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I am not totally new to the tanks but I was talked into getting a pair of beautiful oscars. But my water has turned cloudy. Any and all suggestions on keeping these wonderfull fish healthy will be welcomed. I am totally out of my league on the proper care of these fish.<br>thank you for your time <img src='/images/forums/puppy.gif' border=0><a href="mailto:null">null</a></font>[/font]

Hello and welcome to FP

!st i recommend you look for the link at the top and read the FAQ's section on starting a new tank.

2nd- well need to know a few things to help you

what tank size
what filtration
and all those other tank details, would be a great help.

I currently have them residing in a 55 gallon hex tank.
They have a gravel bottom. There are no plants in the tank. The filtration system is a aqua-tech cartridge filter system. But I would take suggestions on a better system. I must tell you I live an hour from any large aquar. supply store.Again thank you for your time!

Altho a 55 gal hex will work for your oscars, its not the ideal tank for these guys. As by now I am sure you have figured out, oscars are very dirty fish in that they produce a lot of waste. Ideally you should have roughly 8x filtration per hour to keep the tank clean, as part of that filtration its a good idea to have a power head or two that sweeps your gravel, forcing the mulm and detritus into the water column and thus making it possible for your filters to remove it from the tank. Where it me, I think I would go with 2 canister type filters, place one lead long and the other short. This way you will be working more of the column in order to remove as much waste as possible, also I would use 2 powerheads at gravel level. With this being a hex tank I believe I would also aerate the tank as the surface area isn't what it should be. You can do that by attaching the airline to the fresh air intake on your powerheads, this way they serve 2 functions for the price of 1. The clouding you are experiencing now is most likely an algae bloom brought on by the increased bioload that you have placed on the tank, these are dirty fish remember.

Last edited by tanker at 08-Jun-2005 17:11

was the tank cycled before adding the fish? if not then its new tank syndrom. bacterial influx due to the increase in ammonia that comes from fish waste.

lets nip this in the bud. this tank is not suitable for 2 oscars i dont care how much filtration and airation you add to it im sorry. there is arguably bairly enough room for a single oscar but i doubt anyone will argue 2 is far to much.

personally i suggest a 6ft tank for 2 oscars (125g ) atleast. some might suggest a 90g but this is not much bigger then a 75g and i believe a 75g tank is the minimum for a single oscar. even with 2 oscars in a 6ft tank you would need to get them from a batch of 6 and grow them out and let them naturally pair up otherwise they will get more and more aggressive as they get more territorial when they get older.

hope this info helps

The tank had already completed several cycles before the oscars where introduced to their new habitat. I currently have a 75 gallon tank that is occupied by other fish. I can and will when the oscars get alittle bigger transfer them to the bigger tank. They did come from the same grouping and have been getting along great. Is there some concern that they may not at a later time?

I hate to disagree with sin, but, I breed oscars in 55 regulars. A 55 is just fine for even full grown oscars so long as it is properly filtered. These aren't athletic fish, for the most part they are quite sedentary when compared to other varieties of cichlids. Oscars are content to hover in a small section of tank for hours at a time. The only time oscars get truly rowdy is when fighting or feeding. If you have a breeding pair the fighting isnt an issue, that leaves feeding. If well fed, the feeding aggression can be minimized as well. With oscars its not so much the free roaming space as it is the ability to keep the water clean. With proper filtration this isnt a problem. Thats not to say go and cram an oscar into a 30 gal tank, a 30 gal truly is to small, but a 4ft 55 gal tank is more than enough space for even a pair of oscars. What I had said about the hex working still holds true, tho not the ideal tank for the job it still has the volume of water to make it work, provided you have proper filtration and adequate aeration.

maybe the tank isn't proply cycled?

water quality wasnt my issue with a 5gg its more so about space. possable 16 inches..more often then not 12-14 inches. measure a 55g tank and its 12 inches. try to picture a 14 or 16 inch oscar turning in a 12 inch wide tank.

U never added boiling water to the tank to get the temperature up in a hurry did you? that makes water cloudy...Oscars are quite a dirty fish! Excellent filtration is needed! over feeding them also would cause murkyness and water cloudyness!...Do a water changem see how u go!

Thanks for everyone's help. I am planning a water change this weekend....and a new filter system.

Just remember regular weekly water changes About 20-30% a week should be enough.

I agree with Sin and beleive that oscars need their space once they grow full size. Seeing full grown oscars in small tanks isn't nice.

Well, good luck with the oscars.


Last edited by PJ at 10-Jun-2005 04:50