Most people feed their fish every day, sometimes more than once a day. An adult Oscar Fish does not need to be fed on a daily basis, you could quite feasibly feed your fish every other day, or even three or four times a week and your fish would be perfectly okay. I must emphasize that baby and juvenile Oscar's should be fed on a daily basis until they reach adulthood.

I normally feed my fish as much food as they can eat in two or three minutes and then I stop. I don't put a handful of food in, I introduce five or six pellets at a time and I wait until the Oscars have eaten these and then I introduce a few more. If all the Oscars are about the same size I leave it up to them to compete for the food as I believe this keeps them active and alert.

It may be that they don't like a certain type of food, it is not uncommon for Oscars to completely despise some type of food. Try different types of food and see if they eat. If your Oscar refuses to eat any type of food, even after a few days then please consult us on the community forum and we will try and help further.

Aquarium water should be tested on a regular basis as poor water quality can have a serious effect on your fishes welfare. Test your nitrate before a water change, this will give you an indication of how much water needs to be replaced. Nitrate shouldn't exceed 40 ppm. Ammonia, nitrite & pH tests should be carried out every now and then just to keep a check on things. If your biological filter is healthy then ammonia and nitrite should never exceed 0 ppm.

How to test your aquarium water

It is important that you understand some simple water chemistry such as why nitrate is present in your aquarium. Nitrates are a byproduct of ammonia and nitrite. Whereas ammonia and nitrite are kept under control and removed by your biological filtration, nitrates can only be removed and kept under control by carrying out water changes.

Excessive nitrate levels can stress fish, possibly have an effect on your water chemistry and basically make for a very unhealthy aquatic environment for your fish.

Water changes will also help keep other harmful chemicals at bay, as well as reduce the chances of excessive algae problems. Water changes will also replace minerals that can become depleted.

Try and get into a routine of carrying out water changes. I can tell you from experience that when you put aside a day and time for tank cleaning, it's a much easier to keep up your tank maintenance regime.

Finally, remember that you may need to give your substrate a clean. It obviously makes sense to do this at the same time you are doing your water change. Fish don't particularly like water changes so to reduce disturbing them too often, carry out these two procedures at the same time.

Having the correct filtration system on your tank is absolutely paramount. Your filter will remove solid waste and the dangerous toxins that are produced by your fish. The Oscar fish it is a large Cichlid that will create a large bioload. In its simplest terms, the bioload is the amount of pressure that is put on your biological filter through ammonia that is produced through a fish breathing, in its urine and solid waste. If you haven't got an adequate filtration system then dangerous toxins will just keep building up until the inevitable happens, your fish dies. So the filtration system you install on your aquarium needs to be able to handle the amount of ammonia and waste your fish will produce.

We always recommend installing lots of filtration, normally double the amount of filtration the tank is rated for. This may seem like a little bit of an overkill but believe me, having lots of filtration will benefit your fish and help keep your tank a safe place for your fish in the long run.

The two types of filter we would recommend are the external aquarium canister filters , or if you want to have the absolute beast of all filtration systems, install a sump filter .  Both these type of filters can hold large amounts of biological and mechanical media filtration.

You can read more about installing your aquarium filtration here

I can't tell you exactly how long it takes for bacteria to completely die off but from my own personal experience I have switched my sump filter off for up to two hours and I haven't experienced any problems. However, you have got to remember that my sump filter is about 70 gallons and contains a large amount of media that is completely submerged underwater when the pump is not running. A smaller filtration system with much less biological media probably won't cope quite as well as my large filter when switched off for long periods of time.

I have heard of people switching their filters off at night, or during the day to cut down on the noise. Remember that your filter is the lifeline of your aquarium, the beneficial bacteria that live on your media removes all the dangerous toxins such as ammonia and nitrite, without this bacteria your fish will not survive.

Please never turn your filters off unless you really need to.

The simple answer to this question is yes of course you can put plants in your Oscar tank, however don't be surprised if the Oscars uproot them, or even just completely rip them to pieces. For some reason Oscars seem to take a dislike to plants and nearly every person who keeps these fish will tell you that they are not successful in keeping the two together.

The Amazon Sword is probably the most successful plant I have ever managed to put in with my Oscars. They are native to the Amazon River so will look authentic if you want to set up an Amazon theme aquarium.They are a fairly hardy plant that will not die on you overnight. Even though the Oscar may be able to operate one of these plants, they can be rerooted fairly easily.

If you keep plants remember that you will have to look after them in much the same way as your garden plants.. If you really want plants then you could try artificial aquarium plants.  Some of these are quite realistic and obviously fairly tough. The Oscar will still uproot them and they will also need cleaning every now and then because they collect algae quite easily.  I have tried keeping plants on various occasions but I gave up a few years ago because it just isn't worth the bother in my opinion

Gravel is cheap and readily available from fish stores and garden centres. You can often get a large 20lb bag of gravel for as little as £5. When you buy gravel it will need to be washed thoroughly as it's normally extremely dirty. Gravel is very good at masking debris and dirt such as fish poo. However, solid waste has a tendency to find its way underneath the gravel which if left could contribute to poor water conditions. With the aid of a gravel vac you will need to give the gravel a thorough clean which is often quite time consuming, especially if you've got a big tank. If you are planning on putting plants in your tank then gravel is probably the best option as plants don't really like sand.

Sand comes in lots of different colors and can look absolutely stunning. Sand can be obtained fairly cheaply from garden centres, however some types of different colored sand can be quite expensive, as much as £12 for a 10lb bag. Solid waste doesn't tend to get embedded under the sand like it does with gravel. You'll find that the waste sits on top of the sand where it is much easier to remove with a gravel vac. One drawback of having light colored sand is dirt such as fish poo can look rather unpleasant. Pleco waste is particularly unsightly so if you have got fish that are notorious for producing lots of waste, it might be an idea to opt for a dark colored sand where the dirt isn't so obvious.

There isn't anything you should worry about, this is very common and if you keep Oscars you are more than likely to see it happen at some stage.