CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I frequent three bulletin boards dealing with oscars and other cichlids and it seems that for the last month everybodys oscars have been spawning or at least trying to. How many of you guys have potential spawners acting all lovey right now? What is it about this time of the year?Does anybody have some advice for AFTER the eggs arrive? I'd like to keep the wigglers out of my filter inkake and I'd also like not to be bitten so I though a nylon knee-high sucured over the inkake with a rubber band before the spawning would be effective. Any hints?

yeah, mine have been trying to spawn lately, and one is almost 2 inches bigger!

Speaking of spawning questions....I also have one. What do you do with all the babies after they hatch? I think it would be cool to get Jack a girlfriend and watch them spawn, and I just love baby fish, but oscars have way more babies than my platties and guppies put together!! And oscars aren't supposed to eat their babies. When I got too many babies from my little fish, I just wouldn't seperate the babies from the parents, and voila! No worries. But what do you do with all the oscar babies? Just curious.

Jen

<---Look! I broke the junior thing! LOL ;p

[This message has been edited by Repunz (edited 09-25-2000).]

My oscars just spawned an hour ago. Now what do I do to ensure maximum yield? How can I tell if the eggs are fertilized? Please help!!!

Joe, thank you for the advice (lowering and and raising temperature). It works.

Hi Oscarman,

Well, I'm glad the trick worked for you, congratulations
You really can't tell if they got fertilized or not, you'll have to be patient. They should turn brown and develop dark spots.(The dark spot is the fish developing). If they stay white, they're fungusing or not fertilized etc...usually takes about four days or so to see them with their tails sticking out of the egg sac. If you have other fish in the tank that might eat the fry, remove the other fish. Make sure you have nice, CLEAN water in the tank, plenty of oxygen etc....may be good to put cloth or something around the tank, .....do a "search" on this BBS you'll find more info in posts about this. Hopefully I'll get around to posting on the website some of the info i've given in the discussion posts on here. Once the fry hatch you should put something over the intake of your filter. An old sock or whatever, you can try using some nice sponge filters for a while, instead of your regular filtration. Feed extra fry to your other fish, you might have many eggs that fungus or some that didn't fertilize, you might not have a "huge" batch. You can cull the population size any way you like.
TEll me something, is one of the oscars hovering over the eggs protecting them? You may notice the male and female fighting over who gets to protect the eggs. If the oscars forsake the eggs it probably means they're no good, not fertilized etc....let me know what you notice in their behaviour. good luck

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I've turned off one of my two power filters to avoid the filter sucking up the fry. Not sure if this is good or not because the water will get much dirtier.

Should I also turn off my undergravel filter?
Also, is a water change recommended?

CURRENT FISH BEHAVIOR:
The oscars are constantly circling the slate with the fry, and they are also hovering over the eggs. When they hover over the eggs, they seem to be "sitting" on them or trying to push the eggs onto the slate. They are very protective and get truculent when anything gets near (i.e., my face near the tank). Another anomaly since the spawning is that they haven't been eating.

This is very exciting! Can't wait 'til the hatching.

Kevin

[This message has been edited by Oscarman (edited 09-26-2000).]

Hi Kevin,

Well, so far it sounds good if you can do some good water change without disturbing the oscars would be good especially if your water's not that good.(you'll have to cover the tank, make the water change with same temp water and make it slowly through in/out hose. You dont' want to aggrevate the oscars.....I do recommend some kind of filtration, but again, since oscars won't eat for a while that'll reduce water pollutions somewhat. You can leave your undergravel filter on probably until the eggs have really hatched. I'm not really familiar with undergravel filters, never used them so don't know how much danger there would be of fry getting pulled down, others here may know better. And yea, the oscars will "massage" the eggs with their fins kind of pusing them down onto the slate. The hovering over the eggs is good, creates a water current over the eggs ensuring good oxygenation thereby reducing their chance of getting fungus. I do recommend though not stressing them out, ie cover the tank. Now about oxygenation, make sure you have good water movement at the surface of the water. Most of the oxygen intake happens at water surface. This is when all your hard work and water changes pays off, enjoy!

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I also have an undergravel filter. Half the tank with a power head, and the other half with the bubble tube. The side with the bubble tube doesn't seem to have that much pull, but if oscar babies are like platy and guppy babies, they will hide in the gravel. Joe, you may know more than I do. In fact, I know you do!
Jen

Well, as long as they 'hide' and don't get 'sucked' down they should be fine. I guess it depends on how strong the undergravel filter is, maybe don't those things use an air pump? maybe use an adjustable one, make it weaker....

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I'm gonna leave the UG filter off. Better safe than sorry.

I just finished a ~40% water change and covered 80% of the tank with paper. After I wrapped up the tank, the oscars appeared "lost". The paper reflections must have caused them to think that the tank is a new environment. Hopefully this won't spook or stress them too much. By now, they no longer circle the eggs as they did last night during the spawning, although they are still equally protective.

INTERESTING TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION:
During the spawning last night, I could see the eggs coming out of the female. But I couldn't observe the male depositing his sperms. The last time my oscars spawned (several weeks ago, a failure), the water became very cloudy and greasy. This time no such water quality change. How does the male behave during the spawning ritual? And how can I determine if sperms were deposited or if the eggs are fertilized?

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

One thing, if you can I'd really appreciate some pictures of your female, and your male also if you actually get 'fry'(so we know for sure it is a male). I would like to make a database of oscar pictures based on their sex. Usually when the female takes a breather, the male will go over the eggs and fertilize them. Then female lays more eggs and male fertilizes again. Unfortunately, you can't tell if your eggs got fertilized, you'll have to wait and see. Also the point of the paper is to make things dark also, so you don't want thin paper and a bright room otherwise you just gave them a new weird environment. Maybe use thick/dark paper, and usually, i'd do this when the eggs are close to hatching. If/when they hatch you may want to take some out and raise separately and leave some in the tank. This is when the hours seem like days you just gotta be patient,

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Joe

Hi Joe,

I've been trying to borrow a camera. No luck yet.

What you described is correct: During the spawning, the two oscars were circling and taking turns on the slate. The female would lay some eggs, and the male would get on top of the slate and "push" his tummy on the eggs. I thought that was his way of securing/sticking the eggs on the rock.

I used white poster papers to wrap the tank...mistake. I will buy some black construction paper and redo this tomorrow.

Kevin

Hopefully you'll have some fry soon!

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

My Tiger's are stupid! They don't wanna mate they just wanna swim sideways and do "filps" (they swim straight and they kinda go on there side and then do a backflip type roll.) Goofy fish. Thinking about dropping some of that ginko in there for them.
Chuck

Chuck,

HAve you tried showing your oscars some ***videos? or maybe they're just shy and need some privacy....

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com