I was just thinking that there should be some sort of age limit on owning oscars. My girlfriends brother saw mine and like everyone else fell in love with them so his mom bought him an albino and tiger. I tried to tell him about how hard they are and even showed him this website. It isn't that he doesn't care, he just doesn't have the resources to take care of them properly. Its getting to the point that I am about to rescue them before they die. I don't know what I will do with 9 oscars though - they would have a better life at a LFS then with him and I really believe he loves and cares about them but he just can't take care of them properly. He is 15 years old and doesn't have a job and his parents aren't wealthy so there is not much help there.

That would be a very contentious issue. If you're going to do it for fish, you would have to do it for all other animals. I think there is a law here in the UK that governs how old you are before you can buy pets without an adult present. I haven't got a problem with children owning pets as long as they look after them. At the end of the day, it's down to the parents to make sure that their children look after their pets.

Unfortunately we are never going to stop people buying Oscars when they haven't got a hope in hell of looking after them properly. I personally think that the fish shop should take more of a responsible attitude when selling fish that are more specialised than your average guppy.

in florida i was asked like 4 questions b4 they even took the fish outa the tank. the first was my tank size , fish i have in the tank , if it was cycled and i dont remember the last one
i was amazed about that

i totally agree, that it is up to the parents to make sure that kids make sure their pets are cared for properly. Most people don't bother to do the research before they rush out and buy fish. Neglect has no place inside a fish tank.

I've been keeping fish as long as i can remember, but i've never come across anything like oscars. I'm head over heels for these guys. And i look forward to raising these little goofs.

At my LFS i had to basically explain to the clerks how to properly maintain an oscar tank. Which i find absolutely hilarious considering this website and forum is my main source of information. I probably wouldn't have said anything if it werent for the two 14" tiger oscars they had with disgusting water and a rough looking case of HTH.

when i bought my two oscars the LFS didnt even tell me anything about them execpt for showing me a full grown adult... nothing about health, tank size etc... oh i was told i couldnt keep them with other fish

No age limit, but maybe they should have to take a quiz like the one on this site before they can purchase one.

What saddens me is the all-purpose pet stores or the big chain stores with small pet departments. A local all-purpose is where I first saw dyed O's :angry:

and the big branch stores that end in "mart" where the fish are poorly cared for (usually), and there are no adult O's for people to see (and realize just how big they get), and no info available.