Oscar Aqauscape

[tolstoy21]

I posted a thread the other week asking about plastic plants for an Oscar tank, as they were shredding my java fern to bits.  In general I was having problems thinking about an actual aquascape that I could be happy with that relied on hardscape more than plants, and gave the oscars room to swim.  

That being said, I, and the Oscars, agreed upon a simple scape that utilizes some driftwood and lava rock of various sizes. For color, I've added a few clumps of various anubias types, which they seem leave alone and not destroy (so far at least!)

I put a bazillion trumpet snails in here to help with the cleanup of uneaten food that falls down between the lava rock.

Anyway, just thought I'd share for those interested in taking a gander.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by tolstoy21

[Guppysnail]

Your Oscar’s are very beautiful. I think you made a lovely scape. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

That's the prettiest Oscar tank I'VE ever seen! Haha!

[DaveO]

That turned out really nice. 

[tolstoy21]

On 12/14/2022 at 9:52 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

That's the prettiest Oscar tank I'VE ever seen! Haha!

Thanks! it's been pretty ugly up until the past month.

 

On 12/14/2022 at 9:55 AM, DaveO said:

That turned out really nice.

Yeah. I'm pretty happy with it. And thus far, the oscars haven't re-arranged anything, though they did dig a large pit/bed in the shade of the anubias barteri.

One of my reasons for going with anubias, other than it being a tough plant, is that i can easily pull it out of the aquarium and clean off, as there are no algae eaters in this aquarium for obvious reasons.  

I clean them by removing them from the tank and dropping them in my shrimp tank for 2 days. At the end of that time they are as clean as can be.

Edited December 14, 2022 by tolstoy21

[Theplatymaster]

this makes sense. My LFS keeps oscars with their anubias.

[jwcarlson]

Interesting that they haven't shredded the anubias.  When I had oscars they wouldn't leave anything alone.  It looks very nice, much much nicer than any of my oscar tanks ever did! 

[TeeJay]

One day I will have Oscars....oh yes....I will have Oscars! I think the scape is working really well.

[Patrick_G]

Wow, that looks great, the perfect scape for Oscars or other big Cichlids. 

[tolstoy21]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:56 AM, jwcarlson said:

Interesting that they haven't shredded the anubias.  When I had oscars they wouldn't leave anything alone.  It looks very nice, much much nicer than any of my oscar tanks ever did! 

Yeah I have heard that if and how well oscars will tolerate tank mates or shred plants is different with each individual oscar. So far so good on the plants. But if they do shred them to bits, the scape will still be nice in my eyes. The green just adds a splash of color to a rather bleak looking, craggy scape.

As for tank mates, I had a very large Siamese Algae Eater in there with them, far too big for them to eat. At the time, it was similarly sized to them.

Then, one day, out of the blue, they took turns swimming as fast as they could across the tank and ramming their heads into the SAE over and over until it was lights out.

They kind of did what you see Orcas or dolphins doing to sharks, that his head-butting them in the stomach as hard as they could to kill it.

When they were done, they swam away and I swear they were pleased with themselves.

This all happened right next to me.  My office chair if right next to the tank and so right next to the murder scene. It almost was as if they wanted me to witness what they had done, as if to say 'No tank mates! Got it bub?'

They were totally uninterested in the SAE as food.

Edited December 15, 2022 by tolstoy21

[jwcarlson]

Mine lived with large common plecos (it was a long time ago).  At one point there was a school of silver dollars with my biggest oscar, I don't remember him being too tough on them and he never did anything to the pleco.  But anything big enough for him to move... moved.  I didn't have real plants at the time and he disjointed all the plastic ones.  I would put them back together and put them back in the sand and then it was game on for him.  😄

 

I think your scape would look just fine without plants.  But it does look nicer with them, I think.  I do wonder if they would be more likely to co-exist if they were raised from little guys in a tank with lots of plants.  I'm coming into a glut of good sized tanks this weekend (125, 90, 55, and 40 bowfront).  It will be tough for me to not end up with an oscar eventually.  I absolutely adored mine 20 years ago.

[nabokovfan87]

Why am I just now seeing this!

How do I get the robots to send me a tag every time someone posts a picture with Anubias?

Well done @tolstoy21

[Josh T.]

Beautiful Oscar’s and tank!!!

[Flumpweesel]

Great Scape has a lovely natural environment look to it like a woodland pool.

I also use my snaily shrimp tank to clean my plants it reminds me of the shark wash bit in a "Sharks tail"

[tolstoy21]

I'm glad everyone likes the Oscar-scape. I do have to report that I did wind up taking the anubias out, as the oscars were slowly but surely damaging it.

I also had to sift out some of the smaller pieces of lava rock in the flourite sand in the foreground because the Oscars were digging pits/beds to sleep in and the presence of small pieces of lava rock was damaging their scales as they rubbed their flanks against it. The removal of this bit of hardscape is unnoticeable.

All else in the scape remains the same. 

I also have to give a shout out to trumpet snails for eating the odd bits of food that get strewn around the hardscape. They are quite a cleanup crew and the Oscars don't eat them. Well, they did try to eat them the first day I introduced them to the tank, and I think it almost killed one of them!  Right now, if they take one into their mouth, they immediately spit it out. I guess they learned their lessons the hard way.

Edited January 14, 2023 by tolstoy21