YAHOOOOO!!! My Oscar!

[Laura Foster]

FINALLY, after 5 weeks of waiting and looking, I have my Oscar! King Tutankhaman the Second, whom we call Tut, is residing happily in a very well prepared 38 gallon tank. He had a little bit of torn fins, but we fixed that(see my next post). Tut has eaten several guppies and some pelleted food.
(I think I'll leave the la-cook-a-rachas off his menu for now- he seems okay without them. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif ) Thanks for the advice, guys- and oh- does anyone know the yearly/monthly growth rate of these guys? I've heard it's quick but I'd like to know HOW quick. Bigger tank for Christmas?
Laura Foster

[funkman]

(see my post in your other thread too)

How big is he now?

I doubt X-mas would be too much of a worry, maybe X-mas next year, depending on a lot of weird stuff. IIRC, they'll slow down in growth as they reach their biggest size for the tank. You'll notice when they start running into the sides of the tank more often. We went straight from a 55 gallon to a 125, then they had plenty of room to get to their full growth. Of course we had some Pacu in there too, and they were much bigger and quicker growing. As nasty as it may seem, I would recommend never cleaning the tank very much at all. Ours were fine in the 125 gallon w/o ever doing a water change. I finally cleaned it, even with being careful they picked up someting nasty and it killed them. I've heard that if your gonna keep the tank clean, clean it very often and they will be fine. If your not gonna clean it often, just leave it dirty and they will be better off.