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I'm trying to id some walmart specials i picked up today. They were marked African Chichlids. Two are solid yellow. Two are yellow with two dark grew or black stripes running from the head to the tail. One is grayish with yellow marking almost like a tiger the 6th one is greyish with a yellow tiped top fin. some have spotted bottem fins some don't.
I dont like getting my fish from wallmart but its the only place to get them without driveing for 40 or so miles.
Most or the fish they had were infested with ick. I dont see spots on mine but I have them in a holding tank just to make sure.
Its not that i dont like walmart I do its just that they dont seem to be takeing care of their fish verry well.
I ordered 6 convicts I'm going to try and raise some treats for my Oscer. hes only 3 inches long but he knows me when I walk in the room!
While i'm asking for help perhaps someone could help me with my oscars. I have been trying to get a male and a female so i buy them in pairs. I have lost 5 of the 6 I have bought so far only one has survived.
I have a 10 gallon tank with an underground filter. An air pump is on one side a small 170 power head on the other. I also have a pump filter but i dont use any filters in it.
The last two died when i was treating the water for the walmart ick problem. Other than a small minnow or two that has escaped my Oscars mouth at feeding time their are no other fish in the tank. ' I bought another tank for the new fish' I'll have a 55 gallon tank by Christmass so he should have plenty of room. I change the water once a week about 30 to 50 percent I also wipe the sides down with a fresh sponge . the setup is about 2 months old now. I dont know why the small oscars keep dying i have plenty ow water exchange and the tank always looks clean.
I had planed on getting a nother pair of Oscars today but they all had two many white spots on them for my taste, whating to buy something I ended up with the fish marked African Cichlids.
I could use some help with the fish ID or the Oscar problem. Anyone have any ideas?
Cain

Well, it sounds like you have some "yellow labs" , as far as the spots on the tail, they are eggspots. The fish that are labled assorted cichlids or usually electric blue's or yellow labs they are a pretty tough fish. I can't say for sure unless I see the fish, Mabey you can find them on a site on line that has a lot of cichlid pics and one of us could check it out and be for sure, oh yea and if you got the fish from Wally world you can bet you bottom $$$ that it will be carrying ich. Get a heater if you don't have one already and kick the H2o temp up to about 84 degrees. This speeds up the life cycle of the ich and helps them "drop off" the fish faster. Just keep doing as you are w/ the water changes, but you may have to watch you fish so it doesn't get O2 deprived w/ the increased water temp. It's gonna take a little while to clear up the ich, but as soon as you medicate the tank, it's probably gonna be good for a month easily. Just keep a close eye on your fish. Breathing fast or he might "scratch" himself on the gravel or other tank accessories. They tend to do that from time to time when they get ich. Don't mix these fish with your others until you have completely gotten rid of the ich. Patience is a virtue, remember that. Well thats about it for a quucky. I'm sure others will post if I missed something. But that't the way I have taken care of my Ich in the past.
Chuck

[This message has been edited by kickstart4 (edited 09-17-2000).]

[This message has been edited by kickstart4 (edited 09-17-2000).]

Hi Cain,

Well, I was thinking the same thing Chuck was, either the 'yellows or female electric blues for some of the drab grey. About your oscars, I would also emphasize that you make sure you give your fish enough oxygen especially with water temp increase as Chuck mentioned, warm water can't hold as much oxygen as cold water. Can't you find a local small fish store? If you want to raise oscars to get a breeding pair I recommend you do it in about a 55 gallon or 65 gallon. I did with 6 oscars bought them at a little over 2.5" maybe they were 3" can't remember, they grow fast anyway. But six oscars in a 65gallon is way to crowded when they get to breeding size.

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Yup! I agree! And if they have not started to beat up each other yet, you will soon start to knotice them attacking each other!!

I have a male african cichlid he is about 4 years old and I want to get the female. The male is with my albino oscar right now in a 75 gallon tank. Will the male pick on the female or will he be interested? I am hoping that the will become a pair.

Well this is quite a hobbie I haven't had this much fun doing something new in years. I'm doing all the research I can but the learning process is slow.
About the oxygen in the water, I have the impression the power head was taking care of that. It spurts out lots of air bubbles. I have them aimed up towards the surface of the air. The other side has an air pump on it and the kit came with a water pump filter thing that I use as well I just don't have the carbon filter in it. I Haven't made up my mind on the carbon filtration yet. I don't know of any other way to get more oxygen into the water. As it is the power head makes quite a strong current in the 10 gallon tank so I'm reluctant to ad a second one before getting a bigger tank. The 55 gallon tank kit runs about 150.00 its on my Christmas list.
I only planed on having two Oscars I would like a male and a female. I bought two one died. So I purchased two more they both died then two more they died as well. I still have One of the originals. Since I cant sex them I figured I would try to keep two or three hoping only two would be of the same sex. The alternative is to try and buy a breading pair but My Oscar is so friendly I prefer to raise my own pair. So far they have all died on me all but one. I have never had more than three in the tank and would not consider doing so with anything less than a 125 gallon tank.
The size of the Oscars I have been buying is about 1.5 inches or so. I thought my little tank will hold them till Christmas. I don't want to wait that long to buy two more because the surviving Oscar I have is twice that long now and If I wait much long to add more he may think their lunch.

About the Africans I think at lease two are the Yellow Labs. After looking at pictures for a few hours I think its possible that their were several types of Africans mixed together in the Tank where I purchased them. My daughter has them in her new 29 gallon tank. I added a fish to eat the excess food that falls to the bottom of the tank. I think her Africans are going to be mean one of them, the gray one chases the bottom feeder all over the tank. Its about an inch long and its chasing and bitting the tail of a 3 inch fish! She added her Beta to the tank as well but I put it back in its old tank after a few hours the little Africans were chewing on its tail and chasing it around the tank as well. I bought 6 of them because they were so small I was thinking she could get a breeding pair but with the possibility of them being mixed varieties this is most likely not going to happen. Never the less she is quite content taking care of them.
I wonder if the Chemical I used to fight the Ick could be the cause of the Previous Oscars deaths. I used Quick Cure by Aquarium Products and I also use a product called Stress Coat by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc At the time I also used Clear water & pH Decreaser both by Jungle Labs. I don't use the Jungle products anymore Now that I have learned to do regular water changes I find they are not needed anymore.
I have also notice that my water temp drops from about 80 to 78 every night and rises back up in the day time. My water heater dos not seem to regulate the temp any better than this. I don't know if the light I run in the daytime raises the temp or if the ac lowers it at night. Could this flux in temp be a problem. This hopefully will not happen when I get a bigger tank.
Thanks for all the help
Cain

Hi Cain,

Glad to see you're excited about the hobby Here's what I would recommend for you. Try to somehow find a small fish store, mom and pop type or any store basically where you can buy BIgger oscars. Oscars are not as resistant as others when small, I think you should get 2.5 or 3" oscars to start with. A 3 inch oscars is a lot less likely to die on you. When you buy them, ask for them to be fed in front of you. A Healthy oscar will eat like a pig, make sure the fish are interested in food, if they don't eat don't buy them.
Don't worry about small temperature ranges like that, from 78 to 80 etc...that's fine, in fact in nature you do have some temp change also. Just remember to use use chemicals to take the Chlorine and chlorineamine out of your water when you do water changes. Chlorine can definitely kill your fish. But generally I would aggree, the less chemicals the better.

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I have a male african cichlid he is about 4 years old and I want to get the female. The male is with my albino oscar right now in a 75 gallon tank. Will the male pick on the female or will he be interested? I am hoping that the will become a pair.

Hi flowers,

I'm no African cichlid expert, but usually males do "WANT" females Most of the time, given enough space opposite sexes will get along just fine. I'm not sure but I think that for some African cichlids you can get a couple females for one male, if that doesn't keep him happy flush your male down the toilet....I'm kidding of course

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Check out the cichlid forum!

Flowers,

Check out Chuck's posting for you on the "Cichlid Forum", try and keep posts in this one about oscars only. Here's a direct link to his post. www.cichlidfish.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000006.html

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com