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We started out babysitting a Red Oscar and now we have adopted him. He is about 5-6 inches long. His previous owner has him in a 14 gallon tank. We bought a 55 gallon tank yesterday and set it up. We want to buy an albino at the petstore and they are about 3 inches long. The problem is I was wondering if I should do this and if I do should I put the new one in the 55 gallon tank first then wait and put the one we have (red oscar) in the next day?

Also how do we get the big 5-6 inch into the 55 gallon he won't fit in a net? A big pitcher?

Please help soon!

Thanks!

please don't buy any more fish, especially an Oscar. 55 gallon tank is about the smallest you want to go for one Oscar, remember these fish get very bi in excess of 12 inches.

Can you give us some more information on what type of filtration you have got with the 55 gallon tank? I think you would be very wise to read this website thoroughly.

When you set a fish tank up properly, you are creating a safe environment for a fish to live in.I'm afraid it's not just a case of filling a tank at with the water and putting of fish in it, there is so so much more to it. You have to prepare your tank before you put your fish in an aquarium. If you fill tank up with water and put your Oscar in it, within 24 hours, there are going to be lethal toxins present in the water that will kill fish very easily. Please have a look on the helpful article section read the "how to cycle a tank" this will give you all the information needed to set up a tank that will house a fish safely.

I tried to read and understand cycling the tank but not sure how to do this. Can you please explain this to like a grade-schooler? lol All we did is get it to the same temperature the other one is which is 78 F. Put in new gravel after rinsing it in cold water and also have one decoration that we did the same with.

Questions:

1. What is the best way to "cycle" with an Oscar? (By the way he also has a tankmate already...a placo which is about 4 inches.

2. How long should we wait until we transfer them to a cycled tank?

3. What is the best way of transferring?

I will not get another fish...thank you for that tip on that...but would getting another algae eater/placo be bad?

Also...we have a regular Filter for a 45-60 gallon tank.

when I said no other fish, I mean no other fish. About the only time you can get away with a slightly overstocked tank is when you have a good sump filter with tons of biological media. reason being is you normally have quite a bit of extra water was all that media in it.

Okay, regarding the cycling, I'm not sure how I can explain it any easier than I already have. Okay, let me try. This may sound a bit of a crude way of explaining it, but it might make sense.If you were to use your toilet for six weeks without cleaning it, what would start happening apart from looking horrible and smelling badly? Of course the answer is you would have some serious bacteria growing in there. That's pretty easy to understand isn't it? Now think of the inside of your filter in the same way. You have lots of media which consists of either sponge, or ceramic tight media, or both. When the water passes through the filtration system it contains ammonia which is produced by the fish going to the toiletand other things like breathing and in its urime. After a while of the water passing through all the new media, bacteria start to build up (just like it would in your toilet) this bacteria feeds on ammonia. So if you have a regular supply of ammonia, i.e. fish in your tank, you will have bacteria living inside your filtration system.

In a brand new filter you obviously have no bacteria because it's never been on a fish tank before. You have to run the filter for up to six weeks before there is enough bacteria to deal with a small amount of fish. Then gradually, more and more bacteria will build up until the filtration system can handle quite a large amount of waste being produced by the fish.

Now, I mention that ammonia is necessaryto create the bacteria. This is a very dangerous time for fish because as they produce ammonia, there is no bacteria to deal with it site stayers in the tank water. This is why I don't recommend using Oscars to cycle a tank. They don't do well in poor water conditions. You are much better off using quite a few smaller fish. They will produce the ammonia you want to kickstart your filtration system. Many of them will probably die in the process and the rest of them may and up with health problems. Some of them may live happy lives if they aren't eaten by the Oscars.

During the six-week period when you are cycling your tank, if you are using fish, you have got to do regular water changes to stop the ammonia getting too high. Even though you need the ammonia, you can't let it get so high that it kills all your fish. This is why it takes so long, if you were to do a fishless cycle using pure ammonia you could let the ammonia get to very very high levels, you can cycle of tank and almost no time at all. The more the ammonia, the faster the bacteria buildup.

Remember that fish produce ammonia, one type of bacteria eats the ammonia and that is processed into nitrite (another very toxic elements)then you have another type of bacteria that eats the nitrite. When they've done that, it is converted into nitrate. Nitrate is much less toxic and is only removed by doing water changes

Okay, I hope this is a little clearer for you, if you still don't understand how the cycle process works than not sure I can help any more.

since ofl addressed our cycling prob i will only mention that as for filtration a general rule of thumb is to have twice the tank rating when dealing with oscars. so for example if you have a 55 gal tank you should have 2 filters that each rate for a 55 gal tank.

and as for tankmates plecos can grow to montrous sizes depending on the species. the common pleco or sailfin can grow to 24" in lengh so i would not recommend having anything in your 55 but one oscar.

also you can get nets that are big enough for your o's at your local fish store.

good luck to ya