Oscars In Planted Tanks.

[Supalah17]

I found out early this morning that my Uncle passed away... He was one of the biggest influences in getting me into the hobby... Jimmy had been a professional breeder of several types of fish for over 50 years, but by far and away, his favorite fish has always been the Oscar. In the years before his health got bad, he had upwards of 50 adults in his fish room (which was really his entire house).

So, my natural desire is to make one of my 120g tanks home to an Oscar as a memorial to Uncle Jimmy, with an Oscar named Jimmy in his honor. The problem I have run into: all of my tanks are planted. The one I planned on is mostly stone with Java moss covering the rock work, Anubias, some crypts, and some Valisnera. The only other Denison of the tank is a TT Eel only about 6” long that never leaves his rocky tunnels.

Given Oscars have a rep of destroying 99% of all plants, does anyone have any tips, tricks, suggestions, success stories, etc, on how to get an Oscar to ignore the plants? Or am I going to have to take out all the plants in the end? I’d love to keep what plants are there if possible.

 

[FLA]

I am very sorry to hear about your loss. Losing family is always hard. It only gets harder when you share fish keeping together. Out of curiosity what was he breeding professionally?

As for oscars, I love them. They are such great fish with such great personality. Unfortunately I doubt you are going to keep any plants. The only thing I can say is if the anubias are firmly rooted to very large rocks they might make it. Java moss will probably survive, but assume you are going to have it balled up wherever he wants it. It has been years since I had an oscar but he put his tank the way he wanted it and I had no say. I wasn't able to keep plastic plants in one place very long. The only way I see the plants staying is if you put a cage around them that he cannot get into. For me that ruins the aesthetic. If you want it scaped I would look for a big piece of driftwood or some really nice rocks or fossils.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has had better luck.

 

[Thyroyalgeek]

4 words. They destroy, without eating.

 

[Thyroyalgeek]

Also, very sorry about you're loss, had a loss of my own recently.......

 

[Bertie07]

I’ve seen some planted oscar tanks, java fern and Anubis will be your best bet but it really depends on the oscar

 

[le0p]

New here, but I've kept an oscar in a planted tank before with no real issues. It was HEAVILY planted and everything was rooted and stable before he went in. He spent about a year there before the tank was converted to saltwater. The only thing I can think of that might have had an effect was he shared the tank with a large african clawed frog, perhaps that kept him from spending too much time tearing things up? I can't really say for sure, my past experiences with oscars were not in planted tanks so maybe I just got lucky.

 

[Rocksor]

If you don't mind cleaning up if the oscar destroys the plants, then just try it. Jimmy the oscar may be fine with the plants.

 

[Supalah17]

I am very sorry to hear about your loss. Losing family is always hard. It only gets harder when you share fish keeping together. Out of curiosity what was he breeding professionally?

As for oscars, I love them. They are such great fish with such great personality. Unfortunately I doubt you are going to keep any plants. The only thing I can say is if the anubias are firmly rooted to very large rocks they might make it. Java moss will probably survive, but assume you are going to have it balled up wherever he wants it. It has been years since I had an oscar but he put his tank the way he wanted it and I had no say. I wasn't able to keep plastic plants in one place very long. The only way I see the plants staying is if you put a cage around them that he cannot get into. For me that ruins the aesthetic. If you want it scaped I would look for a big piece of driftwood or some really nice rocks or fossils.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has had better luck.

Thank you, he was very sick last few years so I at least take solace that he isn’t suffering anymore. He bred lion fish and a few species of saltwater puffers and other saltwater predators, traveled to national show fish competitions for around 30 years, but that last 20 he switched to freshwater and bred discus and Oscars, salt water was too expensive and too much work after he ritired from the first round of cancer.

 

[Supalah17]

New here, but I've kept an oscar in a planted tank before with no real issues. It was HEAVILY planted and everything was rooted and stable before he went in. He spent about a year there before the tank was converted to saltwater. The only thing I can think of that might have had an effect was he shared the tank with a large african clawed frog, perhaps that kept him from spending too much time tearing things up? I can't really say for sure, my past experiences with oscars were not in planted tanks so maybe I just got lucky.

The tank isn’t heavily planted, but the crypts and Val are all placed in between large stones that are siliconed to the bottom of the aquarium, I’m hoping that if he can’t get at the roots, maybe he won’t just destroy the tops of the plants.

 

[Supalah17]

Also, very sorry about you're loss, had a loss of my own recently.......

Equally sorry for your own loss, I was hoping the placements of my hard scape being fixed in place with silicone and the roots all being shielded (except the Anubias but they’re all quite grown out on heavy stone) would minimize the destruction