CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

New here, and thought I would just give some info and a comment.

I have cared for friends' Oscars before and fell in love with them and I am partial to the Tiger variety, though I am curious to see a Ruby/Bloody Red in person. 

I have a 55 gallon tank with a Emporer 400 Bio-wheel (the extension was too long!  ), and have a Penguin 330 for supplement when my new friend Sesshomaru grows up by a few inches.  I named him off of an anime character from a show I used to watch (InuYasha).  Sort of an aggressive character when someone gets in his way but silently loves the one he cares for.  I felt that fit an average Oscar's personality quite well. 

He is about 1 1/2", with already strong colors (black and the orange is starting to come out) and well-defined patterns, also quite active, although, I can tell he is missing his tankmates from the LPS  .  I picked him up last night.  He swims towards his reflection a lot, sometimes opening his mouth at it like he wants to lock lips    He slept next to the intake tube last night, I am assuming because he is used to company.  He was with about 10 other tigers in the tank at the store, and they were schooled together rather closely the whole time I watched them (for about an hour, then I cam back later to pick him up and watched for another 30 minutes).  He was the most active and showed the most coloration out of the bunch.  I do feel bad for his lonliness  in what is currently a HUGE tank for him, but I know that it will be barely sufficient when he gets older.  (and I do know that I have no clue of the actual sex, but since he is alone, I will assume it, since I liked the name  and will never be with anyone to mate)

I am going to be saving up for a 120 gal, a stand, and a canister filter for the future, and I can hopefully achieve this before he gets to 9", that way he can grow as large as he wants to.  I know he won't stunt in the 55, but I would like to get him as large as I can, and make him as happy as possible.  I have studied a lot about Oscars and am always willing to learn something new or find out I might have the wrong idea about something.

I set the tank up and used some filter media from another tank.  I treated the water with StressCoat, StressZyme, Nitraban, Freshwater Aquarium Salt, and a bacteria culture that has slipped my mind but it is made by the same people that make AmQuel+.  I am also using a 250W Visi-therm heater, an air wand and an air volcano thing that I don't like and will replace it with two more air wands, so there will be one on each end, and one in the middle.

I plan on feeding Hikari Cichlid Bio-Gold, but currently feeding Hikari vitamin enriched freeze-dried brine shrimp and HBH Oscar grow until he can eat the medium pellets ...  i do have some Cichlid Gold in medium and large a friend gave me, but it will be a while    I might give some flakes occasionally that go to the the mollies in my 30 gal tank where I got the pre-colonized media from.

Well, I guess that sums it all up.

I know that you should try to vary his diet as much as you can. Try frozen things, brine shrimp. Worms. I know they really like insects like grasshoppers and things.

I have 2 Oscars in a 55 gallon at the moment, and am buying a 128 gallon soon. You could get him another Oscar to keep him company. They would be fine together in the 55 gallon until you bought the bigger one. 2 Oscar's could fit comfortable in a 120 gallon tank.

I definitely will give him lots of good food from different sources.  I can't be certain that I will get a bigger tank (emergencies come up), and I would rather have one happy Oscar in a 55, than two that fuss at each other occasionally, and two in a 55 = twice the water changes  

I am so happy to have nitrates under 5 ppm, and I am doing a 5 gallon gravel vacuum a day because he like the sinking pellets, won't touch the one on top or mid water right now, so I try to clean up what he doesn't get and pick up the other ones that he won't touch. (edit: yes, my ammonia and nitrites are reading 0 ppm ) 

But even if I do get a 125 gal, he would be more than happy to have it to himself I am sure!!!  I plan on getting some live plants soon and trying to find some smooth rocks to build a nice cave, but I don't think he cares too much, I have some little statues he could fit in and he doesn't even go near them  

Definitely an active little guy though and he isn't running from me anymore.  Still swims at his reflection and will open his mouth up at it occasionally ...  big mouth for such a tiny thing.  I am trying to get some pictures, but he is evading quite well and my skills aren't that great either 

That's funny how Oscar's can be so picky with food. Mine won't touch Hikari or any other known brand of food, they only like the cheaper, not known foods. Which is quite weird.

I hope your Oscar wont rip up the live plants, that would be terrible. They are so much nicer than fake plants, but I don't want to spend the money on them and have my babies rip them to pieces.

I've been hearing a lot that Oscar's don't like caves, but I think it depends on personality. I'd like to put one into my [future bigger tank] and see what my babies do. I'd also like to get an air toy, like a diver that spits bubbles and moves up and down just to see what they'd do with him! Just to see the way they look at it, and explore it would be worth it, as it is quite cute.

It's good that he doesn't run from you anymore. I hope you get some pictures of him!

I think in your original post you said you are partial to Tigers? They are beautiful. I myself have a Tiger and a Red Oscar. Red's are very beautiful as well.

Hehe, I finally found some Cichlid Bio-Gold mini pellets tonight.  It is the first time he has eaten from the top of the tank, though I have to put them in one at a time.  If he doesn't grab it right away, he will just look back at me for another one.  He hides away as he lets it soak in his mouth, then comes back and chews it up in front of me, silly.  He was VERY excited for them after the first one.  Ate about 5 or 6 pellets, it was the most I have watched him eat in one sitting, the little piggy    He definitely prefers the 'gourmet' food

I have never heard of HBH Oscar Grow before, but that is what I was feeding him.  The medium is about the size of the mini Hikari pellet, a mix of floating and sinking quote 'specialized dietary formula to enhance coloration and satisfy the needs of fast growing oscars'.  Min crude protein 43% Min crude fat 12% Max crude fiber 4.6% Max moisture 10%, was cheap.

I guess I will wait and see if I can find some free granite/slate ...  the stuff I have is too jagged, otherwise, he will do without the cave.

My second fav color would be the Ruby/Bloody Red ...  then Red Os.  I guess I should say I like Tigers with a more defined pattern the most, like Wild type but with the bright orange.

I know someone who took an airstone and put it inside a buddha statue that had a bigger hole in the back and a little hole in the belly button.  Fed the airstone in through the back and laid it down, a big bubble would pop out of the belly button every few seconds and his fish would be so curious about it, and try to attack the bubbles as they were coming out.  Also once turned it on its side and it looked like the bubbles were coming out of somewhere else    Someone suggested for me to get a bio-ball for a toy or poke holes in a ping-pong ball ...  but I wish I could find one of those fake fish that swim around, well, only if I was sure he wouldn't break it and eat plastic, but I think it would be funny to watch him chase/attack a fake fish. 

I am working on the pictures.  I may go ahead and upload a couple of the ones I have that turned out tolerable tonight or tomorrow.  He will move most of the time as I take the picture so he is a blur, sometimes I move too...  and I am still figuring out the camera as well.  It is 4 MP and doesn't look like it at all   The one time I used a flash he was so bright it didn't look like him, and I don't like using flash on his defenseless little eyes    Found a setting I don't really need the flash that is good for still objects like a flower, but the one for moving objects I will need to bring in a lamp ...  he looks like a shadow at the same lighting.  he is so beautiful to me because I love him lots

I got sidetracked tonight while looking for plants, I started playing with a full grown albino O at the LPS.  He would follow me back and forth and anticipated when I would turn around, quite fun ...  since they didn't have any plants in stock, then when I went to a LFS, I ended up playing with a puffer fish the same way.  He would follow me, then want me to follow him.  I think I would own on of those if I ever kept a saltwater tank.  I didn't like the way the tanks and plants were looking, so I passed and by then it was to late to go to the chain Pet store (PetSmart), oh and I was at PetSupermarket earlier as well and they didn't have any plants.  I also drove around for an hour looking for two LFS that showed up on a business search for my city, couldn't find either, one led me into a neighborhood, the other  was whole block of trees.

I will have to check and see if you have pictures up in the gallery, if not, I hope you get some too!    I can hardly see the one as your avatar, though he looks big, or the goldfish is small ...

I have a ping pong ball in my tank, they never really touched it. When I put it in they watched it sink, and then watched it for awhile but then lost interest. They do get interested when it gets caught in my bubbles and floats up. Also, I think they play with it at night because in the morning it is always at the other side of the tank!

My O's are about 7ish inches. maybe 8, I'm not exactly sure. The goldfish was small. I thought it was kind of cute the way he had the head of the goldfish stiking out of his mouth, as he swam around with it like that for quite awhile until he got the whole thing down.

It's super easy to get distracted by Oscar's at the pet store! I always find myself playing with them instead of getting what I am there for.

I'm going to see if I can get some pics in the gallery now. Hopefully it works.

well, you answered my question from the other post in this one ...  you may have a few more months before you will get some eggs ...  but there will be a lot of eggs!!!  They have basically paired off already and chosen each other for mates ...  like they had a choice    They are going to have a lot of practice for the real thing.  Remember the first couple times they may not be successful, or they may eat the eggs and/or fry    but later on they will stop and rear their little babies well.  Brine shrimp is recommended for them once they are done with the egg sac, and I am sure the parents will help feed as well.  Hope you can find a home for all the little children!

I am going to try the gallery soon.  I was too tired last night to try and find a good picture out of all the blurry ones.

Maybe they play with the ball when no one is looking.  I know someone who had fish that wouldn't eat in front of anyone.