Tiger oscar question

sushi*roll

sushi*roll

Large Fish
#1
Jan 5, 2010
177
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vancouver bc
#1
My friend and I both bought our Tiger oscars at the same time (they are siblings :))

How can you tell the difference between sexes??

Mine is a 29 gallon hers is in a 20 (It was sold as a 20 but I'm thinking it's actually a little smaller), my Oscar is already much bigger than hers (most likely because mine is in a bigger tank, and I feed him blood worms like crazy bcuz im trying to hand train him), how long will it take for our Oscars to outgrow their tanks?
 

Newman

Newman

Elite Fish
#2
Sep 22, 2009
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Northern NJ
#2
in a 29 gal, if you do weekly water changes on it (and you should be doing 50% weekly for an oscar tank...) it would be considered outgrown I think when it reaches about 7-8 inches...
be careful, you don't want to stunt your fish's growth especially if you're trying to grow him faster than your friend lol!

the diff between sexes is very hard to tell.
the only safe way is to put the two together and see if they spawn. then you could tell which is male and which is female. don't put them together until they're big adults though, and don't do it in a tank that's smaller than 90 gallons.

I'm not really an oscar expert because I haven't kept them so I'm sure someone else who owned them might aid you with this :)
 

Newman

Newman

Elite Fish
#4
Sep 22, 2009
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Northern NJ
#4
cuz they will grow
and they need a 90 gallon tank for a pair.
and if your's are two males they might fish badly as the grow :)
you can try it, and if one is female and one is male it might work out.
 

Newman

Newman

Elite Fish
#6
Sep 22, 2009
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Northern NJ
#6
fight badly
my mistake lol
good, if you want to breed them then make sure you have a 90 gallon or bigger and that the oscars are relatively mature.
generally a pair needs 90+ gallons. just cuz they grow so huge, darn fast.
all this talk of oscars makes me want to get one ! :D
 

Last edited:
brian1973

brian1973

Superstar Fish
#9
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#9
sushi*roll said:
I never wanted one bcuz I think it's dumb to have such a big tank (50+) for just one fish, but my friend talked me into it lol, and now I'm happy to have him/her :)
Click to expand...
I noticed in your sig you have a 50G empty, that would be a good tank for your oscar.

The thought than you cant have other fish with an oscar is IMO a myth, I keep a Jaguar cichlid, Oscar, 2 raphael cats, 2 adult convict cichlids, and a common pleco together in a 90G tank. I have to keep up my maintenance or I will have water quality issues but other than that I have no issues in this tank.

I dont really recommend others to follow my stocking as I tend to overstock and experiment with compatablity, I am just saying what I have found works for me.
 

sushi*roll

sushi*roll

Large Fish
#10
Jan 5, 2010
177
0
0
vancouver bc
#10
brian1973 said:
I noticed in your sig you have a 50G empty, that would be a good tank for your oscar.

The thought than you cant have other fish with an oscar is IMO a myth, I keep a Jaguar cichlid, Oscar, 2 raphael cats, 2 adult convict cichlids, and a common pleco together in a 90G tank. I have to keep up my maintenance or I will have water quality issues but other than that I have no issues in this tank.

I dont really recommend others to follow my stocking as I tend to overstock and experiment with compatablity, I am just saying what I have found works for me.
Click to expand...
That was my plan, to use my 50gallon for the Oscar, I still need rocks, heater, filter all that.

Also you're right that you can keep other fish with Oscars (We used to have a blood oscar when I was little and he was in a tank with a pleco that ate LARGE feeders) I never thought about putting a raphael cat with him (I wish I knew that before I gave mine back to my LFS after he wouldnt stop attacking my dwarf frogs...Do I have to worry though that the Oscar will grow MUCH MUCH faster than the catfish/pleco....because wont the oscar be almost full gorwn in a years time where a pleco will only be a few inches?? should I wait till the pleco/catfish etc gets fairly large before they can become tank mates?
 

brian1973

brian1973

Superstar Fish
#13
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#13
I have had all mine together since the beginning, the oscar was about 4in the cats where about 2 and the pleco about 8in. the Oscar is now +10in, the pleco 12in, and the raphael cats are about 6in. The oscar doesnt bother them plus they are nocturnal. There is aggression between the oscar and pleco on occassion but the pleco is usually the one starting the fights. I introduced the cons as 1in fry for the oscar to snack on, I dump 30 or so into his tank about 8 months ago, the oscar adopted all of them,, nope he didnt eat a single one. I ended up keeping them in the same tank for about 6 months then got rid of all but 2 of the cons.
 

sushi*roll

sushi*roll

Large Fish
#14
Jan 5, 2010
177
0
0
vancouver bc
#14
aww so cute, but I think all Oscars might be different as well, because I had a friend who had a yellow oscar ( think thats what it was) and he was a huuuuge A-hole. He would break the heater weekly (and she'd have to get a new one) and he would rip all the plants out of his tank. She had an 8inch (or so) pleco in there from the beginning but once doobie (the oscar) got a certain size she had to move the poor pleco from his home of 5 years cuz doobie wouldn't stop attacking him.
 

Doomhed

Doomhed

Large Fish
#16
Feb 11, 2003
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42
Rhode Island
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#16
sushi*roll said:
He would break the heater weekly (and she'd have to get a new one)
Click to expand...
you can actually rig an undergravel filter rack to be high enough (with a rock on each corner) to allow you to place a pair of submersible heaters under the gravel. then you use the undergravel feed tube to feed into your HOB waterfall filter. Bank, instant warm waterfall for the oscar that he cant break without completely renovating his tank (which some will do sadly).

I used to catch my oscars in front of the warm waterfall all the time.
 

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