Oscars

Oscars are propably the most companionable fishes you can find. These guys have different expressions and states of mind. You can actually see if they are in good or bad mood, tired, etc. just by looking at them. Oscars can yawn, cough, sneeze and even smile (for real!) =) They become your pals and if an oscar dies, it feels just as bad as any other "real" pet passing away.

Each oscar has naturally their own character features and therefore they deserve to be named. At our aquarium each oscar was named when they can be differentiated, usually when they are around 1-year-old.

Ok, oscar is a nice fish, but there are some basic requirements before barging to a local aquarium store to get yourself an oscar:

Make sure that your thank is big enough. Having even a single oscar requires at least 200 litre (50 gallon) aquarium, because grown-up oscar is a 30 cm (12 in) long fish. (Basic rule: 200 l (50 gallons)/first oscar + 100 l (25 gallons)/additional oscars)
You can forget having small fishes in the same tank unless you're willing to pay them more expensive live meal...
Are you pedant when it comes to cleaning the tank? Oscars eat a lot and there will be waste accordingly.
In addition to steady maintenance you will need a powerful filter.

Some oscars that have lodged in our tank

HOMER

Homie was without a doubt one of the most colorful oscars around. Because of that Homie is on display on the front page. Homie was one cool fish, who wasn't worried about little details. He was obvious boss of our tank. Homie was specialized in marathon swims from end to end in the aquarium; he often swam for hours. Unfortunately Homie passed away in fall 2000.

HELGA

Helga was the big momma of our tank. She spawned twice with Olga during summer times when water temperature raised over 30 degrees in Celsius. Helga was also very interested in people's faces - even so that her staring made some people feel uncomfortable. Helga was also very well behaving when it came to cleaning up the tank: Helga was the only oscar that never came to bite you.

Helga stopped eating very rapidly in fall 2002 and stayed on the bottom of the tank. Pölhö, who was Helgas obvious pal, came right next to her and stayed there as long Helga was alive. Oscars can be very sympathic creatures.

OLGA

Olga was our bubble-fish. This guy got nuts about bubbles a few years back. He was very fond of the air stone and surrounding areas. We never found out what was so special about the air bubbles. We changed the place of the air stone every now and then and Olga moved with it. Olga was very aware of his territory and especially Vihtori was not allowed to come even close to the bubbles. Cleaning the air stone area was a special operation requiring two persons. One for chasing the angry fish away from the stone and the other to clean the place up. One would think that Olga was all gas due to it's fetish, but no. The only good reason for leaving the bubbles is to eat.

Olga passed away in summer 2003.

VIHTORI

The smallest fish in the tank was Vihtori. He was usually quite brave, but sometimes during the cleaning he get's a bit scared (see the picture). Vihtori ate worth two oscars and he was the one first begging for food. During the summer time Vihtori liked to eat all the flies we manage to catch.

Vihtori passed away in summer 2003.

PÖLHÖ

Pölhö (Dumb) came with Pedro (see below) into our tank. This fish was big, but somehow he looked quite poor creature. We were pondering if he could cope with the rest of the gang. Our worries were proven dead wrong after Pedro took off and Pölhö made himself a boss. Pölhö was named Pölhö due to his outlook and ways of eating. The cover glasses on top of the aquarium rattle when Pölhö hunted for floating food sticks.

Pölhö has given two very spectacular shows during his staying in our tank. The other one contains a smell effect as well (!). Heli was carrying laundry and walking by the aquarium when Pölhö thought that there was one HUGE fish coming right at him! Pölhö barged towards to top of the tank, slid between the tank frame and covering glass and fell down on the floor! The covering glass fell inside the tank and the fish flaped himself for couple of meters from our living room to bedroom! The fish was quickly folded up inside a t-shirt found from the pile of laundry and brought back to the tank. Pölhö survived his trip well (just a few scratches here and there). There were bloody stains all over parquet and the whole apartment smelled like fish for a day! Pölhö didn't stress too much: he came to eat a couple hours later like nothing had happened.

Another stunt performed by Pölhö was once when air stone was covered with sand. Pölhö didn't like that and tried to bite the hand doing maintenance. He was obviously quite angry and followed the hand tightly. When the job was done and hand was raised from the tank, the fish decided to take a bit and barged after the hand. He didn't quite succeed, but jumped like 20 cm above the water level splashing right back (meaning there was like 10 litres (2 gallons) of water on the floor).

One day in summer 2003 Pölhö had jumped out of the tank during the day when we were at work and there was no one to rescue her this time.

PEDRO

This dark oscar is a real Amazon fish. We were charmed by him at first sight at Leppävaario aquarium store. This oscar was big, brisk and having a lot of personality. Oh my, how right we were. We bought this Amazon monster in March 2001. Pedro felt right at home in our tank and then began the biggest fights between oscars ever. Pedro kicked everyones ass and the other oscars were shivering in one corner of the tank. Fortunately we managed to find a new home with bigger tank for Pedro. There were smaller oscars and no problems have occured since then.

OLIVIA

Olivia was bought in the beginning of summer 2003 to be the fourth member in our oscar gang. Previous experiences in bringing in a new adult oscar were a bit conflicting, but we decided to give it a try. With destructive consequences.

Olivia fighted with everyone very strongly, but with Pölhö even more often. About a week after Olivia was placed in our tank, Pölhö was found dead one evening laying on the floor next to tank. Because there was no one to see what actually happend, we have just guessed that this accident is related to the fights.

A week later when we came home from work, Olga was laying on her side on the bottom of the tank. About half of Olga's scales and fins were teared off and Olivia kept attacking the helpless fish. We had to put Olga to sleep the following morning, because she was already dying.

Peace returned to the tank and we had only two oscars left: Vihtori and Olivia. The fishes were swimming calmly together for a week. Again once we came back home from work we found Vihtori in same condition we found Olga a week earlier. In addition Vihtori's both eyes were damaged. Vihtori was put to sleep and so was Olivia. Olivia didn't have a scratch, but anger towards the terrorist killing three our beloved pets was so strong that we decided to kill Olivia. And before someone asks why we didn't bring the fish to an aquarium store for sale, you should really ask yourself: Would you like to get a fish like Olivia into your tank? We didn't want to pass the grief on.

There are a lot of stories around of oscars, but this one is quite funny :lol
Someone had thrown an oscar away to the sea at harbor (!) in Helsinki. The fish was in shock, but alive and someone had catched the oscar to a bucket. There were bunch of people pondering what on earth this fish might be. Finally an expert was called on site from Helsinki Water Station. When the expert finally arrived, he immediately recognized the fish: "God damn, it's oscar!". Someone from the crowed asked: "Are you acquainted with that fish...?"

The story is borrowed from Kirjoahven.net forum. Thanks Timppa

Links to other oscar pages:

Comprehensive Guide to Astronotus Ocellatus, comprehensive, but distinct guide to oscars
Species Summary for Astronotus ocellatus, scientific facts about oscars