American Cichlids
Oscar
Astronotus ocellatus
Photo: Mattia Nocciola · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Temperature23–28 °C
- pH6–7.5
- Minimum tank400 l
- Adult size35 cm
- Difficulty★★★☆☆
- TemperamentAggressive
- WaterFresh
Full profile
- Family
- Cichlidae
- Origin
- Amazon River Basin, Orinoco and Paraguay
- Size
- 35 cm
- Temperature
- 23 – 28°C
- pH
- 6.0 – 7.5
- GH
- 4 – 18 °dGH
- Difficulty
- ★★★☆☆
- Water type
- tropical freshwater
- Swimming level
- middle
- Behavior
- aggressive (eats anything that fits in its mouth)
- Minimum number of individuals
- 1 or a pair
- Minimum aquarium size
- 400 L
- Diet
- carnivore (large cichlid pellets, shrimp, mussels; do not feed live fish)
- Reproduction
- oviparous; the pair cares for the eggs and fry
Notes: Intelligent and full of personality: it recognizes its owner and begs for food. It fouls the water heavily, so it requires very powerful filtration and large water changes. It moves and uproots decorations.
