The Oscar Post

:idea: This thread, i want to create a information central on O's i have seen many treads on this site with pics and info on food and keeping but this tread is in my mind should be a portal for local Oscar keepers
in general so for us oscar keepers who wish to join in some debates and idees pic's/massive filtration and any ideas regarding o's please join in?

If this is the wrong place or way to go by please can the admins delete.

if its ok il start posting tommorow.:bigsmile:

 

I setup a 4ft oscar tank a week ago. Got a Aqua Clear 70 box filter with a 300w heater/thermo. I bought two tigers a couple of days ago. They are around 4cm long at the moment and even at that size eager little beavers when someone walks past the tank and at feeding time. The last ocsar I had was like close on seventeen years ago. He use to launch himself out of the water like a black bass when it came to feeding. I'm really enjoying these two little guys and shouldn't have waited seventeen years before before getting them again.

 

Hi thank you for the first post can i ask you to give me some more info on your filter? 40 to 70 gallons i see shouls be fine for a 4ft.

think you would need some more filtration in the end

o love your malawi tank

 

What size tank will I need for 2 oscars?Please include filtration

 

Hi

I have a standard 4ft tank with two albino tiger Oscars. Got them when they were +-5cm, just under a year ago. They are now +-25cm. These guys are really messy, had to install a 2ft sump and still use the internal filter aswell. Water changes are really crucial when keeping them in a tiny 4ft.

 

MINIMUM of 250 litres per oscar. Filtration turning over the volume of your tank 8 to 12 per hour. 4 ft in my opinion is far too small even for one, let alone two.

Sent from my Tablet using Tapatalk

 

OK so for 2 I'm talking say a 600 hundred liter tank with a filtration rate of about 4800 to 7200L/h

 

This is worth a read - it explains an experiment done by David Boruchowitz where he proves an Oscar can thrive in 5 gallons (+/- 20l) of water. (I thought that might get your attention - read the article before you flame me )

http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=17187

If you subscribe to TFH Digital you can read the article here:
http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/200912?folio=78#pg83

PS - It's part of a very interesting article about whether it's better to do small daily water changes or a big weekly water change - http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/200911?pg=89#pg89

 

+1 VERY GOOD READING MATERIAL THANK YOU @Jenn

iT JUST COMES DOWN TO GENERAL AQUARIA KEEPING THATS WHY WE ARE IN THE HOBBY OR LIFESTYLE.

I THINK 2 O'S IS THE MAX FOR A 4FT MORE FILTRATION AND WATERCHANGES THE BETTER

 

that certainly is very interesting reading,a little extreme maybe i would never chance it,can you imagine doing a 100% water change out the pipe in winter in jhb.i have 3 oscars in 5 foot and i know its not ideal but i dont have any problems.

 

Jenn that is a very good and interesting article.

Thysie its a external box filter(waterfall filter) with a turn over of 1135lt/per hour. I'm also going to be putting a hailea 1000lt/per hour internal filter. So all in all between the two filters the water turn over will be close to nine times the water volume per hour. I think with oscar's you can never have to much filtration, the more the better. I do about a 20% water change weekly and literally everyday I vacuum all the uneaten food out of the tank and just top up the water level.

I agree with Zoom, a four foot tank(250lt) is to small, especially for two oscar's. I'm currently busy with a few tank projects at my place. One is a 1120lt tank for the entrance of my house and the other is a 720lt tank for my bedroom, but this will take place once I've sold my wifes marine tank.

 

aquaponics whats your take on this

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...New-DIY-Nitrate-filter-started-om-my-210-tank

This is just as reference

 

found an article on feeding,is a little long winded for me but had some interesting things to say trying to copy paste here BWM

 

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Quality_Fish_Food.html

 

what should we be feeding our oscars,whats in and whats out?
i have been feeding mine :
01.tetradomain large cichlid sticks (as the staple dry food)
02.frozen bloodworms
03.earthworms (depending on the season either lots or a little)
04.crickets (gut loaded as a weekend treat usually a tub in 2 feedings)
05.frozen ox heart (which is now off the menu permanently
06.snails (also seasonal)
07.and then the odd lizard,moth and when my guppy population explodes some of these.

how does this rate?

iv been doing some reading up on the subject trying to educate myself some more on the subject found some interesting things,things i would like to put into practice.i have started with a new menu this month consisting of:

01.hikari gold pellets (replacing tetra)
02.then a mixture of frozen bloodworm,daphnia,krill and a seafood mix.

how does this rate?

now during my reading i read that oscars need vegetable matter in their diet,which in the wild they apparently get from the guts of the creatures they eat as well as fallen fruit.now i have never tried feeding them fruit but if my attempts at feeding peas are anything to go by it would a futile excercise.i imagine then that this part of their diet is lacking in my feeding.however as stated above in the wild it is gained from the bowels of the creatures consumed so would the gut loaded crickets and snails which eat mainly greenery (and my strawberries) be sufficient or should they be increased from a a treat to something more substantial?

now to oxheart:its often thrown around as excelent food but is it really?from what iv read the cons outway the pro's.so i'v decided to leave it off the menu.

dry food:i have been using tetra sticks for years but have decided to change to hikari.tried them the first time this morning and they just dropped like stones to the floor without being eaten.my oscars are notoriously fussy eaters taking a while to warm up to new things so im not particularly worried just yet.

so anyway i would just like to get others takes on this,comments and advice are welcome.any experts out there maybe @prof

 

Hikari

Thanks @oscar freak
I got some Hikari the weekend 250gr of Biogold and 250gr staple mix them and feed that every second day the first day i feed some crickets and the third day i feed some homemade fish based treat and one day's rest for them

 

http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/oscars/170-oscar-fish-diet-feeding-an-oscar-fish.html

 

Little note,iv been experimenting a bit with my tank raising the temperature from 26-28ish to 30 degrees.the plan was to try and get my female to lay eggs again by increasing the temperature then doing a water change with cold water and not the usual half cold half hot water to get something similar to the tank water.so far what iv noticed is they are far more active and that the two bigger ones this morning were ganging up on the smaller one.now by raisng the temperature and increasing their metabolism i expected them to be eating more but this is not the case however as stated before this month is a new menu so they could just be unhappy with it.

 

please forgive the picture quality my bb takes the most awful pics.

 

I can say the same i think its the temp as the days are getting hotter my o's are starting to challenge each other more often
sure something is starting as per the season changes maby a biological clock of sorts lol