Hello again,
Ok ... after reading through the info here, I am curious as to whether my tank is in fact big enough for my fish.
My tank is approx 240 litres or about 59 gallon.... and i am currently housing 3 (what i believe to be) Tiger Oscars.

At this stage they are all about 125cm or 5" long.
I have been having problems with what i can only assume is the alpha leader of them, he/she is constantly chasing and nipping at one or both of the other fish.
I know they are territorial, and I have only just recently introduced the other two fish.
And I have heard that if you take the fish out for a day and rearrange the tank, this reduces the territorialism .... which I did, but the attacks still go on, so my only other conclusion is the tank may be too small for three fish

any thoughts?
thx

Trying to be as diplomatic as possible, The tank is way to small for 3 5" Oscars.I could go on and on about water parameters and such, but you have two choices. One is to get a MUCH bigger tank, or two, sell/trade/give away two of the Oscars and try to keep just one in that size tank. Good luck with your decision.

first of all, welcome to the site..

yes, you have territorial issue over there....the old one
is used to own the whole tank. it treated new comer as intruders.
unless you get oscar of the same size, it will remain your concern.

having 3 o in your 62 US gal tank is already over stock. space is
already an issue for them.

there are times that netting the bully make it tamer and act as
if new comer too once release freely. see this
i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt354/bigmisterchuck/DSC02998.jpg

red_101 wrote:

4 foot oscars?
no, just kidding.
Welcome!
just remember :
you're fish don't grow too big,
Your tank becomes too small!

ooops sorry folks .... i meant to say they are about 125mm each,
thanks for the advice, you have confirmed what i already suspected ... the tank is too small for them all.

decisions decisions ....well, I will not get rid of the original fella, he is my pride and joy and although at times he will hide from me .... most of the time he will circle the tank to follow my movement around the room. he likes to have my attention all the time and likes to see me wherever i am in the room.
Now the big question ... do i have the heart to remove the newcomers .... it doesn't seem fair, to introduce them into a nice new home and then dispose of them again.

i have only had them about 3 days.
but i don't really have the room for a bigger or even another tank.

if you dont have room for another tank or for a bigger one then the decision is already made for you.

unfortunetly you will have to re-home the other 2 oscars and only keep the first one you got. also a 60 us gallon tank will not give you enough room to have any tankmates with your oscar.

also while were on tanksize and such can you tell us what kind and size of filter you are running on your tank?

hi thx,
yes i have realized he is going to have to settle for my company only,
I just hope he will not get bored alone
I am currently running two pumps and filters for the time being ... I intend getting an external set up soon.
at the moment I have just the basic sponge type submersibles and the water seems to be crystal clear and doing ok .... but i have am going to get a better system.
for the past few weeks i have been draining, cleaning and refilling it every week to keep it that way.
it also gives me a chance to rearrange the plants and stones etc after he has ripped them up as he constantly does with the plants hhehe
I am as I said previously totally new to this game .... so any and all suggestions no matter how trivial are welcomed
thanks again

X2, I know it's a hard decision. Good Luck and let us know what you decide.

forgot to mention .... one of them pumps water to the top of the tank where I have some blue filter matting the water must soak through before returning to the tank.

hi again ..... Quick update (feel like I'm on days of our lives or this is your life hehehe)
today i made the sacrifice and returned two of the fish, i didnt get any money back or anything, but at least they have somewhere to live.
Just got back from buyng a new filtration system. Hopefully i have done good,
I got a external bio-chemical filter. the biggest i could find, hopefully no filtration problems. description for those of you who want to know (and you know who you are haha) Jebo External Bio-Chemical Filter 838 ... 4 ply (guessing that means the 4 trays) perfect ecological system for marine and fresh water with strong filtration capacity. and to top it all off, i got the LPS owner to set it all up and test it in the shop before i bought it home.
so now, hopefully all systems are go....
i will let that settle in for an hour or two, then i will do a 50% water change.
ok keep you informed and you let me know where i go wrong
thx all

Congrats you will love the canister filter. I loved mine so much I bought another!
Just remember NO CARBON!!!!!!

ok ... excuse my ignorance ..... no carbon?
remember you are talking to a total 110% wet behind the ears novice hehe


the bloke at the store put in some like ceramic tubes in one tray and some net bags of something in to two others i think and whatever else in the other tray

you certainly seem to know your stuff Nickisue