CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I just got an albino Oscar about 6 in and  I put it in my 80 gal tank with my other oscar who is about 10 in.  The big one keeps picking on the small one. It doesn't bite it but it keeps pushing it and puffing out it gills at it. I was wondering if my bigger oscar will eventually get used to it or if i should take it back to the store?

Not unusual, but keep a close eye on them in case things get more serious.  You might try rearranging the decor a bit, in the hope of bringing territoriality of the older one down a notch.  Doesn't often work, but worth a try.

DanRad's suggestion to re-arrange the decor is excellent. It makes the older Oscar insecure in the "new" surroundings and voids his territorial nature.

Another tried-and-true method is simple to install a clear divider, so they can see each other without touching. After a few weeks, when they are used to each other, simply remove the divider and they won't know the difference. --Mark

thanks! is there anyway i can make one because i dont think the pet stores near here have a divider that big?

You can cut plexiglass to size.  Or use the plastic "egg-crate" material.  Home improvement stores have it.  They'll probably cut the plexiglass for you if you don't have the tools.  The egg-crate stuff is easy enough to size yourself, and quite cheap.

congrats on the new O 

sounds like you have a big ol bully in there! 

but if you put in a divider, he won't do much harm 

best to you and I hope everything works out!!! 

Hey i got 4 O's about a month ago 2 1 1/4 O's and 2 1in O's 2 weeks l8tr the smallest O died  which i understand... he wasnt bein picked on or anything  but i was wondering ... why did he die..., a few examples would be nice...

ok... i just got brine shrimp today!!!  my O's love them,...love,love,love,love,love,love the suckers i was wonderin also... how big do they get, how long does it take for them to get that big, are they nutrient rich, should i feed them  a lot of them...  

ok now for some detail on my O's  lol okokok... the two bigger one's are named cloud and reks i think reks is a girl  and cloud is a dude which meens  lol  the two bigger one's have very very very nice coloring cuz of the freeze dried brine shrimp ive been feeden ther piggie faces  they are energetic and are healthy for the most part... ( reks has ich, im not worried  ) and i cant keep the 2 off each other ( as if i wanted to seperate the love birds) ... but the little one has hardly any color and is a loner... he/she is quiet energet though ( not as much as cloud and reks) i was wonderin ... what might be a good name for him/her???  Q's & A's about the O's anr very very welcomed ( oh and this is a very nice web props to the owner )

srry this one  and the one befor is supposed to be a question

I will go ahead an answer some of you questions here, but you might get more responses if you start your own thread and describe EVERYTHING you can.  We as fish lovers, love to hear about it, can't get enough    Tank size, water temp, number and wattage of heaters, number, type, flowrate of filters, gravel, decor, water parameters ...  things about you, what made you fall in love with Os, your personal experiences, etc.  It would make for a good new thread!

As far as diet, variety is good, but a quality pellet or combination of quality pellets (Omega One, Hikari, etc) should be 80-90% of the diet.  FD Brine Shrimp is loved, but when they are bigger, the powdery nature of it can be bad, in the same way flakes are bad.  The Os will pop at the water, taking the chance of swallowing air, which can be quite bad for them in the long run.  I finished off the last of my brine shrimp by giving the O the clumped pieces and  the mollies the powdery mess.  Krill is a great treat, but my O also makes a mess, he 'shells' the krill and spits out the outside part, eating the tender insides, though he will do that will pellets sometimes as well, he can be silly.  The coloring ...  Protein is changed into blacks and browns, Spirulina into blues, astaxanthin is for red, corn gluten meal/marigold/egg helps with yellow, green is blue and yellow underlying each other.  A good pellet with have sources of each and give you the best overall color and health.  You can also give them crickets, worms, etc. as treats, if you give them feeders you must quarantine for a month or have your own healthy tank of them, and use warm water fish, cold-water fish such as goldfish have too high of fat and some have nutrients in them that lessen the ability to absorb vitamins that are needed by our Os.  ---  my special note, FD Daphnia seems to cloud my molly tank

If you go to the photo section, you will see how fast my O grew over 5 weeks and the color change he is going through.  In less than 2 months, he has grown about 3+".  This is fast but still normal for a healthy, well-fed O in a big enough tank.  Oscars, when kept healthy, will live well over 10 years and get over 12" long from nose to base of tail.  If you have them in too small of a tank or poor water conditions, they will stunt, which shortens their life and can make them more susceptible to diseases.

There are a variety of things that can cause a young O to pass away.  They could have been sick or weakened from recent multiple transfers from the farm to holding to the store to your house and the various major water quality changes that happen through this process ...  puts them through shock.  The ich can knock out a baby O quick, maybe stress?  But others would give you better possibilities than I can.

You need to treat the ich a.s.a.p. ...  some use high temps (87-90F) and aquarium salt (1 TBSP/5 Gal) on other sites and claim good results, others use an ich medication and heat.  Ich can be quite deadly if not taken care of and needs to be treated for at least 3-5 days after you see the last of it, even longer if your temp isn't high.  Make sure it is ich (salt crystal like spots) ...  otherwise it is a fungus and can be treated with melafix and/or pimafix ...  I had this problem before, I have heard some have used this to treat ich as well (of course with raised temps).  But use others' recommendations for your treatment.

Usually out of a group of 3 Os, you will have one oddball left out.  As they grow and demand territory, the odd one will get picked on more than 90% of the time until it dies or you move it to another tank.  6 is the recommended if not one or two, but you would need a 300+ gallon tank to give them the territorial space they would need when adults.

From your other posts I don't understand if you have an adult O in a 50 gallon, if Cloud has passed on (looks like the post that said that was earlier today and I know Os play dead), so exactly what and where are all your Os and other fish?  Ages, color variants?  More info the better.

If a moderator wants to take these posts out and place them in its own thread, that would be great, I think the responses will be better for redsun

well... ok i have a tank at my mom's house and a tank at my dads... (I am only 13) the oscar at my mom's house (shadow) is a tiger oscar, very healthy and has no problems whatsoever 

(dad's house)Now, moving on... last year i bought a 10 gal tank and put an oscar in it (name was cloud) well as you can tell a 10 gall for a 1 1/2 in O only lasts for a limited amout of time ( i had to buy the tank on my own hence the 10 gal) so after about 3 weeks he was 2 1/2 in wayyyy to big for his 10 gal, so i had to get a bigger tank ( didnt think about a 75 gal... so one day i walked into a "used store" and there was this perfect 75 gal tank  so... after some 3 hour talk with my dad i finally borowed 70$ !!! waaaayyyy cheep... AWSOME!, so i get my tank home clean it fill it with water ( bare at the time) and level it and let it set for a week... and FINALLY put my O in it... he LOVED it!! he wouldnt stop exploring for hours!  so he finally settels down and i give him some pellets and some FD krill and he eats then swims off with his piggy self  ... then about 5 months later he gets sick... no signs of ick looks fine but, he isnt eating or swiming around... looking very... and i hadnt had a sick O yet so i didnt know what to do... and... about a week later... he is verticle nxt to my 90 gall filter  ... so i cleaned the tank several times cleaned the heater,filter,bubbeler and rocks about a million times over... then 3 months l8ter i got 3 new baby O's (one is leavin if i get a mating pair) now i have cloud reks and....? whats-his-or-her-name (havent found out yet)... phew any more Q's? lol  jkjk

$70 is a sweet deal for a 75 gallon, especially since it didn't leak!

a picture would help us come up with names ...  I used an anime name for my O.  Is it Cloud from FF VII?  Just curious.

How often did you or your father change the water for your late friend?  There is so much it could have been, it is hard to tell.  It could have been a chemical spike (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate).  It could have stressed him and he quit eating, or since you didn't see anything visible, something internal.

Try to get your dad to get an API freshwater master test kit.  It is only about $15 if you get it online from petsmart.com.  Follow the directions well.  When you have an established nitrogen cycle (good bacteria that grows in your filter), you will show no readings for ammonia or nitrite.  These will be turned into nitrate.  When you test for nitrate, if it gets above 20 ppm on the test, it is time to change the water.

There are ways to help keep the nitrates lower.  Try not to overfeed.  I know it is hard with all the begging Oscars are experts at!!!  Also, if there is uneaten food, take it out instead of letting it sit until a water change.  When you do a water change, don't be afraid to dig into the gravel, the waste and expelled food from the gills has a way of working down into the gravel, If it is coming out cloudy from the gravel keep cleaning it.  If you can't get through all the gravel by the time you get to about 50%, fill it back up and wait a day or two, and work on the next section.  Once you have it clean, it is easier to keep it clean when you do your future changes.  (yours is probably clean already since your little ones are still babies).

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask away as well.  We are all here to help you to have happy and healthy Oscars for you to enjoy!

Welcome to our forum  redsun71857  It is nice to see someone caring so much so soon!

LOL i know i got a freakin sweet deal 

Yup its from ff7 and reks is from ff 12 lol or 13..(the newest one)

i buy EVERYTHING... my dad said in the beginning "im not payin for anything, of if i do your payin me back" (he didnt want fish in the first place

My new oscar died the smallest 1  sad............... oh well at least i still have the 2 bigger one's that are actually named........but still