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| sci name: Astronotus ocellatus Size Oscars are very large fish for an aquarium. They can grow to be 18 inches, but this is very rare and happens only if they are kept in very large aquariums and fed a lot. Mostly they will only grow to be 12 inches. Food They will eat pretty much anything that you put in their tank that they can fit in their mouth. Most people feed them live minnows, but sometimes these can give them diseases such as hole in the head. The best food would be cichlid pellets. These are very cheap but not all oscars will like them. Another great food for small oscars is are brine shrimp either frozen or live. For bigger oscars you can feed them frozen tubifex worms that are brocken into large pieces and inserted into the tank while still frozen. If you decide to feed them goldfish, there is a medication that you can buy to prevent the goldfish from giving the oscar hole in the head. Also I suggest cichlid gold by Hikari...this is a pellet type food. There are also some other foods listed to the right with links to petsmart.com. Tankmates There are several good tankmates for oscars. here are some of them. PACU: These are commonly seen with oscars in large tanks. Pacus can grow to be 30 inches, but this is very rare. The most common size for a pacu is about 18 inches. They will eat small fishes when they are large but usually will only eat worms and flake foods and will eat fruits and vegetables. PLECOSTUMES: These are also seen with oscars and make great tankmates. They can grow to be 18 inches, but this takes awhile. They like to eat the algae off of the side of the tank but you can also feed them algae wafers. They will eat the leftover food. When they are large, they may eat small fish. Tank They oscars should have a tank of at least999999999999gallon (just kidding) they should have about 55 gallons for one of them. 75 is good for two of them but you could have three if you had a very strong filter. It is good if they have dark gravel, but they do not need gravel because without gravel it is very easy to clean since oscars make a huge amount of waste. The filtration should be enough to filter all of the water at least five times in an hour eg a 30 gallon tank should have a filter that does 150 gph (gallons per hour). |