Family Safe Fun Fish Home & Garden How To Pets Zee Truthful News

How to Care for Oscar fish – Everything You Need Know

ByThe Truth News

Feb 23, 2023 #Care for Oscar fish, #Oscar fish, #Oscar fish - 10 Things You Should Know

Caring for Oscar fish: Important Things You Should Know

If you have been keeping fish for at least 5 minutes, you have probably seen or heard about Oscars. They are everywhere, and pretty much everyone loves them.

So, here are 10 things you should know about Oscar fish

How fast do Oscar fish grow

Let’s face it. There are tons of new fish keepers with less than the amount of patience needed, and they want that instant gratification. Oscars are perfect for these kinds of people because they grow so fast and they get big. They can make a massive statement in your aquarium. It doesn’t happen instantly, but under the right conditions, these fish can grow like weeds. You can expect an Oscar to grow to 10 inches with in the first year and fully grown. They will get to 12 to 14 inches.

Some people claim that they can get even bigger but require excellent conditions. Meaning they have to have the right size tank, good clean water, and a proper diet.

The Oscar Popular & Mistreated

If you know nothing about aquariums and you just start doing research 5 minutes ago on how to keep an Oscar fish. You have probably already heard of Oscar fish. Oscars are extremely popular, they are everywhere, and there are millions of reasons why.

The reason Oscars are one of the staple fish in the freshwater aquarium hobby. They are so personable, and they have those big bulging eyes, which makes them look more stunning. It’s no wonder so many people fall in love with them. A lot of fish keepers will tell you about the Oscars that they got when they got into this hobby and about how fast they grow.

The problem with Oscars being so popular is that it makes them one of the most mistreated fish in the hobby. Before you go to buy your Oscar, do plenty of research on how to care for one of these monsters, do the right thing, take care of them, and their personality will shine. These fish are one of the closest pets that you’ll find to a dog or a cat. You just have to live with one, and you will understand, within no time they will become a member of the family.

Oscars Big Personality

When you think about a fish in the aquarium, you don’t think about them having a personality, but the fact is that they do have one, especially Oscars.

The Oscar fish has one of the biggest personalities of any other fish that you’ll find in this hobby. When you have one for a while, they will start to recognize you as soon as you walk into the room. They get excited just like a cat or a dog, and it feels so good. You haven’t experienced the bliss of fish keeping until you walk into the room, and your Oscar starts wagging its tail. It’s next-level stuff.

They are also very moody. You can tell when they are sad. You can tell when they are happy. These fish have a lot of drama. To be realistic, they recognize you as a big blurry thing that gives them food a couple of times a day, but it’s so cool. Get an Oscar, and you’ll know what we are referring to.

Oscars are Master Decorators

As fish keepers, we look at our aquariums as a place to not only house pets but also to express ourselves and try to beautifully decorate these aquariums with things like plants, rocks, and driftwoods. This is awesome, but understand that your Oscars is goanna express themselves too.

They are going to show you very quickly that this is their tank, not yours. Oscars can be downright destructive too. Almost anything that you put in the tank can be a potential target for them. You can spend hours finding that perfect place for the skull with the bubbles coming out of it or maybe a beautiful plant. You walk away from the tanks for a few minutes, and when you come back, you find it floating at the top of the tank. In the end, your Oscar is goanna determine where this stuff in your tank goes, not you.

If you are planning on keeping an Oscar in a 75-Gallon tank, then I suggest that you keep any decorations to a minimum. Maybe do something like an excellent 3D background with one focal point of driftwood or something like that. You need to understand that the smaller the tank and the more decorations that you put in the tank, the more room you are taking away from them to be able to swim around and grow.

If you are considering keeping an Oscar put them in a 125-gallon tank or larger so that they have plenty of room, maybe stick to just one or two large decorations that are too heavy for them to pick up so that they can’t throw them around the tank.

Different Types of Oscars

There are several different types of Oscar out there. They all pretty much have the same body shape and look the same except for their colors and their pattern, which will be the same except for the longfin variety. The most common are Tiger Oscar, and they are primarily a grayish black with red or orange blotches all over their body.

Then you have the Albino tiger, which is basically instead of the grayish-black color you’ll have white and red. Then there are the Red Latinos, which have a more consistent reddish color to their body, and their head and fins will be that grayish black. The Latinos are the Albino version of the rack then you have the Oscar variants that are much harder to find. But if you do, it is truly amazing, like your long fin version or lemon Oscar.

The Lemon Oscar is entirely yellow and as magnificent if you ever get to see them.

Oscar Tank Mates

When it comes to selecting tank mates for your Oscar, there is one crucial thing that you need to keep in mind. If it can fit in Oscar’s mouth, its goanna eats it. Most of the time, when you find Oscar in the pet store, they are only a couple of inches, and you might think that they may do fine with your smaller fish. BIG MISTAKE!

Oscar grows at an incredibly fast pace. It is likely to outgrow any of the other fish that are in your tank. As the Oscar gets bigger, it will start to look around at the other smaller fish, and they are going to say “someday.” And eventually that someday will come, they will grow larger than the other fish in the tank and guess what happens. The other fish becomes Oscar’s food.

Don’t think that if you buy a couple of small fish and they grow up together that they are going to mean something to one another. In some cases, it might be correct, but most of the time it’s not. It is recommended to keep Oscars the focal point of the tank, but if you absolutely must have some friends in there with them. Stock to other South and Central American Cichlids.

Red Devils
Jaguars
Jack Dempseys
Blood-red parrots
Arowanas

Most of the time, Oscars are not aggressive towards the other fishes in the tank. Unfortunately, it’s usually the other way around. Oscars are ‘gentle giants.’

Oscar Diet

Oscars have several misunderstood diet requirements. So, what they do need and what you shouldn’t feed your oscar?

It’s essential to have a varied diet for Oscar. The most important part is to have quality food, whether it is a cichlid pallet or some type of cichlid sticks. Something to understand about Oscars is that they are not piscivores i.e., the fish that feeds and hunts other fish to get its primary source of nutrition.

Oscars are opportunistic feeders. They will eat fish at times. But, their diet does not consist of a lot of fish in the wild. They eat a lot of insects, snails, invertebrates and they sometimes eat some vegetation. Most Oscar doesn’t eat plants in captivity because they do not have access to quality cichlid food and shrimps.

With that varied diet along with your cichlid pellet or cichlid stick, it is recommended to feed them shrimp. It is okay to feed them a small amount of fish, so you could get some fresh fish or shrimps as well as frozen.

Just know that it should not be their primary source of food. Live food for oscar is not recommended because it can cause issues or even injury your fish from chasing it or getting some kind of disease transmitted from feeder fish that you feed them.

Insect
Shrimp
Crustaceans
Pellet foods
Seafood from time to time

Tank Requirements for Oscars

Oscars grow very fast, so when it comes to setting up a tank for them, you do not want to go with anything smaller than a 75-gallon tank. But remember that bigger is always better. If you buy one of these fish as a baby, they are small, and you may be tempted to put them in a smaller tank until it starts to get bigger, that’s fine but just remember these fish can grow up 8-10 inches during the year.

The perfect situation for an Oscar fish is going to be a 125-gallon tank. When you put them in that big tank you’ll notice how happy they are and that the fish responds to you with those big bug eyes.

Oscars are an extremely hardy fish capable of handling a wide range of water parameters, but don’t let that allow you to become lazy; you still need to do your job.

pH: 6-8

So, pretty much whatever you have coming out of the tap is going to be okay. Just remember consistency is the key rather than chasing the pH all over the place. Just keep it stable, and Oscars would be good.

Temperature: 78-80

Keep them warm and cozy. But they do fine in water even cooler or warmer than that. One of the biggest things with this fish is keeping the water clean. These fish are big eaters; therefore, they are also big poppers. So, you need to keep up with your aquarium maintenance.

Just stay at the top of your maintenance, and they will be your best friend forever.

Common Diseases for Oscar Fish

Like every other fish in the aquarium hobby, Oscars are also vulnerable to disease, especially if you are not doing your job. If you are keeping the water too cold, introducing new fish that haven’t been quarantined, and not keeping up with maintenance, these are all things that can increase the likelihood of them coming down with everyday things like parasites.

This is another one you’ll hear almost every time you.

When talking about Oscar, it’s common to hear about a hole in their head. While this is very common with Oscars, it is. Fortunately, it can be successfully treated. The bottom line is if you do your job, you shouldn’t run in any of these problems.

Keep up with your maintenance, be very cautious of where you buy your tankmates from, and provide a quality varied diet, not feeder fish, and you would not face any of these problems.

Are Oscars Good for Beginners?

Above, we have talked about a bunch of stuff that might help you decide if they are a good fish for you or not. They are fun and easy to keep, but does that make them a great beginner fish?

Well, yes and no.

They are a good beginner fish because they’ll usually be able to pull through a lot of the mistakes that the new fish keeper will make. But unfortunately, most new fish keepers break the number one rule when it comes to Oscars, and that is TANK SIZE. Most of the new fish tank keepers aren’t going to set up a 75 or 125-gallon tank. They are almost always going to start with 20 or 29-gallon tanks, and it could be a while until they can upgrade to something more substantial.

This means that the new fish keeper set up a 20-gallon tank, and then they put an oscar in there and end up being in there for years. Putting an Oscar in a 20-gallon tank would be similar to placing a rottweiler in a crate designed for chihuahuas. It’s just not right if you are not prepared to upgrade to a larger tank within a few months, then just don’t go for an Oscar.

Oscars being one of the most mistreated fish in the hobby, almost 100% of the cases of Oscar being mistreated, it’s because in a tank that is way too small for them.

So, yeah, they are suitable for a beginner, but only for the beginner who knows they are going to be in this for a long haul, and you know that long time the are going to do what they need to do for these fish. source

OSCAR FISH TYPES

There are many varieties of Oscar fish. Read below which are the most popular ones as well as how to distinguish their appearance.

Tiger Oscar Fish

Tiger Oscar fish, as the name suggests, are black and orange in color, and with most Oscars, this is the typical color pattern. When it comes to Tiger Oscars, they don’t have black and orange stripes. They have a black-colored body with orange stripes and spots that spread out in different directions.

It appears like a cross between a labyrinth pattern and a Rorschach test. Their body is generally colorless, from the tip of their dorsal fin all the way through their upper lip.

Albino Oscar Fish

Albino Oscars are highly sought after in the aquarist world, because of their distinct appearance. The red on the side of albino Oscars tend to be more splotchy than on Tiger albinos. In addition, the design is more of a “big form composed of dots” kind.

Albino Oscar fish have a white primary body color, as you could have predicted. When we’ve had the chance to watch a handful of these tanks, we’ve found that they’re the star of the show!

Red Oscar Fish

The color of Red Oscar fish is, well, red. Unlike the tiger version, the red color is concentrated on their sides and is not patterned. All of the fins on Red Oscars seem to be red, yet there is no color on the sides of their bodies.

Lemon Oscar Fish

A yellow-colored version of the red Oscar, the Lemon Oscar is essentially the same fish with a different color. On either side of them, the colors follow the same pattern but in different hues.

Black Oscar Fish

The popularity of Black Oscar fish is also on the increase. Unlike the Albino variations, the colors of these creatures are completely undetectable.

The predominant hues are black and grey, which gives them a distinctive appearance when contrasted with the more garish choices offered by other varieties.

DO OSCAR FISH GROW QUICKLY?

Oscars grow really quickly, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before purchasing one from a pet shop or a Cichlid breeder. Oscar fish may grow one inch a month until they reach maturity. It’s important to have an Oscar fish tank that’s at least 55 gallons in size if you want to keep your fish healthy and free of sickness and early death.

But how large are Oscar fish? They may reach a height of up to 14 inches, which is not unheard of. You should generally expect the typical length of 10 to 12 inches.

Juvenile Oscars are no bigger than any other tropical fish (1 to 2 inches), but with the correct care, they may reach a mature size of 10 to 12 inches in as little as a year.

Oscar Fish Lifespan

A strong Oscar fish may survive for a long period in your freshwater tank if you keep it in decent water. Under perfect circumstances, Oscar fish may live for up to 20 years. Their lifespan on average, is between ten and twenty years, depending don’t the quality of your care.

A GUIDE TO OSCAR FISH CARE AND MAINTENANCE

The Most Common Illnesses in Oscar Fish

Oscars are less prone to become sick, but they may still develop a variety of illnesses if you don’t properly care for them. If you follow the instructions in our oscar fish care guide, you should have very few issues.

However, emergencies sometimes happen. There are times when nature hands us a bad hand.

“Hole in the head” sickness is the most prevalent ailment that Oscar fish suffer from. Its name derives from the proliferation of cavities and holes that appear on the fish’s head and body as it grows.

Hole in the head sickness isn’t difficult to treat, but the sooner you notice any symptoms, the simpler it will be to cure.

Dietary deficits in the fish are usually to blame.

Make sure to always isolate the live feeder fish before you feed them to your Oscar Fish. The most common cause of tropical fish illness is introducing foreign germs from objects that we carelessly place in our fish tanks.

Oscar Fish Hole in the Head Disease: What Could Be Causing It?

Poor water quality: The concentrations of nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, and pH may be abnormally high.
Parasite: It is possible for a flagellate parasite known as Hexamita to infect the fish’s digestive tract as well as its gall bladder, spleen, and kidneys.
Poor nutrition: Vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Stress: Many things, including poor water quality and oxygen deprivation, may lead to stress. Stress may be caused by overcrowding in a tank, changes in temperature caused by water changes or heater malfunctions.
Weak immunity: Hole in the head sickness is more common in fish with weakened immune systems, such as elderly fish.

How to Treat it?

It’s a good idea to do a water quality test first because poor water quality is a common cause of hole in the skull sickness. If the test results show that the levels of nitrite or ammonia are high, you should definitely change the water in the tank. This procedure is necessary to lower the number of harmful elements in the fish tank.

Make sure that the freshwater that is being introduced to the tank is appropriately conditioned. Adjust the water temperature and remove contaminants like chlorine. Adding further stress to the fish is possible when the water is not adequately conditioned.

Another prevalent cause of a hole in the skull is a lack of food variety and quality. A weaker immune system might be the result of a vitamin and mineral deficiency caused by an unbalanced diet. The ideal diet would include both high-quality pellet food and fresh food. You can add vitamin supplements to the water, or you can soak the fish food before feeding.

It’s possible that increasing water quality and giving better fish food won’t help if the sickness has advanced. Hole in the skull illness is often treated with Metronidazole or Flagyl. Hexamita may also be treated with Metronidazole.

TANK REQUIREMENTS FOR OSCAR FISH

You’ll want to make sure your Oscar fish have enough room to develop and flourish because of their enormous size. A 55-gallon tank is the minimum recommended size for an Oscar Fish if you want to keep the fish happy and healthy.

Aside from the fact that the Oscars are famously dirty, they also demand a great deal of attention. You must change the water often since Oscars do produce a lot of waste. However, the smaller the aquarium, the more often you have to clean it.

Oscar Fish likes to live in small groups or in couples. Our recommendation is to maintain at least two, or five if you have the room. Keeping three fish isn’t usually a smart idea since two of the fish may bond and disregard the other.

When water parameters change, Oscars are particularly vulnerable to common tropical fish diseases like Ich and Dropsy. Clean water is crucial to the health of your Oscar fish, and we’ll go into more detail about the most prevalent ailments later on in this article.

Which Fish are Suitable Tank Mates for Oscar Fish?

Due to their size, Oscars require a large volume of water per fish in order to flourish in pairs or small groups. To avoid overcrowding, it is best to keep Oscars in a separate tank from any other fish that may potentially compete for their attention.

In their natural habitat, Oscars aren’t the friendliest of fish, so imagine how they’ll act in a smaller tank with a tighter area. Keep just Oscars in your aquarium since they may become aggressive and defend their territory.

However, if you do decide to maintain other fish in your aquarium alongside your Oscars, keep in mind they are big and docile. Oscar fish tank mates that have worked very well for some aquarists include:

Arowana
Jack Dempsey
Large Pleco
Convict Cichlid

TANK SETUP FOR OSCAR FISH

TANK FILTRATION

Canister filters are the best option for Oscar Fish since they are able to remove waste from the water. Keep in mind that Oscars are not only big in length, but also in girth and weight. These fish carry a high bioload. They consume a lot of food and generate much more waste as a consequence.

DECORATIONS

Decorating an Oscar fish aquarium might be difficult. In an aquarium, Oscars may move little things and uproot plants since they are huge fish. As a rule, Oscar tanks are left plain and unadorned. The centerpiece of a tank could be a giant rock or piece of driftwood.

To replicate the Oscars’ natural habitat and surroundings in the Amazon Basin, you should use natural decorations. Keep in mind that the swimming area for the Oscars might be harmed by too much décor.

Water Quality Parameters for Keeping Oscar Fish

The ideal pH range for Oscar Fish is 6 to 8 and the ideal temperature is between 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The water hardness for keeping Oscars should be anything from 12dH to 15dH.

A rise in ammonia levels or a drop in water temperature will both stress Oscars greatly. This results in a lack of coloration, an inability to eat, and a general lack of contentment and quality of life. So, a high-quality water filter system and an aquarium heater with a built-in thermometer are highly recommended.

DO OSCAR FISH REQUIRE PLANTS IN THEIR HABITAT?

You shouldn’t stress too much about how the tank is set up and decorated. A few plants, pebbles and other accessories will allow Oscars to play “home designers” and modify their surroundings.

Oscars are melancholic too and a bit of a mystery. They may be fond of their aquarium plants one minute and tearing them out the next in a fit of rage, flinging them around the tank. As a result, it’s critical to choose hardy plants that won’t perish the moment they come into contact with anything. Additionally, if you want to keep your Oscars happy while still keeping the aquarium lush, try utilizing floating plants.

Following is a list of Oscar Fish’s favorite plants:

Savinia Natans;
Java Moss;
Java Fern.

Keep in mind that you should find plants with comparable water needs to your Oscar fish. You will be wasting your time and money if you get a plant that demands hotter or harder water. Before you think about plants, think about fish first. It certainly is possible to grow hundreds of different kinds of plants in an Oscar tank.

WHAT DO OSCAR FISH FEED ON?

Having established the right tank for your Oscar Fish, it’s time to consider the best foods to feed them. During feeding time, it’s not uncommon for Oscars to indulge in everything they want. They’ll eat pretty much everything you put in their tank however their diet consists of primarily of other fish, live insects and larvae.

Because of this, but also because of their size, it is imperative that you thoroughly understand their dietary demands and it is your responsibility to ensure that they are satisfied. Having a well-balanced diet is essential.

What Do Oscar Fish Eat in Nature?

Oscars eat a lot of tiny insects, smaller fish, and insect larvae in their natural habitat. You can occasionally feed your Oscars Goldfish or Rosy Red Minnows. If you feed them a lot of feeder fish, though, they may end up with an overabundance of fat, which isn’t good for your fish.

In order to be on the safe side and ensure that your Oscars are receiving all of the nutrients they need, we suggest giving an equal mix of flake or pellet feeds and live foods like shrimps and insects. The Oscars are voracious eaters, and they’ll gobble up whatever you throw to them. That’s why you need to make sure they have a varied diet.

Additionally, Oscars need a greater dose of Vitamin C and plant materials, which they would often get from the animals they would consume in the wilderness. Supplementing with algae is an excellent approach to getting this fibrous plant matter in their diet without experiencing any uncomfortable gastric symptoms.

When it comes to eating, Oscars are much like their owners in that they want to eat a wide range of things. A list of things that we think are appropriate for you to eat is included in this “shopping list.”

Frozen Peas
Krill
Bloodworm
Brine Shrimp
Algae Wafers
Cichlid Pellets/Flakes/Wafers

A good diet will bring out their natural colors, like the color on the pair above.

THE BEST DIET FOR OSCAR FISH GROWTH

A high-protein diet is ideal for the growth of oscar fish. Even though Oscars are omnivores, developing juveniles need a higher protein intake. You should add fresh and live fish food to their diet in addition to high protein flake and pellet fish food. When it comes to young Oscars, white worms are ideal. Protein and fat are essential to a growing juvenile’s development, and they are found in plenty of these foods.

Feeding habits have an impact on growth as well, so make sure to pay proper attention to this. Juvenile Oscars should be given 2-3 little meals during the day rather than a single huge one. Feeding them a variety of different foods each day is an excellent method to keep their diet fresh and interesting.

Feeding may be reduced to 1-2 times a day after the juveniles attain a length of 4-6 inches. By now, the Oscars should be well-established, making it easy to provide them with food.

Oscars are considered adults when they reach 7-8 inches in length. You should closely monitor Oscar’s weight while it’s little. If an Oscar is gaining too much fat, you should modify the feed type and/or frequency. Adult Oscars might be given food every day or every other day.

Is it Possible to Breed Oscar Fish?

Oscar fish breeding is a viable endeavor, but it’s not the most straightforward. When it comes to breeding Oscar Fish, they are one of the most difficult fish to do so.

Oscar fish are notoriously choosy when it comes to mating, which is one of the many reasons breeding them is so challenging. In order to begin spawning, they must be between 16 and 24 months old.

You may either buy a mating couple that has produced offspring in the past, or you can buy a group of youngsters and let them grow up together and form a bond.

A drawback of the second approach is that the fish may not be ready to mating for months, therefore it is advisable to continue with the first option of buying a couple who have previously mated.

Are There Any Oscar Fish Types That I’m Able to Breed?

Breeding any combination of Oscar fish is conceivable if they can “connect” and develop a mutual admiration for each other.

Most fish breeders opt usually opt for The Tiger Oscar, Red Oscar, Albino Oscar, Yellow Oscar, and White Oscar as they are some of the most common ones.

The more exotic colors like Pink and Purple are not found in nature, therefore if you ever have the opportunity to buy these, we advise you to keep clear of them, or at least keep them in a separate tank.

There is no extra knowledge or processes required in order to successfully crossbreed the various colors. You’re fine to go as long as the fish are connected to each other.

The Procedure of Sexing Oscar Fish

Identifying the male and female fish in your aquarium is the first step in the process of starting a breeding program. The sex of an Oscar fish can only be determined with extreme care and a keen eye for detail.

It is known that Oscar fish are “monomorphic,” which means they look precisely the same regardless of sex.

The Procedure of Sexing Oscar Fish

It is known that Oscar fish are “monomorphic,” which means they look precisely the same regardless of sex.

An Oscar fish’s genitals are the sole method to tell sex from gender.

During breeding, female Oscar fish have an “egg tube” that completely retracts inside of her, but male Oscar fish have just one sharp spike that they utilize to fertilize the eggs.

Getting Started With the Breeding Session

Every year, as soon as they get a whiff of rain, the female Oscars begin their mating season. It might be difficult for fish in home aquariums to tell when it’s time to mate because the water conditions tend to remain constant throughout the year.

In order to overcome this, you’ll need to start the breeding season by making your own “rainy season.” To begin, do a complete water exchange. Every two to three days, a 20 to 30 percent reduction is adequate.

To tell when it’s time for rain, one of the most visible changes in temperature is a substantial dip. You could try to reduce the water temperature in their aquariums by a few degrees to get their fish to start searching for a mate.

Use a watering can to mist the top of the aquarium several times a day for five to ten minutes to imitate rain.

A spray bar may also be installed above the water. This resembles rainwater, without any manual work from your side. You can find a built-in spray bar on the majority of Canister Filters.

WATER QUALITY PARAMETERS FOR KEEPING OSCAR FISH

The ideal pH range for Oscar Fish is 6 to 8 and the ideal temperature is between 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The water hardness for keeping Oscars should be anything from 12dH to 15dH.

Do Oscar Fish Require Plants in Their Habitat?

You shouldn’t stress too much about how the tank is set up and decorated. A few plants, pebbles and other accessories will allow Oscars to play “home designers” and modify their surroundings.

Following is a list of Oscar Fish’s favorite plants:

Savinia Natans;
Java Moss;
Java Fern.

Are Oscars Intelligent Fish?

You’ve certainly heard about Oscar fish from other aquarists, YouTube videos, or internet articles about the fish’s social abilities, but is this really the case?

Absolutely. If it weren’t the case, they wouldn’t have acquired the moniker “water dogs.” It’s lovely to observe Oscar Fish waggle their fins and heads when their owner walks into a room.

If you’re lucky enough and depending on how comfortable they are with you, you might even get your Oscars to eat from your hands.

If you’re looking for an interesting fish that’s both clever and gorgeous, Oscar Fish is the one. It’s our aim that this guide has provided you with some helpful tidbits to make your experience with maintaining this well-known tropical fish even more enjoyable.

Time to Decide

The Oscar Fish is a great fish for your tank. Some aquarists, in our opinion, overestimate the difficulty of Oscar fish maintenance. There are definitely a lot of things to keep in mind, but if you follow the directions you should be just fine. We think the advantages of having Oscars exceed any worries about their violence. The fish are beautiful and it is fun to watch them.