100 Gallon Oscar Tank

[Truetommy]

Hi all, it has been quite a few years since posting or setting up a tank. I recently moved and want to get back into the hobby by setting up my 100 Gallon tank. Tank is 5 ft x 18 in. My girlfriend really wants to stock the tank with a single Oscar as a wet pet. I haven’t kept an Oscar before, but have kept numerous other sa/ca cichlids.
My question is, what have you kept with Oscar’s in a similar tank size, and what would you recommend? Or would you just keep the single Oscar?
My initial thoughts were maybe a few convicts, firemouths , or even some earth eaters.

 

[fishhead0103666]

I would recommend no less than a 6’ x 2’ for an Oscar unfortunately.

 

[Jexnell]

I suggest you first find out what type of water you will be using for your water changes. Typically city water is harder and higher PH than Oscar's can tolerate. That's why we see so many sick with Hole in head disease. You may be ok if drawing water from a well. Then again could be just as bad as the city supplied water.
So it's best to find out what water you will be using for the water changes and then pick a fish that thrives in the water.

 

[Truetommy]

I suggest you first find out what type of water you will be using for your water changes. Typically city water is harder and higher PH than Oscar's can tolerate. That's why we see so many sick with Hole in head disease. You may be ok if drawing water from a well. Then again could be just as bad as the city supplied water.
So it's best to find out what water you will be using for the water changes and then pick a fish that thrives in the water.

That’s a good point, I have not gotten around to testing tap water parameters. I’m going to assume you are right and is probably in the higher ph range and harder than an Oscar would thrive in.

 

[Truetommy]

I would recommend no less than a 6’ x 2’ for an Oscar unfortunately.

I appreciate the response, looks like I will be looking into smaller wet pets, more tolerable of hard high ph water

 

[Jexnell]

Look at a single male Jack Dempsey or a pair.
You could go with a breeding pair or even a colony of most of Amatitlania family.
Pick a nice livebearer like Swordtails or Plattys for a dither fish.

Here is a colony of Honduran Red Points in a 40b

 

[Truetommy]

I suggest you first find out what type of water you will be using for your water changes. Typically city water is harder and higher PH than Oscar's can tolerate. That's why we see so many sick with Hole in head disease. You may be ok if drawing water from a well. Then again could be just as bad as the city supplied water.
So it's best to find out what water you will be using for the water changes and then pick a fish that thrives in the water.

Just tested the tap water, ph looks to be between 7-7.5, kh 40ppm, and gh between 30-60ppm. Do you think these water parameters would be acceptable for most sa/ca cichlids? If so any recommendations on a wet pet that would strive in my 5ft 100 gallon tank?

 

[Jexnell]

I would lean more towards Centrals or South American that are from West of the Andes mts.

For a 5ft tank and a wet pet type of situation I would look at a single Green terror, Jack Dempsey, or Convict. Amphilophus typically get bigger 12 to 14 in so I wouldn't go that route for a 5ft tank. I mentioned Gt and JD as they typically stay around 10in.

Now remember the thing with Wet pets is the time spent with them. Have the tank in the room you will spend most of your time in. The more time spent with him interacting the better of a wet pet it will make.
For instance, my Saggitae is just so curios of me all it takes is me moving my arm and he will stop whatever he's doing and come to the front glass and see what's up.


Two big keys is the fish being solo. Even "cleaner" fish like plecos or catfish can and will be a distraction. And lastly like I said before spend time with him and lots of it the more time spent the more you get out of it.

Can you imagine, I got Casper trained to swim into nets so I could clean his tank without fear of bites.
Here is the wrath of Casper, that lead me to teach him this....

 

[Truetommy]

I would lean more towards Centrals or South American that are from West of the Andes mts.

For a 5ft tank and a wet pet type of situation I would look at a single Green terror, Jack Dempsey, or Convict. Amphilophus typically get bigger 12 to 14 in so I wouldn't go that route for a 5ft tank. I mentioned Gt and JD as they typically stay around 10in.

Now remember the thing with Wet pets is the time spent with them. Have the tank in the room you will spend most of your time in. The more time spent with him interacting the better of a wet pet it will make.
For instance, my Saggitae is just so curios of me all it takes is me moving my arm View attachment 1529837and he will stop whatever he's doing and come to the front glass and see what's up.
View attachment 1529838

Two big keys is the fish being solo. Even "cleaner" fish like plecos or catfish can and will be a distraction. And lastly like I said before spend time with him and lots of it the more time spent the more you get out of it.

Can you imagine, I got Casper trained to swim into nets so I could clean his tank without fear of bites.View attachment 1529843
Here is the wrath of Casper, that lead me to teach him this....
View attachment 1529844

Thanks for the advice, btw Casper is a beauty. The tank will be going in my home office/ gaming room, so definitely will be spending a good amount of time in there. Honestly after reading through some other posts and your advice from earlier. I’m really torn between a solo GT or a nicely planted tank with a convict pair and letting some of the fry grow out in the tank with them. Don’t want to rush my decision though as I will likely be confined to the one tank plus maybe a 15 or so for fry if needed. Already fighting the urge to put a larger tank in the basement lol.

 

[Jexnell]

Honestly I would do the Convicts first. The amount of room the tank will give them compared to the room a bigger fish would have in there is night and day difference.