Oscar tank

[Chinnavar]

Hellooo,

I always wanted to have an oscar or 2, I recently found this cheap second hand Juwel rio 450 ( Dimensions are 151 x 51 x66 cm). Now I was wondering if it would be big enough for 2 oscars, a poly or 2 and a clean up crew and which filter would be ideal for this setup? Since I can save a lot of money on the aquarium itself I can pump (hah) some more money into the whole filter setup.

What are your thoughts?


Thanks in advance!

 

[Rocksor]

1 Oscar and 1 poly or 2 friendly oscars

I would equate a poly as having the same bioload as a 11-12" pleco.

If you are willing to do large water changes (over 50%) every 3 days or so to keep nitrates below 20ppm, you could increase the poly count to 2.

Any clean up crew would actually put more waste into the tank than not having a clean up crew.

 

[Chinnavar]

1 Oscar and 1 poly or 2 friendly oscars

I would equate a poly as having the same bioload as a 11-12" pleco.

If you are willing to do large water changes (over 50%) every 3 days or so to keep nitrates below 20ppm, you could increase the poly count to 2.

Any clean up crew would actually put more waste into the tank than not having a clean up crew.

Thanks for the reply! I'd like a setup where I only need to do a water change once a week, if i'd only get 1 oscar and a poly and maybe a smaller dither/schooling fish. What kind of filter would suffice for that?

 

[Rocksor]

If you only want to change the water once a week at 75-80% of the water, then only 1 oscar and 1 poly as adults. Dithers large enough not to be eaten by the poly would just be like having a second poly.

 

[duanes]

One of the reasons (I believe) many oscars end up with HTH and other scarring maladies, is the lack of water changes most aquarists do.
This practice causes chronic problems for oscars, and other large cichlids later on in life. (HITH, flared gill plates, and opens the door for many other bacterial problems)
Most cichlids come from very low nitrate waters (<5ppm), and the belief that 20ppm nitrate (or higher) is OK, is why oscars end turned to LFSs looking so terrible.
If your tap water has enough buffering capacity to keep your tank water from becoming oscar urine soup, you may get away with 1 water change per week, but remember oscars come from rivers where they are under complete water changes every few moments.

 

[Andy woods cichlids uk]

Nothing wrong with the filter that comes with the tank. I've 3 such tanks and filters. You can up grade the pump if you wanted. They come with a 1000ltr pump but you can get a 1500ltr up grade.

 

[Andy woods cichlids uk]

Doesn't matter how much you spend on a filter, as long as zero ammonia and nitrite, water changes are far more important. Low nitrate is the goal for long term health.
Pics of my juwel 450 ltr tanks
Only one fish per tank.
I love the filters so easy to clean.

 

[Chinnavar]

Doesn't matter how much you spend on a filter, as long as zero ammonia and nitrite, water changes are far more important. Low nitrate is the goal for long term health.
Pics of my juwel 450 ltr tanks
Only one fish per tank.
I love the filters so easy to clean.

View attachment 1293180 View attachment 1293181 View attachment 1293182

Damn boy, those are some big fish!
And as far as the filters go, I heard if you're keeping oscars you want to shoot for filtering atleast 3 times your aquariums water capacity per hour. So I was thinking of a fluvel FX6 or something haha

 

[Chinnavar]

One of the reasons (I believe) many oscars end up with HTH and other scarring maladies, is the lack of water changes most aquarists do.
This practice causes chronic problems for oscars, and other large cichlids later on in life. (HITH, flared gill plates, and opens the door for many other bacterial problems)
Most cichlids come from very low nitrate waters (<5ppm), and the belief that 20ppm nitrate (or higher) is OK, is why oscars end turned to LFSs looking so terrible.
If your tap water has enough buffering capacity to keep your tank water from becoming oscar urine soup, you may get away with 1 water change per week, but remember oscars come from rivers where they are under complete water changes every few moments.

Yeah, i've did some research on HITH, I really don't want to make an animal suffer or anything. What size of tank do you recommend for 2 oscars, a poly and around 5 SDs? Just wondering to what size tank I need to aim to for this idea!

 

[Rocksor]

At least a 180g tank that is 6'x2'. The water volume should be enough, as well as the foot print. The more fish you have, the more and larger water changes you have to do every few days.