6 Adult Oscars in a 100 Gallon Tank
- Thread starter Vibsee
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- 100 gallons oscars overstocked
Too small long term. Applaud the water changes though... You are one of the few no doubt.
Hmmm.. people here who see me going at the tank for my relentless and vigourous water changes say I have a clean tank OCD.. 
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another question..
why do the fish get spooked while eating floating pellets? they all go for the pellets together and then rush down at lightening speed a couple of times during each meal.. sometimes banging themselves on the aquarium wall.. or on the rocks.. I disperse the pellets all over the tank and then quickly and gently shut the roof.. and then slowly walk away and watch them from afar.. but they do it every time.. has anyone had a similar experience? when I used to keep blood parrots, they never showed this behavior. But the oscars do.
.. another question..
why do the fish get spooked while eating floating pellets? they all go for the pellets together and then rush down at lightening speed a couple of times during each meal.. sometimes banging themselves on the aquarium wall.. or on the rocks.. I disperse the pellets all over the tank and then quickly and gently shut the roof.. and then slowly walk away and watch them from afar.. but they do it every time.. has anyone had a similar experience? when I used to keep blood parrots, they never showed this behavior. But the oscars do.
And I could be wrong.. But I think keeping 3 adult oscars in a 100 gall isn't bad at all.. theres enough space for each of them and the water could be kept in good condition.. so I plan to keep one breeding pair and a single oscar in each of my 2 tanks..
Seems like only people around here actually do what they should in terms of water quality maintenence. 3 to a 100 gallon would be too much for me, but Im not saying its wrong. Ive had bad luck with Oscars but havent tried in a few years... hith etc.
Agreed, HITH shows up all too easy with Oscars. As soon as the WC's start to slip... that's another reason 6 oscars in a 100g is a bad bad idea.
I've seen Oscars get between 16-20 in a public aquarium. Most likely they only reach 12-14 in a home one.
The biggest reason I don't own Oscars is because of how sensitive they are to HITH. One slip and they get it.
Good luck, hope this keeps working for you.
The biggest reason I don't own Oscars is because of how sensitive they are to HITH. One slip and they get it.
Good luck, hope this keeps working for you.
i commend you on striving to keep the water quality acceptable, but looking at this logically; if you have to do 30% water changes a day, just to stay at 10-20 nitrates; this suggests to me the bioload is far, far too heavy.
I can't suggest an estimate or idea of what the ideal parameters are in terms of bioload, but to give an example on my side, bioload in planted tanks etc is such that I could neglect to do a water change for 6 months and be a-ok, and while the argument may be that this is due to smaller fish in smaller set-ups etc, if anything this would strengthen the argument on having a balanced ecosystem that can mostly balance itself out with appropriate sized tanks. The set-up in question would destabilise, in what; 4-5 days? Very, very risky and not advisable imo.
As others stated, id go down the route of a breeding pair; if you go do two 100 gals with 3 Oscars in each, I'd strongly expect a pairing then subsequent bullying, killing of the third weakest.
I can't suggest an estimate or idea of what the ideal parameters are in terms of bioload, but to give an example on my side, bioload in planted tanks etc is such that I could neglect to do a water change for 6 months and be a-ok, and while the argument may be that this is due to smaller fish in smaller set-ups etc, if anything this would strengthen the argument on having a balanced ecosystem that can mostly balance itself out with appropriate sized tanks. The set-up in question would destabilise, in what; 4-5 days? Very, very risky and not advisable imo.
As others stated, id go down the route of a breeding pair; if you go do two 100 gals with 3 Oscars in each, I'd strongly expect a pairing then subsequent bullying, killing of the third weakest.
a breeding pair of anything is likely to kill all tankmates, especially if it's only 3rd fish.....there's not even any other fish to distribute the aggression so the pair are just going to constantly be bombarding that one fish until it's dead.
I don't think your water change schedule is OCD, it is probably the reason they are still healthy in what I consider a slightly overstocked tank.
But I do think a level of 10-20ppm nitrate is stressful, and one of the reasons most aquarium kept oscars get "chronic" HITH. I always tried to keep my nitrate level at 2-5ppm. In nature nitrates are often much lower, I worked in a water plant where I had to test raw Lake Michigan water for nitrate level daily, and for most of the year nitrates were <1ppm.
I also believe there are plenty of other stress causing components to water that are relieved with water changes, and not mentioned in normal aquarium keeping info, pheromones, silica, let alone the urine constantly produced by fish water fish.
But I do think a level of 10-20ppm nitrate is stressful, and one of the reasons most aquarium kept oscars get "chronic" HITH. I always tried to keep my nitrate level at 2-5ppm. In nature nitrates are often much lower, I worked in a water plant where I had to test raw Lake Michigan water for nitrate level daily, and for most of the year nitrates were <1ppm.
I also believe there are plenty of other stress causing components to water that are relieved with water changes, and not mentioned in normal aquarium keeping info, pheromones, silica, let alone the urine constantly produced by fish water fish.
