Planted Oscar Tank?

[Bruce]

Hey Guys,

My wife and I fell in love with an Oscar. I only have experience with small 10gal community tanks other than a 55gal community tank when I was a young child. I love planted tanks and want plants in all my tanks because what they do for the water quality although I suck at aquascaping lol. How can I plant up this Oscar tank?

[ScottieB]

I love the idea, there big and messy so plants will make a nice addition. The trick is probably stopping the Oscar’s from messing it all up. These planters work great; https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/easy-planter especially around big cichlids. 

Don’t worry about aquascaping, there’s no real rules. Except maybe smaller in front and larger in back? But if you like it then it’s perfect! 

Browse the Aquarium Coop plants and go with you like. You may try a few different varieties until you find what really works for your parameters. Plop them in the easy planter and see what you think. 
 

I’m sure it’s gonna turn out great!

 

[Bruce]

@ScottieB Do you think a plant will be able to send off runners in the planter and fill up the tank?

[H.K.Luterman]

I've never kept an oscar, but their tendency to rearrange their tank is legendary. I agree your best bet would be the Easy Planters, or rhizome plants like anubias glued to rocks if you're going to attempt live plants. But once the fish is large enough, the decor is going to to be wherever the oscar decides they should be. 

[ScottieB]

That might be a problem with those, I have Anubias in some and they have sent rhizomes out over the planters. They are great for larger potted plants, they are open on the bottom so roots can find there way out and around the long way.

You may have to try rooted plants in gravel and see how they do if that’s what your going for. Another option is secure plants to pieces of wood with fishing line? Especially plants like Java fern.

[Bruce]

Yeah @H.K.Luterman he keeps moving the sponge filter to in front of the inlet of the HOB he clearly prefers all the water movement in one place. I feed him a worm he didn't eat it for two days. He just kept moving it to a particular corner everytime it moved away. @ScottieB yeah I think I'll give the easy planters a try

 

[jwcarlson]

I had oscars when I was first into the hobby (15 years ago).  I never tried any live plants with them.  But anything big enough to be moved, will be moved.  Large driftwood and a big terracotta pot were about the only things that didn't get rearranged every single day.

Notice the lack of fake plastic in Spike's tank here.  Any plastic plants were torn into pieces if I left them in there long enough. 😄

I guess my advice would be kind of like gambling... go in expecting to lose everything you're willing to risk.  And if you make it out with something, good for you.  Even anchoring them under large rocks... it just gave him something to pull against.

Before:

After:

Squirt was a little more gentle.  But there just wasn't much point in trying.  

 

I've really kicked around the idea of getting an oscar again, but it's a lot of tank to dedicate to just one fish.  Super fun fish though, they're really a hoot, Spike would jump up out of the water and grab his pellets from your fingers and would get VERY excited whenever anyone came in the back door (facing his tank), but would absolutely get most excited for me. 

[MyFish]

I love Oscar’s,  I had two before at different times.  The first one  (common Oscar)was In a 55 gallon which was 12”-13” paired with a 6” jack dempsey, plus one 4” zebra danio.  The Oscar kept to the left of the tank, the Dempsey to the right and the danio loved the top 4 inches of water swimming back and forth in the power head stream.  I use to feed them earthworms for treats and they went crazy for them.  They got along well with no issues.

My next Oscar (tiger Oscar) was a solo in a 65 gallon.  He got to be around 6-7 inches before he jumped out of the tank while I was at work and died 😞

I would love to get some more Oscars someday, but just don’t have the money or the room for the size tank plus at this time. 
 

No matter what you put in the tank; your Oscar will rearrange the tank to their liking.  If you wish to have plants: I recommend floating plants, hortwart, water sprite, duckweed, water lettuce, frog bite.  The floating plants will help with nitrate levels.  And the Oscars shouldn’t mess with them too much unless he gets hungry.  Oscars are messy eaters; thus you need good filtration.  I used to run a undergravel filter in my 55 and 65 gallon tanks with a hang on the back filter I would put a powerhead of one of the tubes for the undergravel filter. 
 

if you have any other questions about Oscars feel free to ask me.

[Odd Duck]

I don’t have oscars but do have Jack Dempseys and this is my tank.  The lucky bamboo and Crinums have been very successful and unharmed.  The Amazon sword has been pretty successful despite the damage.  The jungle Val has been largely unsuccessful, just not able to stand up to the damage.  Using the pots has been the only thing that has made plants possible with them.  Check my signature for the 75 gallon tank story if you’re interested in more detail.

 

[MyFish]

Your dempsey’s are beautiful!  Any luck on breeding them? 🐟 🐟 

PS:  love that huge pleco!  What kind us he/she fish 🪴

Edited February 1, 2022 by MyFish

[Bruce]

Your Dempsey's are gorgeous!!! @Odd Duck

[Atitagain]

I have not had much luck with plants and my Oscar. I have fake plants with him now and he could care less. When I had vallisneria well rooted in a planter he kept tugging at it and pushing against the planter. I attempted a few other plants with no success. Unless you have heavy rocks/ wood your Oscar will move, pull, push, rub, whatever they feel like doing. All floating plants I’ve tried he eats or tugs at and destroys. Duck weed he seems to leave alone but it clogs the HOB filter to much. I use pothos and lucky bamboo hanging in the back. He investigated both but after a day or two left them alone.

[jwcarlson]

I'm impressed that you have plastic plants in place for more than 15 minutes, @Atitagain.  😄

I couldn't imagine trying it with live ones.  At least not live ones that I cared about whatsoever.

[MyFish]

On 2/1/2022 at 9:57 AM, Atitagain said:

I have not had much luck with plants and my Oscar. I have fake plants with him now and he could care less. When I had vallisneria well rooted in a planter he kept tugging at it and pushing against the planter. I attempted a few other plants with no success. Unless you have heavy rocks/ wood your Oscar will move, pull, push, rub, whatever they feel like doing. All floating plants I’ve tried he eats or tugs at and destroys. Duck weed he seems to leave alone but it clogs the HOB filter to much. I use pothos and lucky bamboo hanging in the back. He investigated both but after a day or two left them alone.

You crack me up with your Oscar… 😂  

do you know you have a hybrid?  A tiger Oscar mixed with a common Oscar.  I love his combination of colors, beautiful!  Tiger Oscar’s are know for being more aggressive, common ones are usually docile.  So you have the best of both worlds!!! Congratulations; also cool tank.  I want to put pathos in my tank how to do that?  Also I have lucky Bambi which is really tall that I wanted to stick in the substance and have it go through the rear top.  Do you recommend that?  

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I think @Odd Duckhas given you a good example. I would use easy planters and terracota planters, you can cover them in moss but no guarantees they won't rip that off. I have seen swords, crinums, and aponogetons in oscar tanks. Java fern, anubias, buce and bolbitis could be good choices. Floating hornwort, wisteria, water sprite or things like dwarf water lettuce may or may not make it but would be good to soak up all the waste bigger cichlids create. 

[Atitagain]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:50 AM, jwcarlson said:

I'm impressed that you have plastic plants in place for more than 15 minutes, @Atitagain.  😄

I couldn't imagine trying it with live ones.  At least not live ones that I cared about whatsoever.

Yea it’s crazy, now that I have fake in there he rarely even rubs against them.🤷🏻‍♂️ I guess I’m glad about that.

On 2/1/2022 at 11:17 AM, MyFish said:

do you know you have a hybrid?  A tiger Oscar mixed with a common Oscar.

I did not know that, I got him at the big box store because IME they always have the best Oscars. (⬅️True)

 

On 2/1/2022 at 11:17 AM, MyFish said:

Also I have lucky Bambi which is really tall that I wanted to stick in the substance and have it go through the rear top.  Do you recommend that?

Yes I would, the small part at bottom is all that should be under substrate. My longest piece is only 1/4 way there but I’ll wait.😁

 

On 2/1/2022 at 5:29 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

buce and bolbitis could be good choices

I will definitely try these dwarf water lettuce as well. 

[Odd Duck]

On 2/1/2022 at 6:49 AM, MyFish said:

Your dempsey’s are beautiful!  Any luck on breeding them? 🐟 🐟 

PS:  love that huge pleco!  What kind us he/she fish 🪴

I had waaaaaayyyyyyyy too much luck in breeding them.  I had stepped away from fish for about 10 years until I rescued these with their 2 common pleco buddies.  Because I gave them a heater, appropriate water changes, and appropriate food, they decided to breed about 5 weeks after I got them.  I wanted to save the babies (so adorable) so,I pulled them away from the parents at 2 weeks old and put them in their own tank.  The parents bred again and in my ignorance, I let them raise the babies.  I ended up with between 1500-1600 fry between the 2 clutches.  Got 3 more tanks to handle all the babies, sold as many as I could, gave away a bunch, finally gave away all the rest of them to a couple people that were re-selling.

It was a bit of an ordeal, honestly.  I now keep the tank at the low end of their optimal temp range to minimize risk of breeding and always water change with warmer water, never cool water, also to reduce the chance of breeding.  If they do breed, I will be removing and destroying eggs immediately.  I can’t go through that stress again.  I was doing massive water changes at least twice weekly on 3 good sized tanks just to keep the tanks from being completely toxic.

They did spark my interest in fish keeping again, so I owe them that.  I promised my friend they would always have a life with me.  The plecos I will have to rehome eventually.  I don’t have room for the size tank they will eventually need.  They were about 4” and 5” when I got them and each is now about 12”.  The Jacks have grown a bit, especially the female, but they were adults when I got them.  They are beautiful, but the male, especially, spends more time hiding than out, despite all the plants they have.  They did not even have fake plants before I got them.  I started with fake plants since I’d always read that Jacks would tear up any plants.  Then I ran across @dasaltemelosguytank for his acaras and it sparked my idea to use pots with piled up rocks/pebbles to protect the plants.  It’s worked fairly well except for the jungle Vals are just a bit too fragile.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd Duck off topic question. Do you know if common plecos can live in a Koi Pond? I think that would be pretty neat if they could. Wish I could have a tank big enough for those monsters I think they are incredible. 

[MyFish]

I would say yes, as long as they have food… algae algae algae!

normally ponds don’t have algae because of the chemicals added.  

[Odd Duck]

On 2/1/2022 at 7:33 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Odd Duck off topic question. Do you know if common plecos can live in a Koi Pond? I think that would be pretty neat if they could. Wish I could have a tank big enough for those monsters I think they are incredible. 

Depending on temps, yes.  They are becoming a big problem in mid to southern Texas and an even bigger problem in Florida.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

They can’t go lower than 40-50s, freezing water temps have killed and fouled water ways in FLA due to dead plecos. 

[Torrey]

On 2/1/2022 at 8:29 PM, Odd Duck said:

Depending on temps, yes.  They are becoming a big problem in mid to southern Texas and an even bigger problem in Florida.

I saw they just did the big drain at San Antonio, and removed well over 400 plecos, as well as several other species of aquarium fish...

[Odd Duck]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:02 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

They can’t go lower than 40-50s, freezing water temps have killed and fouled water ways in FLA due to dead plecos. 

 

On 2/1/2022 at 10:04 PM, Torrey said:

I saw they just did the big drain at San Antonio, and removed well over 400 plecos, as well as several other species of aquarium fish...

Yes to both of these comments.  I should have expanded on my comment a bit more but I was at the worst point in a COVID infection.  I’m getting over it now and might make a bit more sense.

 

You can put plecos into a koi pond but you need to make VERY certain that any eggs or offspring cannot get accidentally released into native waterways.  You would also need to be in an area that stays warm enough that these tropical fish don’t die or you could have a very large, rotten fish in your pond when the temps drop and your koi fish immune systems are at their lowest point.

Or you would have to heat the pond sufficiently to keep the temp up above about 50’F.  Most pond heaters are only designed to keep a pond from freezing, or at least keep an open hole in the surface, not to keep it actually warm.  It takes a lot more heat to keep it warm to 50’F vs not quite freezing which is really a bit lower than 32’F with any water movement.

Koi are far more expensive than common plecos and in a pond, you’re not likely to see the plecos much at all.  They both have potential to get about 2’ long (koi even bigger) but can you imagine the cascade of death from a rotting body of that size?  You could have quite the nasty stew of rot as the pond unfroze in the spring.

So, while the answer is yes, you can put plecos in a koi pond, it’s not typically recommended for all these reasons.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd Duck very interesting! I was just curious and yeah, koi are far and away more expensive and something likely someone would protect and not take a chance on. I just was reminded I was fascinated watching Goliad Farms videos from when they had the great TX freeze. They lost almost all of their stock including the common (HUGE) plecos but some did actually make it and I was always happy when he found one that did! ***GLAD YOU ARE FEELING BETTER

Edited February 2, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX