I bought two 1" maybe 2" oscars (can't remember their size when i bought them) 3 months ago and I put them in a 10gal tank. They've been there for those months. I found out here that the tank was too small so i moved them into a 50 gal tank. By now one of them is about 6" and the other is about 7". I'm thinking of putting Tinfoil Barbs with them. I can imagine that it won't get crowded for now. Am I right? And if I am, what size and how many should I get? It's my first time taking care of Oscars. Help me out. Thanks.

lol you should get exactly ZERO more fish, and rehome one of those oscars OR get a bigger tank. you need about 75 gallons for 1 grown oscar, you realize these fish have been measured a 17 inches before right??

Tinfoil barbs are greedy eating machines. I had 2 a couple of years ago, I never thought there was a fish that could out eat an Oscar, but tinfoils certainly can.

Win wrote:


I agree 100%... No more fish and get a Bigger tank.

Thanks for the info.

I think tin foil barbs look good and they make great tankmates for oscars. Only problem is that they eat loads, prefer to be in shoals and get big. You would need a very big tank and if you have a very big tank i can think of loads of more interesting fish to put in it than tin foils

I saw some customer-returned tinfoil barbs at my LFS and they were huge. I'd guess they were 14" or so long - maybe bigger

There is only one fish that gets too big and returned to LFS's more than tin foils and that is our beloved oscar

i saw one in a guys house that i swear was a foot and a half long while i was there spraying it when i was an exterminator. it was in a big square tank like 2x2x2 with about a 12" black ghost knife fish. i just could not believe how big it was, i never saw one bigger than 6-7" before that.