Common Name: Oscar, Marble Cichlid, Velvet Cichlid
Scientific Name: Astronotus ocellatus
Maximum Size: 14 inches
Temperature Range: 72 – 81 °F
pH Range: 6.0 – 8.0
Temperament: Peaceful
Origin: Amazon River
The Oscar originated in the Amazon River of South America, but today most all Oscars sold are tank bred.
Aquarium Setup:
An Oscar is a big fish and needs a lot of water and space. They also don’t like to be alone so you should consider getting a pair, at the least. A general rule of thumb is 35 gallons per fish, that’s 70 gallons for a pair.
Oscars seem to enjoy redecorating their home. They will pull up plants, push ornaments around and dig through the rocks, so plants and decorations won’t be a good idea. Sometimes an Oscar will actually grab a plant or a rock and spit it out of the aquarium! Note: If you establish a large plant and cover the root structure with sufficent rocks your Oscar may learn to leave it alone.
A simple setup works best for this fish. All you need for a perfect Oscar tank is two to three inches of sand or very fine gravel and a few rocks. Large rocks are best and they should be placed directly on the bottom of the tank with the substrate filled in around them. The idea is to deter the Oscars from digging up the rocks and over turning them.
Tank Mates/Community:
Oscars are voracious eaters and will consider anything smaller than themselves as food. Here are a few ideal tank mates (Be sure they are similar in size to your Oscar):
- Loaches
- Other South American Cichids
- Plecos
- Scavenger Catfish
- Sharks
Diet:
An Oscar will eat almost anything you offer it, including table scraps. From personal experience I can tell you that they love earthworms. Visit a bait shop from time to time or better yet start a small worm farm of your own.
For convenience most people will use a commercially prepared pellet food formulated specifically for Oscars, bloodworms and tubifex worms. If you decide to use pellets, which is a wise choice, it is a good idea to supplement your Oscars diet with live earthworms, minnows, and crayfish. Some may be tempted to feed their Oscar with live goldfish or guppies. This is not a good idea as there is a high risk of transferring parasites to your fish.
Behavior:
The Oscar is often cited as the smartest fish. An Oscar actually learns to recognize its owner and can be taught to do tricks. This fish even enjoys being rubbed on the head and will often wag like a dog when you pet and touch it. Remember, if you ever want to touch your Oscar make sure your hands are clean and free of soap residue.
Oscars are voracious eaters and will consider anything smaller than themselves as food.
Coloring:
Oscars exhibit several different color patterns.
- Albino – Very light shades of orange and pink, sometimes almost white. The Albino Oscar often lacks the eye spot.
- Red – Orange to red with some dark gray shades and a prominent eye spot.
- Tiger – Vivid orange and red patterns on a bluish background and brightly colored eye spot.
- Zebra – Black and white patterns on a gray background and a prominent eye spot.
Breeding:
The keys to having your Oscars mate successfully are clean water and the correct temperature. Experts recommend that you change about one-fourth of the water every day. The temperature of the water should 
be increased to 80°F.
The female will want a large flat rock on which to lay her eggs, so make sure an appropriate one is available for her. She will lay around 1000 eggs on the upper surface of the rock and the male will fertilize them. At first the eggs will appear opaque, but after about 24 hours they will become transparent. Hatching occurs in only two or three days.
Soon after the eggs are laid the Oscars will go to work preparing nursery pits where the hatchlings will be moved to.
It should be noted that in some matings the male Oscar will kill his mate.
Don’t forget to visit our Aquarium Store. Also you can buy this fish today below:
I have two oscars the kid that have the little mouths, cant remember what they are called , but they do noting in the tank, they just hide and hang out around the heater, not much to watch in the tank, one is orange and on one is yellow with black, bug eyes
and i also have two large oscars, and we love them they come up and eat from our hands, just wondering what is it with this differnet breed of chiclid
I have a 6yr old tiger oscar. I’m moving him from a 70 Gal. to a 100Gal. tank… Whar would be the best method of transfer, with running least amount of danger to the fish?
I know you say they get to a max of 14′ but Oscie would be almost 15 and a half; the 70 just isn’t enough for him…
G-
P.S. If I were to try and introduce a mate, What would be the smallest size of a partner for him??
ty
I have 5 oscars about 3-inches each, 4 different species. How long could I keep them in an 80-90Gal. tank?
Kayle, I would say, 6 -8 months. They grow fast!
I HAVE A 2 YEAR OLD AUSTRALIAN OSCAR AN ITS REALLY BIG
I have eggs from two large oscars that I have had for five years. What is the best method to protecting the eggs? The Algae Eater has distroyed eggs from them overnight for about two weeks ago. Would it be safe to cover the eggs with one of their toys in the tank? Would the male Oscar need to fertilize the eggs? Please help?
kill all oscars
i have two tiger and one albino and one red oscar,,,total four,,,i have had them for nearly three years now,, i bought them when they were tiny ,,now each is at least 12 inchs and they are the best pets i have ever had them,,,my whole family loves them,,,
they were in a 50 gallon tank,,,now we have bought a 200 gallon tank for them and they are so happy,,,massive tank i can swim in there too,,,but im scared of getting eaten,,,as they swallow anything,,,thank you,,,love your oscar please,,,great species,,,
Can an Oscar be kept in a tall tank? I have a 55 gallon tall..its an older tank that my Grandmother kept her fish in when I was younger. I don’t want to set up a tank that won’t work for the fish I really want…Any info will help thanks a lot. Oh and if anyone has Oscars in a tall tank what filter system do you use, bubbler, decor? I have always wanted an O but never had the time or Money to put into one.
I have 3 oscars in a 55 gal for the time being. I have had a single oscar in it when I had silver ornate diamondback terrapin for 19 years. Now that she is gone, and the oscars all died one-by-one over the years, I decided to raise up 3 little ones from petsmart. I got them at the $7.58-size, which is really tiny. They were doing well for the past 6 months, and I am beginning to look for a larger tank and was going to keep one in the 55, and trannsfer the other two into the larger tank, probably around a 110 to 150 gallon, and maybe add a pair of pacus if I get the larger tank.
Anyway, the reason I am writing is to tell a tale of woe. A couple of weeks ago i had to go up to our other house in Alabama to do some work while my wife stayed here at our Florida home. When I got back, the tank looked horrible. I had shown her how much to feed, and how to do a 10% water change, which she said she had been doing. The water was very cloudy. I asked her if they had been eating, and she said they had run out of food, so she went to walmart and bought the same kind, Hikari, but they only had the large pellet size, and they were on the mini, which is between the large and smallest size. I asked her if she had seen them actually eat the pellets, or hit them, then spit them out, because this is what I saw them do when I tried to feed them, and she admitted no to this. So I did about a 40% water change, bought some of the correct size food, and also installed a carbon pack in the outside filter, which is teamed up with an undergravel filter which has two powerheads and air pumped into each of them.
The water did not clear up the next day, so I put some clearing agent in it, and it looked nice after a couple of hours. That is when I noticed them. They were like teeny tiny fleas jumping all over the gravel in certain spots. Thousands of them. At first I thought they were baby lice, but I later figured out they were Costia. After some web research, I found they do survive drying out, so they had to come from either the carbon pack, or the ammonia pack I had also placed in the other side of the upper filter system. I also found they are killed by formulin, so I bought a small bottle from a local pet store.
After reading the directions, it said it could be double dosed, and also could be multiplied 10-fold as a dip for no more than 50 minutes. Since the tank was festering with costia, I decided I had to treat the whole tank. I double dosed it, and after a few hours, they were still partying on the bottom. So I vacuumed the bottom and took out 10 gallons in the process. I also added the rest of the formulin-3 to bring it up to a concentration somewhere between quadruple dose and dip strength, and monitored the fish for stress. They seemed to be tolerating it well, and after an hour, I notice the costia were now looking like they were drunk. Rather than swimming with purpose, they would mostly stay on the rocks and gravel, and when they did try to swim, it was in tight spirals.
After about 3 hours, I added back the 10 gallons, vacuumed it our again, then added back the 10 gallons, and shut the lights off for the rest of the night. I also had not seen anymore but one or two costia here and there. In the morning, they were back with full strength! This is when I bought a large bottle of formulin-3, and read a little more about them. Turns out they have a life cycle of about 12 hours. So I vacuumed out the bottom of 10 gallons, and quadruple dosed them with the F-3. I also read they do not survive temps of greater than 85-F, so I raised the temp up to 86-F, and with the lower water level, had excellent aeriation with the filter splash added to the double air pumped in. I also had removed the carbon pack and other carbon sources of filtration the day before, I might add.
After a few hours of closely monitoring my fish and costia, I noticed the bugs were doing their drunk swimming, and the fish were doing fine. I also fed tyhem extra since the higher temps speeds up metabolism. By the end of the day, and about 40 gallons of vaccuuming, along with keeping the concentration of F-3 up by adding in 3 teaspoons per gallon of replacement water, which is triple strength, the costia looked beaten. Morning would bring the answer as to if they truly were done for good.
This morning I gingerly looked at the gravel in the areas they seemed to favor, and saw none. This is what I expected due to the 12-hour life cycle. I decided to keep treating the tank at double strength, and keep the temp up. By this evening, I have only seen a few costia here and there, and they all swim drunk when they try to swim. The fish never looked better. I vaccuumed out 10 gallons, and found quite a few live costia in the water I got out, so I increased the dose to triple strength, and will keep it and the temp up for the next 3 days as long as the fish do well. Costia are bad parasites to have, and they require a hard one-two punch to get rid of them. If you get them, do not be afraid of high doses of formulin-3. I would not go lower than 4 teaspoons per 10 gallons to start out with. You don’t want any of them building a tolerance to formulin like they evidently have to salt from what I have read. I didn’t even bother with salting the water. The temp of 85-F is well tolerated by oscars as long as you have excellent aeriation. I can see tiny air bubbles wherever I look in the aquarium, so that is what I would recommend with the temp of 86-F.
my tiger oscar attacks my albino oscar
We just bought 3 tiger oscars 32 weeks ago, they were eating gr8 for about a week and a half then one morning I woke up to one stuck on the filter I managed to get him off the filter and then I moved him to a smaller tank by him self to recover but he didn’t then the following day another one was found dead on the bottom leaving one left, his colour has gone to a light gray and faintish orange and wasn’t eating, I cleaned the tank after the other two had died and then thought it might be the heater thinking it was not working went bought a new in tank heater he seemed to bounce back, today he seems much more active and in the last 2 days he has shown some interest in eatting ( krawl frozen ) I’m still worried about him and need to know what could be wrong with him or his environment and what is a good food he might enjoy a bit better then what he is eating now.
correction- we have had them for 2 weeks not 32
My oscar likes his tank 82 degrees with added oxygen. He is 3 years old and is gigantic and vibrantly colored. About a year ago he started developing hole in the head and stopped eating. I did some research and found that some experts on oscars recommend removing the carbon out of the filter. I did this, treated him with a few days with “fish essential oils”… and he recovered.
My guess would be for you to add an air hose, put a thermometer on your tank so you know the temp (the thermostats on heaters are very inaccurate), and think about removing the carbon. If your oscar is large enough to eat live crickets, that may entice it to eat.
good luck
i have 14 tiger oscars and i need what is the best aquariam size for them………………………….my tank size is height-12, lenght – 35 and breadht -20
i just bought a red oscar fish…hes only about 2 inches right now and hes in a thirty gallon tank with four other fish. any ideas?? because i was thinkin about buyin another tank to put the other fish in and leavin phoenix in the thirty gallon. because i want him to grow. since he will be the only one in the thirty gallon he should grow right?
i have an albino oscar and a tiger oscar and they are about 3 inches gig how long does it take for them to grow bigger
i have two oscars albino and Red, they fight alot by griping each others mouth…i think they r male, can this behavior stop and why does it happen ?
i have two oscars albino and Red, they fight alot by griping each others mouth…i think they r male, can this behavior be stopped and why does it happen ?
my oscar is only about two inches long can i get a second two incher without fighting
‘
My tiger oscar has the tightest butthole of all my fish. I’ve tried to make sweet fish-love with my guppies, but they all tore in half. I can set the oscar right on my deal and the oscar straight goes to town riding me. I swear, if I knew it wasn’t squirming for air, I’d think if working my manpole by the way it flops on my junk.
I have recently bought 2 oscars (black with orange swirls) and their behavious is completely the opposite from what I am told they should be like. Any time I go near the tank the hide away behind the rock and get paler in colour as if scared. What have I done wrong?
I have 2 tuner Oscar’s in a 55 gallon tank I have videos of my fish on YouTube ,my sn its yeager232 on YouTube..I love Oscar fish nd I think.mine are the best out there!! Check them out!!,here is the link!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIUyI-JY8Y
please help! my 101/2 inch beautiful female tiger albino has a strange film over each eye. i just changed tanks and think i didnt check the temp correctly. it was cold to the touch. now she is staying on the bottom of the tank and is mostly on her side. i am so scared and cant find a site thats updated enough to tell me anything.
sorry i will try to give you more info, i finally got a 75 gal tank set up for my oscar, she never liked transfering and has always “pouted’ afterwards. but never like this! when i first noticed something wrong more that the usual pout, she was nose down and wouldnt even move a fin anywhere. i finally reached into the water to move her with my hand and thats when i noticed how cold the water was. i dont know what happened! i checked the temp on the gage and it said 82 degrees. do you think i have chilled her eyes to the point of blindness?
she has not eaten at all, she finally has started to move a little but still is very sluggish.
my black and orange red oscar on one side the gray black has like a line mid body and one side only is dark black midway to tail just happend sudenly i have put meds in water but hasent helped still has good eating habits if any ideal let me know the fish is only a year old do not want to have him die on me please help thanks . miles scurlock
Hi everyone I was trying something new I bought few walmart fish and they were fine till I decided to get an oscar I never owned one before so I only got one he died in two weeks…i didnt know why but anyhow I got two more 1/2 inch red oscars for $3 at my local pet store they only had three at that price so I came back for the other one I only got a ten gallon tank but like I said I never ownes then before now I been doing some research and im stuck because I dont have room for my oscars I have 6 2.5 inch oscars in there (one red, one orange, black long fin tiger, and two reg tigers, and one red n black one) they have some friends they get along with my rainbow shark, two blood parrot, cory cat, pleco, two dempseys and a crawfish