel fish with two huge oscar..and i never experience bullying.
in fact, the angel fish enjoy and feasted on all the fries my pair oscar could
produce.

i got my first 2 oscars when there were almost fully grown as there were a knowin pair, i intreduced them in to a tank of small fish i was board with,

it took the pair of them about 3 weeks to clear it out,

i new this would happen but was still new to oscars at this time,

fish in the tank were what you have plus things like mollies, red tip sharks etc, ialso had a blue lobster than ended up just a head and claws,

these oscars are dead now sadly and i have started again,

it is a gamble but one i`l put money on the oscars winning!