I recently got an oscar in a 65 gallon from a friend who moved, the oscar is about 12 years old and has never lived with plants before. she is blind but still pushes stuff around in her tank, such as huge rocks. I was wondering if anyone has some ideas for plants I could put in with her that would not get destroyed by getting tossed around. I was also wondering if anyone had a good idea for tankmates. I am going to try some ghost shrimp later this week to see if they live, with her being blind I think they have some chance, but if not at least they are cheap.
oscar tank, can I plant it?
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Ghost shrimp will be as good as dead if you put them in there. Even if the fish is blind it has good enough scent to track them down eventually.
As far as plants go, you really don't have many options. Most large cichlids seem to have there own ideas as to how the tank should look so IMO you will be fighting and uphill battle there. I feel like I have read a thread like this in the past though and a couple of suggestions were put forward. Among them was banana plants, they don't necessarily need to root to grow so the oscar can push them around w/o really hurting them much. If it decides to take a bite out of them though that is a different story. The only other plants i can think of are floaters like riccia or RRFs. They might also get eaten however. There are really no safe bets with larger cichlids.
As far as tank mates... Most South American cichlids do best with their own kind. That said, they can be aggressive to any unfamiliar tank mate so adding them at the same time and letting them grow up together is usually your best bet. If you could find another mature oscar though I feel that would be your best bet. Keep an eye on adotion tanks at local pet stores, ppl tend to return them when they outgrow their setups.
As far as plants go, you really don't have many options. Most large cichlids seem to have there own ideas as to how the tank should look so IMO you will be fighting and uphill battle there. I feel like I have read a thread like this in the past though and a couple of suggestions were put forward. Among them was banana plants, they don't necessarily need to root to grow so the oscar can push them around w/o really hurting them much. If it decides to take a bite out of them though that is a different story. The only other plants i can think of are floaters like riccia or RRFs. They might also get eaten however. There are really no safe bets with larger cichlids.
As far as tank mates... Most South American cichlids do best with their own kind. That said, they can be aggressive to any unfamiliar tank mate so adding them at the same time and letting them grow up together is usually your best bet. If you could find another mature oscar though I feel that would be your best bet. Keep an eye on adotion tanks at local pet stores, ppl tend to return them when they outgrow their setups.
He'll probably eat those too :icon_mrgr
I had an old Oscar. He was incharge of quality control when I used to bred fish. He was in a 70 gl. with huge pleco. No mater what when in the tank other than that pleco he destroyed it. Eventually, it was "decorated" with a 1/2 clay pot broke down the middle that the pleco lived under. I also had a 3" pc of PVC attached to a PVC elbow. That he would move around his tank. Which I would also move just to Tick him off.
Oscars become more like a junk yard bulldog than fish after a while. Mine would take feeder goldfish and nightcrawlers from my fingers...and the jerk would grab my finger once in a while too.
Some might say sword in a clay pot, with rocks around the plant....I tried that, it worked...NOT SO good. All that was left was 1/2 the broken pot that became the pleco house.
Someone asked about bricks in an Oscar tank on another thread.I gad bricks on the glass top. :icon_mrgr
I miss that rotten old fish
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