newb questions

Two isn't reccomended in a 75 for the sheer fact that they get up to 14" and are territorial, messy eaters. 55 is too small for an Oscar because even at 12", they can hardly turn around due to the depth of the tank. I strongly advise, having bred Oscars myself, that if you really want an Oscar, you get a single Oscar with no other tankmates. I have seen Oscars with pike, bass and other monster fish kept in 10 gallon tanks. YouTube is not a good site to base your stocking on.

The 1" per gallon rule does not hold true, either, because, in theory, that means you can put a Goldfish in a 10 gallon tank. We all know that this is not the case. The bioload of the fish has to be taken into consideration, as well as how large it gets as an adult.

Edit - Also, just because two fish were raised together, doesn't mean they won't kill eachother as adults. Look at bettas, for example, they are fine as fry but AS SOON as the sex is distinguishable, they will begin fighting. It doesn't matter that they were born and raised together, it is in their nature as territorial, agressive fish. Now, there are some exceptions to this, but DO NOT count on your fish being that exception. They are exceedingly rare and happened upon generally by mistake or through the carelessness/inexperiece of a fishkeeper.

The Oscar will eat the guppies way past when he or she is full, so I personally wouldn't reccomend that. 125 seems to be the basic rule of thumb for a pair of Oscars in the Oscar community. Putting two in a 75 MIGHT work, but even if you get lucky and don't end up with one killing the other, you WILL need to invest in exceptional canister filters and still be doing large water changes 2-3 times a week, maybe more. You need to keep in mind that while the general size of these fish is 12-14", there ARE monsters out there that get up to 17". In that case, you will be lucky to even keep him alone in that 75. Honestly, if you want more than one "monster fish" in that tank, go with Jack Dempseys or the likes. Otherwise, I would advise having a single Oscar as the only fish. They are very rewarding fish to keep and maybe someday, you can get a huge tank and keep multiple, but, as Flear said, you aren't playing with Legos, you are playing with an animal's life and well-being. Even though these are "just fish", when you bring them home, YOU are responsible for their quality of life, just as you'd be responsible if you put a pair of pitbulls (a dog-agressive breed by genetics) in a bathroom for life. We are just here to help you and we always appreciate members coming here and asking before they go out and buy fish. Kudos to you for that! :thumbsup:

You could do these couple of mixtures -

1 Oscar
1 Convict
(Possibly 1 Featherfin but you'd be pushing your bioload at this point, you'd have to really stay on top of WCs and watch for agression)

1 Oscar
1 Severum
1 Featherfin
1 Stripped or Regular Raphael (NOT SPOTTED)

1 Oscar
1 Severum

1 Oscar
1 Convict


I would personally like a tank that had

1 Oscar
1 Severum
1 Featherfin

Featherfins are amazing, much better than a Raphael in my eyes. I prefer to keep my Oscar alone in his 75 gallon, however, regardless of the fact that I have the same filtration you are planning on. Also, take a look at Dr. Fosters and Smith, I got my two Emperor 400's for the same you'd pay for one in a pet store.

Hikari is a nice quality, cheap brand but Omega One and New Life Spectrum is much better for them. These are just staple pellets, I also feed brine shrimp, beef heart, blood worms (I bought a pack of each, melted all of the cubes in a freezer bag, mixed them thouroghly and refroze it flat, then broke it up and put it in a container in the freezer), bait shrimp cut into bite-sized pieces, ect. A lot of people make their own food and I may switch to this when my bag of pellets is out (currently using small Hikari Cichlid Gold because that's what I had laying around and my O is about 3").

A varied diet is always a better diet and I reccomend that if you make the frozen mixture I do that you get a frozen veggie mix as well. I used San Fransisco Bay brand for all of these. You could also add mysis shrimp, blackworms, anything you'd like and see in the freezer at the pet store.

I also have a bag of Hikari Food Sticks (yes, that's what they are called) and a container of Wardley Shrimp Pellets that I feed on ocassion. The Food Sticks I ordered online but everything else came from my local Petsmart or the bait shop. You can also feed frozen prawns, tilapia, ect from your grocery store.

If you are interested in making your own food (it's healthier and cheaper in the long run) let me know and I can help you with all of the research I have been doing on it and get you some recipes I've been considering.