CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

So as my other post states I'm new to the world of Oscars Cichlids, now one of mine the black one eats like a horse, the other red one I've seen eat a few pellets but never nearly as many as the other, I'll see maybe him eat 1 a day... I'll sometimes put them into the tank and walk away thinking maybe the guys just a bit shy still... when I return they are usually gone. I've even tried letting the pellets sit for awhile and become soft because maybe he doesn't like them hard I'm not sure.

But the other day I noticed his "stomach" as far as I can tell looks like it's sucked in a bit more then the black one. I'm not sure if this is just the way he is or if he's not eating enough and starving. They both seem to swim around the tank and don't seem terribly shy or scared, so I'm not sure if it's something to worry about or not. The black one poops like made, this guy doesn't... another reason I think he might not be eating enough.

I've read other forums where people talk about their cichlid seeming to starve and people suggested at least giving them some beef heart or a bug to try and make sure they have something in their stomach so I managed to find a fly today and stun him enough to chuck in the water, both Racso (black one) and George (Red one) zipped towards it when it hit the water but George went all out and swallowed that bugger whole! The fly was pretty big too compared to these little fish so I was suprised he got it all in his mouth. He nailed it so fast I didn't know if he'd actually got the fly or missed and it flew away, then he sat there chewing on it for awhile and spit it out then sucked it back in and I think swallowed it. So I'm pretty sure he's at least got a fly in his stomach!

Now I know you shouldn't feed them very much live stuff because then they'd never eat the pellets, but I just don't know if he's getting enough and I don't want him to starve.

Anyways, I took a short vid of him swimming around, maybe you guys and take a peak and tell me what you think. Vid might take awhile to download, took me forever to upload



http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c267/ ... I_0791.flv

He is NOT eating enough. You might want to try a divider to let him ajust better and eat.. Your air stone is kind of strong.. Does your pump turn down any?? He is weak and has problems swimming.. that is the first sign of a weak fish and that means HE is not eating.. I would do a  divider for a good month, turn the air pump down OR insert a valve to control the outflow of air to the air stone so it does not blow him around..  Please do this ASAP.. Good video.. 

Divider will be picked up in the next couple days when I go through the city. Any cheap idea's as to what works well and can be bought at someplace like Walmart or CanadianTire?

And way ahead of you on the air pump thing, the guy at the lfs got me to buy the big bad 60gal dual output $35 air pump with 3 air stones and all these hoses and other bull... after watching the video and a couple others I made I came to the same conclusion the currents were throwing the poor guy around which also explains why he would often just stick to the one side since over there no stones = less current. So I pulled out the $35 monster (which I was only using 1 output with a valve at about 1/2 in the first place...) and put in a $0.25 garage sale find single output ELITE model with a small free valve... works much better. And what do you know within a few min of that being installed both fish were swimming around a little more! Go figure.

So anyways, they are moving around a bit more, makes me happy. I also cheated and gave them a bit of a treat evening... since winter is approaching and bugs will be no more for a large number of months I decided to have some fun while it's still warm. I turned on the outside light and waited, 10 min later bugs everywhere... got a small clear container and snagged a few decent sized moths and flies. Those two cichlids were in heaven fighting to get the bugs! So yeah, they will NOT get that very often but I'm at least a bit happy the red guy had some food (1 large fly, couple small/med moths) and his belly isn't sucked in nearly as much, and he had a bit of a poop. He's also seeming alot more happy then before and my fiance' thinks he looks alot brighter in color.

But, hopefuly with those small changes in the tank and him swimming around more he'll maybe start eating some pellets soon. And if not within the next day or so I'll for sure get the divider and see what I can do. The one thing about the divider that I'm affraid of is the fact the red one it's not like he doesn't have the opportunities to eat, I throw in 2 pellets and the black one snags them within seconds then goes to the bottom and starts chewing for awhile, then I throw in a couple more pellets and the red one will swim right up to them within about an inch... stare... then back away. Sometimes he'll bite them, then spit them out 1/2 way down the tank when he's swimming.

So he has the chances, he just doesn't seem to want to take the food. And I'm sure the lps I bought them from which was a PetLand use the good pellets and not junk because I thought maybe he's used to other foods? Not sure... I'll just have to keep working with the little guy I soppose

I don't know if that is the only thing your feeding them but if it is you should switch once in a while like give them lettuce,peas,frozen shrimp, carrots,worms crickets,slugs etc.. every time you feed them something you should switch the next feeding and all of the above are healthy for them then go back to the pellets

On the divider, Wal-mart does NOT have them, AT least not here iN OKLa.. You need a good Fish retail store for those..OR order on line.. bigAlsonline.com has some.. I wil get you a link.. They are in Canada and should do you good IF you have a credit Card  OR get a free catalog and order that way..
Make sure they are the strong solid ones AS they have those screen ones and they dont' hold up well at all. Something you might want to consider on using a divider is only do so at feeding time. A divider wil shut off the flow on that side of the tank IF you have ONE filter only runing.. SO be aware of that..
You can make one out of ceiling tile, called egg crate.. this is what I use for some of my tanks and the holes are 1/2in so the tank can circulate with no problems.. Still best to use two filters thou, one on both sides.. YOURS would only be a tempory deal so get the best cheapest one you can.. Make sure thou that it fits your tank size.. For over a 120Lit tank 55 US gal,  you need two.. IF you can find the egg crate, just cut to match the INSIDE deminsions and HEIGTH just to under the glass hood for a good fit...

I can't find a working BigAls page.. I dont' know if the site is down or what.. SO see if you can do a search for bigalsonline.com  for one  OR maybe someone here has a working link???

walmart here has those cheap flimsy dividers for like $30 = waste of money

can't find a working BigAls page.. I dont' know if the site is down or what.. SO see if you can do a search for bigalsonline.com 

http://www.bigalsonline.com is the link, just worked for me for the U.S. big al's the candian bigal's is http://www.bigalsonline.ca/

You can make one out of ceiling tile, called egg crate.. this is what I use for some of my tanks and the holes are 1/2in so the tank can circulate with no problems..

 
Same stuff I use , strong and cheaper then most store bought tank dividers too