Oscars and HOB Filters

FishKid0978

Black Skirt Tetra
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Sep 12, 2018
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Your not going to like this but your at max capacity with an Oscar. At a yr your looking at roughly an 8-10" fish then with another few yrs a fat 12" or more oscar. Its a lot of fish for a 75 there's not much room for anything not considered food.

You could go with something expendable for awhile. A lot of people do dithers until they're fish gets big enough to not be shy
Ok, What about a ghost knife or something like a silver shark
Thank you for you help
 

Rocksor

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Ok, What about a ghost knife or something like a silver shark
Thank you for you help
If the silver shark is a Bala Shark, then I would not do that in a 75g by itself.

It's best to stock for the life of the fish, so 2 12"+ fish (Oscar & BGK) in a 75 gallon is a lot of fish in ~2 years. It takes a lot of water changes to maintain less than 20ppm in nitrates.

For perspective, see post # 7, oscar in a 75 gallon tank, which has outside dimension of about 18", so this guy looks to be anywhere from 15-16" TL easily, and it's body height is close to 40% of the water depth.

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/forum/index.php?topic=31996.0

View attachment 1333635
 

FishKid0978

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Sep 12, 2018
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If the silver shark is a Bala Shark, then I would not do that in a 75g by itself.

It's best to stock for the life of the fish, so 2 12"+ fish (Oscar & BGK) in a 75 gallon is a lot of fish in ~2 years. It takes a lot of water changes to maintain less than 20ppm in nitrates.

For perspective, see post # 7, oscar in a 75 gallon tank, which has outside dimension of about 18", so this guy looks to be anywhere from 15-16" TL easily, and it's body height is close to 40% of the water depth.

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/forum/index.php?topic=31996.0

View attachment 1333635
K, After reading that do you think I would be able to permanently keep 1 oscar in there by itself or would I have to eventually upgrade
And what about a pleco for it, ik there a easy and peaceful breed of fish
 

Rocksor

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If you get your Oscar to 13" total length, then you can start saving up for a wider and longer tank.

I wouldn't add a pleco until you can get a minimum 5'x2' tank, it's just more work unless you have a bigger tank
 

Go_redfish

Redtail Catfish
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Jul 21, 2018
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I have a 12 inch oscar in 125 gallons and its alot of work to keep clean. (Daily water testing, 10% daily water change, 90% on Sunday) I'm running 2 HOBs and a sump on a bare bottom. Only fish in the tank is her and a bristle nose pleco. She makes turds as thick as pencils. Not to mention these fish can live 15-20 yrs.

I'm not saying don't get one. I'm just saying be ready. Because if you aren't willing to make that commitment there are easier fish to keep.
 

FreshyFresh

Peacock Bass
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Aug 24, 2015
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I keep an O and a green severum together in a 75g tank. Have had just the 2 together in this setup for 6yrs. Two large HOBs would be great for an O and some SDs in my opinion. I would use 2 aquaclear 110s as suggested above. I currently have a seachem tidal 110 and a marineland C360 canister on my 75, but don't care for the seachem. I had an AC110 in it's place, but used it for another setup.

I feed my fish decent pellet food as a main staple (hikari bio gold plus), with occasional dry goods like shrimp or worms and occasional fresh veggies. I gravel vac weekly during the tank's ~80% WWC. Tank is spotless. Nitrates never exceed 20ppm. The HOB does the majority of the mechanical filtration.
 

LBDave

Peacock Bass
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Nov 27, 2018
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As far as the filter, I really like sump filters. Easy to maintain.
As far as silver dollars, I would suggest 4 or 5. I have 3 that are about 4" in with 4 oscars beit a larger tank. Yes they are skittish and sort of rambunctious.
75 gal probably not the best for Oscars. They will outgrow it.
Other good tank mates are earth eaters such as jurupari. They also help clean the tank.
Personally I don't recommend africans with oscars.
 
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james99

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I wouldn't do silver dollars in a 4ft tank. I have spotted silvers, which are a smaller species, and they constantly have skin missing off of their noses from charging across the 6ft tank and hitting the wall.
 

pops

Alligator Gar
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Nov 24, 2013
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2 AC110 fine for filtering both bio and mechanical long as you clean them at least 2 times a week and running something like seachem matrix.

but the bottom line is you need a bigger tank for an Oscar, 90 tall or a 125.


the AC110 will take care of the bio filtration but your nitrate creep will need frequent 90% or fin level water changes again at least twice a week. sump can supplement that with greater water volume as would a larger tank.

I always looked to have water volume/stock that let me change water once a week, Saturday for me. changing 90% or fine level twice a week gets to be a pain and when things are a pain we tend to slack off and pass off to the next changing schedule.
 
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