Know Your Oscar Fish

Origin: Tiger Oscars are not found in the wild. Their parent fish, the wild Oscar is natively found in South America - Amazon and Orinoco River Basins - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as non-native populations becoming established in Florida, various Caribian islands, Australia, and likely elsewhere in the tropics.

PH: Unless you are keeping wild caught Oscars, and there are no wild caught Tiger Oscars, pH is virtually irrelevant. What is important is a stable pH. People keep Oscars in a pH from 6 to in excess of 8. I think the idea pH would be neutral to slightly acidic but there is absolutely no need to attempt to adjust pH.

Food Items:In the wild, an Oscars diet consist primarily of insects and crustaceans. In captivity, a commercially available quality pellet should be the primary staple of their diet. For an in-depth review of an Oscar's dietary requirements and suggested feeding practices, please review Oscar Fish Diet – Feeding Oscars.

Aggression: By large cichlid standards, Oscars are mildly aggressive. People often make the mistake of assuming Oscars are as aggressive as their New World Cichlid brethren, such as Green Terrors, Red Terrors, Jack Dempsey's, etc... They are not. When housed with these more aggressive fish they generally are on the lower end of the cichlid pecking order. When it comes to housing a pair of Oscars, your best chance of success would be with two females. When young, you may be able to keep two males or a male + female but when sexual maturity sets in, hang on. Two males, no way. There is going to be a war and one of two, if not both, will be killed. A male and female can coexist provided neither detects a weakness in the other and/or both decide to spawn at the same time.