I'v seen alot of tanks online that dont have much in them and I'm getting ready to start setting up my 60g tank and I was wondering if I should add some plants or just put a few things in and leave it? I read they like to have multiple hiding places but like i said i'v seen a bunch with hardly anything

aquascaping an oscar tank is really a personal thing. basically it comes down to what you like. lots of oscar keepers keep their tank without lots of decor to make cleaning easier. when oscars are small the tanks are easy to clean but as they grow they tend to make more of a mess. if there is lots of decoration in the tank the waste and uneaten food tends to collect under it and makes it harder to clean. also depending on the size of the tank, total water volume will play a role in how you decorate. everything you put into a tank will displace water and therefore more maintenance will be required to keep your water parameters in check.

Excellent advice. My tank is empty just got sand substrate. Prefer the water to be as clean as possible instead of pretty for my sake. Girlfriend always complaining how boring my tank looks, but she doesn't know anything lol.

Do you two have any ideas to why my oscar will not eat?

How are your water parameters? Do you think that the Oscar is stressed in anyway? Its quite unusual for an oscar not to eat. What are you feeding it?

I'v been giving him same pellets that Fish store was feeding him and when he wasnt eating I called back there and he said to drop some feeder fish in there and he will eat, I'v had a dozen feeders in there he may of eatin one

it also depends on yr oscar and if yr having anyting else with it.

for example my o's will take alot of pleasure in digging up and ripping up any live palnt i put in there so i just have gravel large rocks and driftwood. looks busy but im trying to replicate a riverbed. plus things like silver dollars will swim round and eat any plants u put in etc, just gotta do a bit of reasearch on the fish yr keeping and seeing if they fit with what u want the tank to look like

Forget plants!!! OScars love ripping them up. Live plants end up dieing, with plastic plants you get fed up of replanting them ALL the time

I tied fishing weights to the bottom of my plastic plants. That way they don't float to the top every time my oscar plays with them. It's also fun to see where he moves them to and how he arranges them from day to day.

SomethingFishy wrote:



i hope they are not lead...

you can take some silicone and smear on the base of the plants, and use some of your substrate and stick it on the silicone. that will weigh it down, look natural, and even if it gets moved out of place, it will still look rooted in the substrate, and it wont have lead in your tank!

Win wrote:


No, they're made of some other soft metal. Which is funny because on the back of the packages for lead sinkers and lead headed jigs it actually says "This product does not contain lead." It's like lead pencils are actually made with graphite. I also coat the weights in a silicon sealant to prevent rusting and corrosion too.

ahhhh cool cool