# Plant hating Oscar



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Hello,

Just a quick question...I have a 50g tank, and when I put in plants my Oscar pulls them up, one by one, until they are all floating on the surface. He has done this since he was in my original 10g tank when I first got him. My tank is pretty calm. Anyone have an Oscar that does this. I really want to give the tank some colour and break up the space to make their environment a little more interesting.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.


----------



## OP_tiMus-pRiME (Jul 8, 2009)

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to keep oscars with plants in all but the largest tanks. I can safely say there's probably not a way you get away with him and live plants in the same tank. You could, however, use plastic plants, however you might have silicon them to the bottom of the tank.


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Thanks, I'll try that. What kind of silicon is good for a fish tank?


----------



## Fishboydanny1 (Jun 13, 2008)

there are a few ideas i have:

you could pot the plants so that it makes it more difficult to uproot. to discourage digging in the pot, you could put a pile of stones around it so that it looks like the plant is growing from the rocks...

the plastic plants can be siliconed to the bottom of the tank, or silicon some peagravel to the base so that the fish can move it, but it wont float to the surface.

Oscars are notorious for digging, uprooting plants, or both, so I wish you luck making you and your oscar happy!


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Thank you.


----------



## toddnbecka (Jun 10, 2009)

Cichlids are notorious for rearranging their tank to suit themselves, and quite often eat live plants. If you have a fair amont of light (1.5-2 watts/gallon) you could try some Najas or hornwort. Either one will grow fine as a floating plant, and the Oscar can push them around w/out doing any harm.


----------



## phil_pl (Apr 10, 2009)

i had the same problem with my cichlids
i dropped the live plants and used weighed fake plant


----------



## the-egyption-boy (Jul 17, 2009)

*try to fixed it by abig piece of gravel and tell us all the news*


----------



## bushwhacker (Aug 5, 2009)

oscars will either uproot or eat any live plants. you may be able to get away with java moss and java fern tied to driftwood, maybe a few anubias. also tied to wood or rocks anything in the substrate is fair game for those big boys.


----------



## Cichlidman (Aug 11, 2009)

I have learned Oscars are interior decorators. If they can move it, they will. 
I have gravel. Large rock, and a large piece of driftwood in Charlie's tank.
Anything smaller he pushes all over the tank. His home I let him have it the way he likes it.


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Yeah, finally got some plants the Oscar is leaving alone!!!! They're plastic, but they're staying in one place. 








[/url][/IMG]


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

It's got an Oscar, 2 Blood Parrot Cichlids, 2 frontosa's, and 2 sucker mouths. Strangely enough, they all get along as long a no one challenges the Oscar's top doggedness...


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Just put the backing on. Now they are trying to swim through the back of the tank...;-)








[/url][/IMG]


----------



## armedbiggiet (Jun 9, 2009)

Oscar are strong enough to put it out of the pot



Fishboydanny1 said:


> there are a few ideas i have:
> 
> you could pot the plants so that it makes it more difficult to uproot. to discourage digging in the pot, you could put a pile of stones around it so that it looks like the plant is growing from the rocks...
> 
> ...


----------



## armedbiggiet (Jun 9, 2009)

Good to hear the plastic one works... just to let you know not just oscar but all your other fish would "hate plants"!!!

T*n1



mdmorash said:


> It's got an Oscar, 2 Blood Parrot Cichlids, 2 frontosa's, and 2 sucker mouths. Strangely enough, they all get along as long a no one challenges the Oscar's top doggedness...


----------



## Cichlidman (Aug 11, 2009)

Sorry to inform you. Not a real good idea to mix the Africans and Americans. Your tank is way to small for those fish. My 2 biggest male fronts are around 10". Look in my pics at Charlie my Oscar. He is 15.5 in.

Africans like Ph high my fronts are at about 8.5 Charlie is at about 7.0. The Africans also like harder water. You can keep them but not in the best of conditions.
Just to let you know. Your fish you do what you like.


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Yeah, I've been saving for another tank for those two to live in. The shop I bought them in wasn't very good, and did not even tell me I was buying an Oscar when I got the fish in the beginning. I found a really good shop now, and the owner is helping me find a used tank. He even offered to "baby sit" them (Frantosa's) if I need to. So far they are tolerating each other. Hopefully that will continue until I can afford another 55 gallon tank. Fingers crosses. Thanks for all the advice!


----------



## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Looks like I'm a little late here as you replaced the live plants with plastic.

I personally consider live plants the best means of maintaining tanks and necessary.

So what I would have done is set up a refugium to protect the plants from the ocsars/cichilids.

Just a partition so the tank has a fish area and a plant area should have done it.

If you wanted to get fancier then an external seperate refugium with pump could have been used.

But it's too late and your tank looks great.

so that's just my .02


----------



## bigdaddy67 (Sep 11, 2009)

I have had good success zip tying a rock to the base of a plastic plant, then turning the plant so the zip tie is hidden. Not even my T. buttikoferi can budge it.

take care,
--Dave


----------



## mdmorash (Jul 4, 2009)

Thank you.


----------

