our 90 gallon aquarium

Ok so we've bought a 90 gallon aquarium as you all know and were planning to make it into an african cichlid tanks. However lately i have been researching alot on oscars. I really liek them and really want one. We are planning on getting a 55-65 gallon aquarium in a couple of years and that will be the home of the oscar then but untill we were goin gto put him in the 90 gallon. What my question is was can an oscar and 1 or 2 silver dollars live together in a 55- 65 gallon tank.
I've read alot of chelle's posts and im kinda thinking no but i woudl really like if i could do that.
What does anyone think.

 

Normally for a 90 gallon I'd say yes, but because it's a corner tank with a realtively small footprint, I wouldn't do it. It would be okay for about 6 months or so, but after that pretty much the fish's only choice is to swim in circles.

-Chelle

 

Hi tyler_medeiros, I'm curios what the width of each side of the 90 is. I'm guessing that it is close to 4ft. across the front which would give it the same width as a 55. The fact that it only has 3 sides gives it more depth than a 55. If that is the case then the Oscars can still get the same swimming motion that they would in a 55 plus the ability to go in a circle giving them more swimming range. Also I would think that it would have a larger footprint. Please list the dimensions so that I can figure the surface area of the gravel as compared to a regular 55 or rectangular 90.

 

<img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/tyler_amanda/tank.bmp" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

it is 38" x 38" (backs) x 12" x 12" (sides) x 36" (front)

 

That's not as bad as I thought. So you could probably put one in there. I still don't think it would be quite as good as a 48 x 18 tank, but it shouldn't be too bad.

-Chelle

 

Oscars do get 12" long so they need long swimming space. but if u do get oscars only get 1 if ur gonna move it into a 55 gallon later, 2 or 3 oscars would usually pick on the weaker one. For oscars it should be 1 oscar or 4+.