here he is, not sure what oscar he is? if anyone knows, would love to know. thanks.



we currantly have gravel in tank, but after alot of reading, and talking to a friend who use to keep oscas, we will more than likely take this out,
also we have some smoot large pebbles from the beach, will these be ok in the tank? i have them on boiling at the mo, as that is what iv been told i need to do?

oh and for the people who asked about the tank, its 200L which i think is about 53G, and the readings so far are
amonia 0.1
nitrate 0.2
ph 6.1

are these ok? yesterday i put some of the filter sponge out of our ready cycled tank in to this filter, just to help along the cycle,

he seems ok, ate for the first time yesterday afternoon, we are feeding him on hikari cichlid gold medium floating pellets, this was avised by the lfs where we got him from, but we are going to try some beef heart at the weekend, then maybe shrimp next weekend, but are the pellets ok to use as everyday food for him? anywyas, sorry for the long post, and allot of off topic for this thread. jade

oh and forgot, we have a filter sutible for 350l tank, is this enough? or do we need another filter?

that is a beautiful tiger o... congratz!
yes, putting some establish media will help in fast cycling.
200L is basically about 52 gal and good enough for your o....

filtration? what type do you have? we need to know because if
it is a HOB, you need 10x turn over while for canister type,
at least 5X turnover of the tank size.

sorry dont unerstand, what is a hob? i have a filter that sits inside the tank, you can just about see it in the corner of the pics. thanks. thought he may have been a tiger, but wasnt sure. jade.

HOB means hanging on back, the most common for beginner. if that is your
filter, i guess it is a powerhead fitted with foam holder. unless you modified
its gadgets, it is not very effective for a messy oscar tank. can you post pic
of the filter set up?

just uploading some pics of filter now.

heres some pics of filter, and some more of the oscar.

that a hang on back filter.
And following Pauls lead, i'd say look for getting a canister filter to add to the setup.
I use a canister filter with a HOB filter for extra mechanical filtration in most of my tanks.
The combo big canister/HOB works fine with oscars.
Lovely Tiger oscar!

Why would you get rid of the gravel?
I prefer gravel over sand at any given time, but it's very personal.
Oscar do great on both substrates.

On your readings, ammonia and nitrites should be zero, while nitrates should rise.
That will mean your filter is cycled.
Keep a close look on your waterparameters.
Transferring media from an existing tank works fine and helps speeds up the process.

thanks, will have to have a look this weekend at canister filters, oh and the readings, i have just read through and realised i said nitrates, i ment nitrites was 0.2, that was last night, just tested again, and amonia is 0, nitrites is 0, ph is 6, and nitrates have risen from 5 to 12, so looking goood at min,
as for the gravel, i was told that it is best to have a clear bottom for oscars, as cleaning is very difficult with the gravel, how do you clean yours?
have just fed him a few more pellets, as not sure how many to give him at one time, but he has ea them straight away, i put 6 in, and they were gone within 2 mins, is that enough? or should i be giving him more? thanks for the advice. oscar seems to be alot more work than my other fish and tanks. jade.

jadeda3 wrote:


Good readings then.
I use a hose with a soda bottle with the bottom cut off attached to it.
I put the bottle below waterlevel and I let gravity do the work, after i sucked on the opposite end of the hose, to get the water running.
This way you will stir up any debris and the dirt will float and swirl out of even the deepest parts of the gravel and get evacuated through the hose, and into my garden.
very cheap but very effective.
I really advice making a device like that ,instead of changing the substrate.
I love the gravel vacuuming and the job is done before i finish my waterchange.

I'll make some pics of the bottle and hose, for this question seems to come up quite often.

@NOddy

I use the hose too... But why the soda bottle? Is it to get better suction and increase the flow?

When doing a gravel clean you want the end in the gravel much bigger than the hose for 2 reasons. The first is so that you can clean a decent sized bit of gravel as a time and the second is so that the gravel doesnt get sucked up the hose and dumped out of the tank

Cannister filters are the best for oscars because oscars are so messy, internal filters dont have enough media in them. Go for a cannister that will do a tank twice as big as you have