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I konow they love to dig and make mounds, but I'm thinking about their water quality...I bet I could do a 100% better job at removing waste if there was no gravel in there. I dont think they would mind as much as my pike cichlid and lace cat would, which are both beautiful specimens. I would not want to cause stress to them either. Keep in mind that I would still have driftwood and large plants in there, I was just wondering about removing the gravel.

Your thoughts...
Thanks, Adam.

Bare bottom would be perfect for the watse machines that you have in that aquarium. Great fish but they ooze waste products with every pulse of their gills. Additionally, the oscars are messy eaters to compound the water quality issues. So bare bottom is a great way to go to keep quality up and frustrations to a minimum.

Pot the large plants into big clay pots and you can have a fully mobile interior!



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"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I can tell you now - you have a bare tank bottom, and you will get bored fish. Oscars LIKE to dig. How would you like to be locked in an empty room with a chair and a bed and nothing else? Sounds like a prison cell to me...

If you can't handle doing PROPER gravel vacuums, then don't own an Oscar.

With my Oscars, i keep a thin substrate of gravel on the bottom (about 1" deep at the deepest point). I do 2 weekly water changes of approx. 15%, and that's enough water to allow me to turn ALL of the 1" max gravel depth over for 1/2 of the tank. So, 2 water changes per week = all gravel turned over and clean. Nitrates never peak above 15ppm.

I also don't like potted plants for Oscars. Give them something they can destroy, if it keeps them happy. Something they can rip out of the gravel and move around or chase will make them very happy. It does with my 'boys'.

I can totally understand wanting to have a 'pretty' tank, and certainly Oscars can be beautiful fish and impressive with their size... but really, they have a reputation for being 'water dogs'. If you want a fish you can interact with and interacts back - something with peculiar trates you can watch for hours - then get an O. If you don't... buy another breed... just like you would a mutt or a show dog. Oscars are not show dogs, they like to get muddy and play.

I've kept Oscars for years, oh I can handle PROPER water changes...

The thing is I have three Oscars, in a tank which I previously used for a planted discus setup...four plus inches of gravel in there...thats a lot of siphoning time...

Just a thought...

Well... just reduce the amount of gravel in there I said an inch works for me. They don't need heaps, just enough so they can have a little dig and feel good playing 'shovel head'.

Bare bottom tanks are fine. The biggest problem with them, is your biological filter will not be as strong, as the gravel creates a large surface area for the biological filter bacteria to grow on. So... if you do go with the bare bottom tank, I recommend you either do more water changes, or increase your filter capacity, using filters with large biological filters on them. Such as bio-wheels or bio-balls in them.

1-2 inches is plenty of gravel. Any more and you are actually just waiting for problems. As an increase in substrate depth, can cause anaerobic bacterial growth, depending on the size of the gravels. This can cause drastic ammonia spikes if the fish dig or just the gravel is turned up after a significant time period. As when the oxygen reaches any of the anaerobic bacteria, it will kill them off immediately. This die off will cause a huge waste produced, thusly causing a spike in the ammonia levels.

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There is always a bigger fish...

not only will the fish get board but so will you. do you know how ugly bare bottom tanks are. they look boaring and show every little peice of dirt. i have used bare bottom on my breeding tanks but i would never use it on one of my show off tank. who wants to look at dirty, bare tank all the time.

chris

Thats a very intersting thought of having a bare bottom tank. Very ingenious.

Chris