# a full oscar cichlid care sheet



## berry1 (Sep 25, 2010)

The Oscar Fish (Astronotus ocellatus) is a member of the Cichlid family and is native to various rivers in South America They are also found in some tropical locations such as the waterways and canals in Florida

Oscars are fairly large cichlids typically reaching lengths between 12" and 16" (thirty to forty cm) These fish generally live for 8 to 12 years depending on the quality of care and set up given

oscars need very spacious aquariums a 55g (uk) is the recomended min for a single oscar for pairs you should idealy be looking at a 120g a 100g may be used but itl take much more maintance to keep the water quality so its best to keep to the general rule of 55g for 1 120g for a pair for larger groups a minimun of 300g should be provided as if they pair off the out siders need space to get away from the pair to minimis agression

a good filterasion system is a must for oscars as their very messy and produce a lot of wast a large HOB filter could be used but a external canister filter is recomended to cope with oscars wast and eating requirements

a bit more info on external filters 

external filterasion
External Aquarium Filters are an exception piece of vital kit They remove the tradition internal filter freeing up your aquarium with extra space and only have 2 pipes which blend into the corners or that are hidden in the back They also add to the volume which helps make fish keeping even easier as more water volume makes for a more stable set up

External Aquarium Filters are easy to use and manage as they are a separate unit under the aquarium in the cabinet below Cleaning is made a lot simpler as most come with isolation valves which when u turn off stop the water from flowing and makes turning the filter back on a breeze To clean simply unplug the lid from the base and carry it to a spot where you can easily replace the filter wool and rinse the sponges. Once finished you simply take it back to the tank and clip it in It's easier to get it going again if you have filled the aquarium up with water again

External Aquarium Filters come in many different brands and all do a fairly decent job Some of these new filters have UV built in which goes a long way to enhancing the clarity of your water and reducing the likelihood of your fish catching a disease which is very important when keeping messy fish like oscars

its actualy much easyer to have a bare bottom aquarium with know decorasions as its much easyer to clean and mentain but if you want decor its realy your choice on what you decorat it with as oscars arnt botherd on what u use for sub strate or what you decorate it with as long as the decor is fish safe and doesnt have and sharp edges that the oscar could catch its self on 

heating is the same for any tropical fish a basic heating tube made for aquariums but a guard is a must as oscars are nutorious for smashing heater tubes 

tank mates have to be chosen carfully for oscars and its highly advised to add all tank mates earlyer or at the same time as the oscar as if oscars make their terrotory they normaly wont alowany other fish into their aquarium with out a tough fight 
good tank mates are
firemouths (larger ones)
convicts (larger ones)
tin foil barbs
silver dollars
most gars (no alagators)
bala sharks
Synodontis Catfish 
Black Lancer Catfish 
Clown Loach (should be kept in groups of 5 or more )
Silver Dollars (should also be kept groups of 6 or more)
Severum 

Pumpkinseed 
Banded Leporinus 
Satanoperca jurupari (Earth eater)
Blue Acara 

be very careful when mixing cat fish with oscars as we all no what big mouths oscars have and oscars have that reputasion for swallowing things that are to big and some cat fish have spines located on various parts of their body especially on their dorsal and pectoral fins These spines can be extremely sharp some catfish have spines that are sharp enough to penetrate the bottom of somebody's shoe What can happen is an Oscar grabs hold of the catfish realises it can't swallow it and then tries to expel it This is when problems can start

fish swallow their prey headfirst so that fins such as a dorsal fin don't get stuck in their throat Unfortunately what goes down easily doesn't always come out as well When the Oscar tries to expel the catfish the spines can get stuck in either the fish's throat or its mouth. In a lot of circumstances the Oscar will manage to release the catfish In a small number of cases it just cannot budge it When this happens you have to take immediate action If you are a confident person remove the Oscar from its tank and take the catfish out of its mouth If the catfish's spines have penetrated the Oscars mouth and you can't pull the catfish straight out of the mouth you will have to remove the spines from the catfish apair of manicure scissors are excellent for this task if you haven't got any of these to hand something equally as small should suffice Snip the spines and remove the catfish

a oscars diet should be about 70% made up from a good quality pellet food specialy made for larger cichlids a very good brand is cichlid gold pellets these pellets should make up a large amount of your oscars diet but treats are always good to give and other foods that can be given ocasionaly as treats are live crickets, meal morms, locust, prawns, fillets, and frozen minnows from the angling centre these are all very good foods that can be fed to your oscar but pls dont be giving the treats as the oscars main diet as for a fit and healthy oscar a high quality pellet food is a must needed food 

a nother realy good thing that most oscars will benefit from is a nice strong air pump that will fill the aquarium with oxergen as the higher temps that oscars need means the aquarium contains much less oxergen so its highly adviced that a air pump rated for more than 3 times the aquarium size is recomended

oscars some times start fighting and need their aquarium re aranging to stop terrotoryal fighting as if you re arange the aquarium the oscars will re make their terrotorys so any terrotoryal fighting should be stopped this way as the oscars have a chance to re make their terrotorys

heres a help full link on the basics of the diseases that oscars can get 
Oscar Fish Disease

hope yous like the care sheet and any questions pls coment and rate


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## Mynki (Mar 24, 2010)

Slightly better than the first one.

I would have expected comprehensive info on breeding oscars if it's a "full" care sheet. As well as :-

The different man made aquarium strains.
The differences in temperament between wild caught and captive bred examples, as they vary a lot. Believe me, I've kept and bred both!

Aquascaping an oscar tank. Suggesting a bare bottomedd tank is a bad idea. The reflection from lighting is unnatural. Occasionally they like to dig. Especially at breeding time.

The list of suitable tankmates is very subjective at best. I'd be surprisedd too if you'll find pumpkinseeds in the UK these days. Unless you have the relevant ILFA license (Has the list been copied from a north american forum by any chance?).

As forum member CPT BJ will tell you, they grow bigger than 16". I caught one larger than that in the turner river once, south florida. So I did like your opening sentences as few people know they're in north america these days. Cold snaps tend to kill off entire populations mind...


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## CPT BJ (Oct 30, 2010)

Same as above i read your origonal and its better but you are still missing info, i had a pair one was around 6-7 yrs old and the other was about 5/6 when i sold them on and they were easily 16-17" on the biggest, also ive found them to be very mellow and have kept them with stingrays (potamotrygon) aswell.


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## Ruby Rue (Mar 21, 2008)

You've mentioned that the oscar needs an air pump, as the temperature needs to be higher, so as to compensate for lower O2 levels in warmer water add the pump. Without reference to the temperature/range needed.


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## Victor Creed (Aug 25, 2010)

Blue Acaras are not a good choice of tankmate....the oscar grows MUCH faster and will probably EAT the Acara. Oscars are assumed to be aggressive, but they're really just big and hungry. When it comes to keeping them w/ other aggressive fish, they can be killed or beat-up by many species....I've even had one that was killed by a pair of Convicts. Also Synodontis are African and prefer different water parameters than oscars.

Honestly, that sheet looks as if it were written by a small child still in grade school.


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## Blurboy (Feb 9, 2007)

The list of tank mates is seriously not right as some are way way too small and grow at totally different rates to Oscars and so will probably end up bullied or eaten. As for bare bottom that's a no no as the reflections will cause problems.

Oscars do NOT need keeping at high temperatures and will thrive at lower more normal tropical temps but anything that causes the water to be oxygenated more is always good for better water quality.


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