Width of Tank for Oscar

[e man]

I'd like to get something that would make my tank viewers go Whoa.  Something like an oscar or a couple pacu.  My tank is 12 by 18 by 48.  Something like 45 gallons.  Thus it's not so wide.  Someone I new had an Oscar in a quite shallow wide long aquarium,  would that be better, he's had it for awhile so it must be quite comfortable?       I have tiger barbs and a bunch of other fish in there so no hurry,  I'm just curious,  I have a 30G tank I can keep them in if I ever decide 8).

 

[dattack]

Yes, 12" is kind of narrow for an oscar.  It will do well in the shallow, large surface area tank that you mentioned.

 

[snowplankton]

 Pacu get even larger than oscars, for a couple of them I wouldn`t go less than 100 gallons+ . Have you seen a full grown pacu? they are huge!!  Some Oscars get 14" long,  I think the ammount of water you have is OK but it might have trouble turning around when its full-grown in a 12" wide tank. It would take 2 or 3 years to get that size though...