View Full Version : Oscar Specialist
Now who is the Oscar Specialist.
Only Oscar i know was from WAAAAAY back on TV.
Sauron is pretty good with Oscars
I have Oscars maybe i can help.
SalmonAfrica
19-07-2009, 19:44
What do you need to know?
K i got 2 Oscars from a family member.They were in a 80 liter tank,with a corner filter and 3 plecos.
I moved them to my Malawi Tank 400 Litres.
Is that tank big enough.
What decoration van i put in?
What food do they prefer?(I got some frozen Bolldworms.
Oh and both are 30cm or maybe a little bit bigger.
p.s. Poor Malawis were moved to a 200Liter.
what are the dimensions of that 400lt tank? I only have a few real plants and many plastic ones because the oscars love dig. they will dig up all the real plants. I feed my oscars on AQUA-PLUS Cichlid food and once a week blood worms.
In theory they shouldn't be mixed with african cichlids. Water needs are different plus Malawis are too agressive. Especially Mbuna.
O's love bloodworm. You can also give Mysis Shrimp. Supreme Cichlid Pellets or the Hikari range of pellets work wonders as well
PS 3 pleco's and 2 O's in a 80lt/3ft tank is really stupid
The minimum recommended tank volume for 2 Oscars is 75 gallons.
The debate is whether that should be UK or US Gallons.
283 litres US, 340 litres UK.
Either way you are more than safe, generally a longer rectangular tank is always better than a square or corner unit, but I have seen fully grown Oscars perfectly happy in a square show tank.
A Oscar specific pellet, or Tetra Doromin is a good staple and you can feed them some Peas as well if they take to it, as well as your usual variety of live or frozen foods.
The MOST important thing for Oscars is filtration, and thus good clean water. They are extremely messy, and thus you should keep an eye on the water quite closely as they cycle it quicker than most other fish.
Ultimately decoration is a tricky business, and I've seen some Oscars in fully planted tanks without a problem, and then others ripping the place apart. Plastic plants attached to the bottom of the tank with glue is probably the best bet you could have.
Beef Heart Recipe
This recipe is based on one average size beef heart, which is about 4 pounds uncleaned. Multiply all the other ingredients for each beef heart you add. Unless noted otherwise, all of these ingredients can be found at your local supermarket.
2 lbs. of cleaned beef heart
1 1/2 lbs. of fresh cod, scrod, or peeled table shrimp.
4 egg yolks (no whites)
20 prenatal vitamins
1 cup of wheat germ
1- 2.75 ounce bottle of Tetra "Color Bits" (from your pet store)
1 cup of ground up freeze-dried krill or plankton (from your pet store)
1/4 teaspoon of spirulina powder (from your health food store)
2 packs of Knox Gelatin
Have flake food on hand if the mixture is the wrong consistency.
Clean all fat, veins, and sinew from the beef heart, and cube into one-inch squares. Puree beef heart and fish separately in a food processor. Mix the beef heart, fish and egg yolks together. In a blender, grind up all of the dry ingredients to powder and add to the beef heart, fish and egg yolks and mix together. In the blender, blend the gelatin with one cup of cold water on high speed until it thickens (about 3-5 minutes), and immediately mix into the beef heart mix. If the mixture is too runny, add flake food until it is a doughy consistency. If it is too dry, then add water. Freeze prepared beef heart mix flat in small zip-lock bags about a half-inch thick.
This recipe was originally put together for the discus fish but will be perfectly okay for an Oscar
www.oscarfishlover.com is a good resource.
feed them guppies and platys etc aswell i like to c oscars hunt
feed them guppies and platys etc aswell i like to c oscars hunt
If you breed them yourself, or get them from a reliable source that is.
Thank you for all the feedback.Got a call yesterday evening from home(I was in Hoedspruit the week) telling me that one of the oscars is laying eggs.
The other one shows no interest at all(Female as well???)
If the other is a female where can i swop for a male?
sauron i dont breed platys they breed themselves for some multification reason, unfornately and fornately i got a new owner for my oscar that i horibly kept in a 60L tank from Feb til a week ago i eventualy found a thankful owner with a 2.5m oscar tank in potch. now ive got 50+ platy fry and no one to feed them 2....
sauron i dont breed platys they breed themselves for some multification reason, unfornately and fornately i got a new owner for my oscar that i horibly kept in a 60L tank from Feb til a week ago i eventualy found a thankful owner with a 2.5m oscar tank in potch. now ive got 50+ platy fry and no one to feed them 2....
pm me your details and lets see if i can make a plan getting hold of those platys.
Jaguar007
26-07-2009, 22:00
If you want your Oscars to get really big, really fast, feed them ox heart. You can get it at any butchery already processed and frozen. Some fish shops will also keep it. Keep it frozen and treat them with with a few cubes 3 - 4 times a week. Stuff is like steroids for them.
If you want your Oscars to get really big, really fast, feed them ox heart. You can get it at any butchery already processed and frozen. Some fish shops will also keep it. Keep it frozen and treat them with with a few cubes 3 - 4 times a week. Stuff is like steroids for them.
Actually got the recipe here for beefheart,already made and fed them.
Is it true that you should not overfeed them when they are as big as mine??
Well they will pretty much just keep on taking food, mostly because they keep it in their mouth and only then eat it.
They will keep taking food, and taking food, and taking food and then go sulk somewhere to eat proper.
Jaguar007
27-07-2009, 12:35
SauRoN is so right. My Oscars once ate so much they lay on the bottom of the tank for a whole day recovering. It's very easy to overfeed them. Be careful.
Yeah their teeth are at the back of the mouth, so you'll often see them put as much in their mouth as they can, and then it looks like they spit out the food, which I think is just a means of rearranging it so they can munch further.
Or they just lose their grip, because they over do it.
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