What size tank do you need for an oscar? Can they live solo? Also, can you raise the oscars on a fish free diet? They are really cute, but there is no way I'm feeding goldfish to an oscar. Thanks!

A 55g minimum for an adult, they'll happily live by themselves and no you dont ahve to feed them live fish. You can get specially formulated pellets for them, add in some vegetation, frozen brineshrimp, frozen bloodworms and maybe some other sort of meat when they become adults, like fish but nah they dont need live food.

Thanks for the info!

Hey was searching the net about them my self, I found this site to be really good http://www.firsttankguide.net/oscar.php a lot of good advice i found on that site. The only thing I disagre with is the pacu tank mates, IMO pacus get far to big to be housed domesticaly. I think catfish make good tank mates, like rapheal cats and some medium large plecs ones that grow up to 20 cm maybe? I know people have housed them with things like Jack Dempseys and Red Terrors, I think if I had a good enough tank I would maybe have 1 Oscarm, 2 Uaru and a Rapheal Catfish.

Over on a different forum there is a oscar owner that keeps his/hers in a pond. The little guy seemed really happy. It was cute. If you can't afford another tank, try a pond! Just something I thought I would throw out there. If you want a tank I would also say 55 gallons minimum for one fish. I think its better to keep them alone. They can become very territorial so injuries and fights might be frequent.

Sure you can feed them on a no fish diet. Goldfish aren't that good anyways unless you have owned and cared for them for about 3 months. Guppies are easy to prepare and healthier. If you don't want to feed fish then I would feed blood worms, or some other type of nutritious frozen food. Gut loaded crickets can also be fed.

Don't ask me why but my local petco had 2 adult oscars living in a 40 gallon "wave" tank. They were labeled as "not for sale" Why would they have them there if they aren't for sale? Beautiful tiger and albino though. Killed their rubber lip pleco tank mate. I went to buy crickets for my lizard and saw that they were gone and the tank was drained this week.I wonder what the deal was with them.

seeing how big oscars in person, they can get huge! i would not suggest anything less that 75 gallons

Id say 75 minimum too and there is absolutely no need to feed live fish.

Thanks for all the information. At this time, I don't have a big enough tank. I didn't know if it would work or not. Oscars are cute!! Everytime I've seen them at the pet store, they've always been eager to try and eat my finger.

Angel

55 gallon minimum each, but of course the bigger the better. I have had Oscars several times in my life. I liked the live fish feeding, but it is not necessary. You can feed him pellets. They also have frozen cubes of blood worms, and shrimp. I used to throw the whole cube in there and they loved it. Mine were very large though. You can also feed them people food, but I never tried it, so I do not know which types are proper.

good luck on finding a big tank for the oscars