[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

If you're wanting a freshwater tank with some fish variety, I would really recommend avoiding an Oscar. They're super aggressive, they'll tear the shit out of your tank, they eat/grow quickly, and they're messy. Everyone who starts off with an Oscar will eventually hate it when it grows into a giant asshole fish.

I had Oscars for years and loved them. They'd move things but never tore my tank up and I didn't find them messy at all. Actually I thought they were quite simple. The biggest problem I ever had with Oscars was trying to raise more than one in a tank for a long time because of course one out of a group will end up being the "alpha male" and kill the others a lot of time. I did manage to have 5 in a tank... 3 reds and 2 albino for about a year in a 55 gallon tank. Once I was down to one big red it lived for 5 or 6 years and got quite large. That was pretty cool even though it was the only one left. My pleco got to about 14" long and a few inches wide too before it just up and died one day. Bummed me out.

Mostly I liked buying a dozen feeder goldfish and turning them loose into the tank... heh.