Hello all! Soon I will be movin and am very excited because that means that I can get a bigger tank for my Oscar. I was just looking around at Petco the other day and I saw a couple that I would like to get. My boyfriend stayed back to talk to the fish person because he wants to suprise me with a new tank when I get back from my deployment(some suprise huh. haha) She said that a corner tank would be best because of the extra room but I read on here and heard from many people that I need a 55 Gal tank. The corner one is only 38 or 39. What should I do?

Do not get a 38/39g tank, it isnt big enough, you will run into problems when your oscar gets big

Get a bigger tank, go for minimum 55g but with this you will be doing lots of water changes. It is a lot easier to keep an oscar in a 75g. remember oscars get massive

Also a word about filtration. Filters have ratings on them for the size of tank they will filter. This applies to a tank of community fish. Oscars are messy fish and need filtration rated for a tank twice as big as you have. So if you have a 75g you need filtration rated for a 150g tank. Also the type that go in the tank are not good enough. You need to get an external cannister type. A fluval 405 will do a 75g tank (if i remember right)

I can really only second what Dell has said. Oscars are not small community fish, they are fish that can easily exceed 12 inches in size, a community tank that you get from these superstores is just not suitable, they are for small fish only.


How many people do you know who have a St Bernard? Probably not many, the reason being is because they are massive dogs that require special attention, people know that these dogs get big so they don't get them. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about large fish, people see little cute Oscars and just want them, whether they've got a big enough tanks or not. It's only after a few months they realise exactly what they have got themselves into, that's why we've got so many members.

x3 the biggest you can get with absolute minimum 55 gallon for one o. Remember minimum tank size means maximum maint

i can only agree with db and ofl.... howver...if you are willing to
take the hard labor of maintenance... you can go with what tanksize
you want... but be prepared... oscar in a small tank never grew...
they just die small and owner will just wonder WHY!!!!

Capt Dave wrote:


Very true. I have my one oscar in a 65 with good filtration and I'm still doing EOD water changes to keep parameters acceptable.