Hi all, I have 2 tiger oscars that are now 7 months old one is 8 inches and the other is 7 these fish are machines... I love how they interact with humans following you around annd so on I also have 2 pleco's and a snail. I am just wondering if there is a fish out there that my Oscars won't eat that will clean up the waste on the bottom of the tank? I use waste control by Nutrafin. Any other suggestions? I would also like to add that this website has been very educational towards Oscars and I thank you for that, Great Job on the website!!!

That's all for now from good old Prince Edward Island Canada!!!

Welcome to OFL.

What size tank do you have?
and what substrate are you using?
when you say 'something to clean the waste'
do you mean food or fish poop?
if you mean fish poop then forget it mate, the only way you'll clean fish poop is doing it yourself, because the fish that do eat if poop if any, will only poop themself so you wont win,
if you mean food which is being left from your other fish, then theirs a few you could go for, but these will only leave mess as well, so the only way to solve it, is clean it yourself.
you could however have a look a pleco's but dont get a common or 1 that grows to 14-16 inches because they crap like mad,
or maybe a catfish, theirs lots of different ones. i prefer the catfish over the pleco, their nicer and less messy in my eyes.
keep us updated on what you go for mate.

welcome to the site

hello and welcome to the forum

Welcome to OFL!

welcome to the site

Hi and Welcome!

Well I have a 55 gallon tank right now looking to get a bigger one next year I hope to have one around 125. I use gravel on the bottom and yes It is fish poop! I have had corey cats before and a striped catfish but they didn't make it alive very long. They seem to eat every fish I put in there except for the 2 plecos they are 6+ plus inches long now as well. I guess I will have to clean it myself Is there a good product out there to do this quickly? A question about sex of the oscar. I bought them at the same time and heard that the female would be bigger than the male is this true? As one is an inch bigger than the other and looks bigger width wise. Thanks!!

ok to start with a 55 gallon tank is not nearly big enough for 2 oscars and 2 plecs. i hate to be the one to tell you but unfortunetly you dont have a year to wait until you get a bigger tank you only probably have about 5 months.
as for cleaning the tank the best way is to do it maually with a gravel vac. on the plus side on your tank it should only take a few minutes to do.
as for sexing oscars there are 2 ways to do the first way is to vent them. this means looking at the fish's anal and reproductive opening. this is very difficult to do even if you have lots of experience. the second way is a lot easier and foolproof. all you have to do is wait until eggs are layed. then you can dertermine which one is male and which one is female. other than that oscar are monomorphic which means there is absolutly no differences in appearance or size difference between the genders.

What is the smallest tank I could get away with for the fish I have? I just bought this tank before I got the fish, should have found the website first or did some research I just thought they looked cool. So do the males fertilize the eggs after they are laid? I don't know they seem to be kissing a lot lately lol....

the smallest tank you can "get away with" for 2 oscars is something in the 100 gallon range. but if your plecs are sailfin or common plecos then you will need a much larger tank. common plec can grow to over 2 feet in lenght and produce huge bioloads.

the kissing is a common thing oscars do. it can signify many different things from mating ritual to dominance. how big are your oscars? id they are smalll then it could be a dominance thing or they could be testing each others strengh.

They are 8 and 7 inches long. Is it true that the species also has an absolute requirement for vitamin C and develops health problems in its absence. When I was down south in Fort Myers, Flordia we were at a protected wildlife park and in on of the lakes there was 2 Oscars about 10 inches each floating on the surface as it was down to 1 degree a few nights in Feb. The people who work there said people have been throwing the oscars in there when they can't take care of them anymore and they cause a lot of problems same as piranhas.