Page 7 about
Keeping Oscars
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This page continues with more Customer Comments and our Replies about Oscars. Click
here
to go to back to the previous page in this discussion about Oscars.
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Customer Comments |
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Hello there,
You have a wonderful site, and we have enjoyed it alot. We have found alot of answers we were looking for. Here's a picture of our baby. He/she is 3 years old and we have it
ringing a bell for it's food. We can hand feed it too. It's about 12 inches long.
Thank-you for your time.
Kevin and Deanna O. Thunder Bay, Ontario
Canada |
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Reply. Hello Kevin and Deanna. Thank you for sharing the beautiful picture of your Baby! You say he/she rings a bell for food. Now that will
create some questions.
We're glad you enjoy AquariumFish.net and have been able to find answers to your questions on it.
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Customer Comments |
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To answer your question on our oscar ringing a bell for food: We put a cat ball with a bell in the tank ,we
started putting it in when we wanted to feed it and now we leave it in all the time the oscar hits it the waits at the lid opening for a feeding.
It does this about three times a day. Sometimes at night we can hear it hitting the lid. Most of the time it only takes it food from hand or it just falls to the bottom. I guess
it's not too often people play with pet fish, but we have alot of fun with it.
Kevin and Deanna O. |
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Reply. Hello again. Thank you for your reply. I think our readers will enjoy your unique comments. Some may want to know where they can get a
cat ball with a bell for their Oscar. Thanks again. |
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Customer Comments |
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HI again, i emailed you a few months ago about my tiger oscar Jeffrey. It turns out my pacu is more like a piranha. He has killed
several of my fish and i removed the rest. He and Jeffrey are the the only ones left.
Luckily, they don't hurt each other. Last time I told you Jeffrey was 5 in. long, he is now 9 inches and is very friendly. He jumps out of the water to get food. The pacu, who I named
Lionel, is now 10 in. long. Every couple of weeks I give them feeder goldfish. They love it.
Amazingly, they are still in the 55 gallon aquarium. They are very happy and very healthy. Feel free to post my mesaages. Can u email me back to tell me what page it is on?
Thanks, -C.J. |
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Reply. Hello again and thank you for your email. As stated elsewhere we recommend at least a 75-gallon aquarium for a 9" long
Oscar, and a 10" long Pacu needs an additional 75 gallons.
So these two fish need an aquarium with about 150 gallons of water, and your 55-gallon aquarium is about one-third the size that these two fish need.
Your Pacu
may be acting like a Piranha because your aquarium is too small.
Pacus naturally live in a school with several Pacus, and they seem to be less aggressive, when they live in a group with several Pacus. Of course several Pacus require a huge aquarium.
Feeding live fish to your Oscar and Pacu is somewhat risky. You can reduce this risk by feeding pellet food to your fish. Pellet food for pet fish is available in most stores that sell
pet fish.
Thanks again for email, and good luck with your fish and aquarium.
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Customer Comments |
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my 4 inch oscar (fang) ate a ghost shrmp but also picked up a piece of gravel and i think he swallowed it will he be ok? :(
Kyle |
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Reply. Hello Kyle. We know that many Oscars swallow bits of gravel and even rocks. I think they do it by accident, and it does not seem to harm them. We hope your Oscar is doing well.
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Customer Comments |
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i emailed you the other day about my oscar
fang he is doing alot better since he ate that piece of gravel and now has a friend in his tank.
kyle P.S. thanks for the info and good luck with the site Kyle
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Reply. Hello again Kyle. Thank you for
your reply. I'm glad to know eating the piece of gravel has not permanently damaged your Oscar. Thank you for
your complimentary comment about AquariumFish.net. |
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Customer Comments |
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Dear AquariumFish.net,
Your comments sections seem like almost an open forum, so it would be nice if
you could leave a comment from the site, but I understand why you might want to screen what
gets posted on your website so this works.
I was reading your discussion with various customers about oscars and found
quite a bit of it to be valuable information. My boyfriend and I have had our two oscars for
about two years now and they went from being about 1" and living in a 30 gallon tank to
their current size of about 12" each. I was reading the site because I recently realized
that without my noticing it they quickly outgrew their 55 gallon aquarium and it was time to
replace it. They are getting a brand new 150 gallon aquarium for Christmas because I was
fortunate enough to find one for about $400 (I work at a pet store.)
I do however have a couple of differences of opinion with some of the
statements on your site. You say that oscars should be housed either singly or in groups of
six or more. I think that although this may be the case in your personal experience, it
isn't fair to say that that's the only way that oscars can ever be housed. The two oscars I
have now, an "albino" tiger and a red oscar, were not my original pair. I have always had
the red, but my previous "albino" tiger died during a poweroutage about 10 months ago. I
replaced him with another similar oscar who was incidentally much larger, about 10" at the
time when the first had been about 7.5" and the red instantly paired up to the new oscar and
never fought just like the original pair. I guess what I'm saying is that although having
either 1 oscar or 6 or more has always worked for you, it would be more fair to have some
sort of disclaimer saying that "although this is the best scenario in my experience, others
have been successful with different combinations of oscars." I just noticed a few customers
complaining and I thought that perhaps the disclaimer would eliminate the complaints for
you. (Feel free to edit any of this so it is appropriate for the site if you'd like to post
it.)
I've also read one or two things, not just on your site, that oscars usually
do best in an oscar-only tank. We have always kept ours with various types of catfish,
currently a large albino channel cat and an african featherfin, as well as a mysterious
crayfish that somehow escaped eating and grew to 6".
Why do you recommend not feeding live? I feed this as my oscar's primary
diet. I always figured that in the wild, oscars preyed upon smaller fish. Feeding live seems
to make them happy, and they have grown from 1" to over 12" in 2 years with amazing color
and friendly personalities. Is it just a personal preference? I do supplement pellets and
some frozen for nutritional value, and even if this is a preferred main diet, I see no
reason to never feed live foods.
Sincerely,
Lauren R.
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Reply. Hello Lauren and thank you for
your email that is full of constructive criticism of our comments. You were wise to realize your Oscars have outgrown their 55-gallon aquarium. They will also outgrow the
150-gallon aquarium. Most people report to us that their Oscars fight when kept in small groups. If they don't fight immediately,
they eventually fight, unless they are a pair, and even pairs unexpectedly begin to fish. As you point out this
may not always happen, but it often does happen, and we pass this information along for what it may be worth.
As you mention many people enjoy keeping other fish and inhabitants, such as a crayfish, with Oscars.
Plecostomus catfish are also popular tank mates for Oscars. Click here for more
about good tank mates for Oscars. About feeding Oscars. Scientists know that in their natural habitats Oscars eat
small fish, crayfish,
worms and insects. This diet, which is similar to the one you feed your Oscars, might be ideal for Oscars living
in aquariums. But many aquarists have reported problems to us, that they believe started when their Oscars eat
some "sick" feeder fish, such as feeder goldfish. Experts in fish nutrition have also told us that pellet food is more nutritious for Oscars. Top grades of pellet
food usually contain a note on the package saying the pellets are free from pathogens that might be harmful to
fish. Thanks again for your email and your interesting comments about your Oscars. |
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