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oscar keeping q's ??

Discussion in 'New World Cichlids' started by blowfishRus6, May 19, 2010.

  1. FishVixen

    FishVixen Active Member

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    Understand that! Feeder guppies are usually mixed rejects that will not sell. So they may or may not have color or elaborate tails. They will breed fast enough in a 10 gal if you do not feed them all to the oscars. I would get 20 for breeding and 10 for feeding. Be sure to have plenty of plants for the fry to hide in (they can be plastic breeding grass) or they will get eaten by the adult guppies.
     
  2. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    what about a sponge or mop for the fry to hide in???


    and yea i had planed on getting about 30 of them and putting them all in the 10 gal. i just feed all the minnows out to the oscars so they will be okay for a little while.

    i had about 15 minnows in there for maybe 2 months and i might have seen a few that were small and maybe fry. but thats it. im hoping the guppies will reproduce alot more.
     
  3. FishVixen

    FishVixen Active Member

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    Plants have more space for water to flow through and more room for fry. Mops and sponges are more for egg layers. For a 10 gal it shouldn't be expensive to buy cheap plastic plants. I've actually found some at the dollar store and just remove the wire.
     
  4. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    i have a real plant in there and then some real plants draped across the top and have extra fake plants, i just did not think that would give them enough cover. but if that works then im good to go.
     
  5. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    cleaning crew. got one pleco, but i need more cleaning power. just get more pleco's??

    i had them little algae eaters that only get a few inches long that were doing great, but of course, they cant last in an oscar tank.
     
  6. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    bump.....

    the common pleco does not always eat the algae, eats left over food from the oscars some times. is there a different kind of pleco that would have more of an algae diet??? or something that has some decent size that would eat algae??
     
  7. WhiteGloveAquatics

    WhiteGloveAquatics New Member

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    If im not mistaken those O's love to shred plants.

    as far as algae eaters maybe those giant nerites or something.
     
  8. FishVixen

    FishVixen Active Member

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    IME pleco's don't do much for algae. Like WhiteDevil suggested a few (larger) Nerite snails may work. With oscar tanks most people just scrape and clean what they can. What are your parameters in the tank? Algae loves ammonia and nitrites. How often do you do water changes. What type of lighting do you have and how long do you keep the lights on?
     
  9. WhiteGloveAquatics

    WhiteGloveAquatics New Member

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    The dwarf pleco's do but they are way to small for O's
     
  10. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    havent had a chance to respond lately.

    as of last time i added some floating pond plants, and also a planted plant inside the aquarium. all is good so far. the oscars seem not to be paying them much attention and it has cleared the water up some.

    just tested ammonia, its at about .25, almost zero. last time i did a water changes was about 2 weeks ago and about 25%. i dont have a nitrate tester. the tank is in front of a window so i know thats not helping (but it does look good i think) also the oscars are MESSY, i have my return from the sump spraying across the bottom but it stays kinda dirty down there. i have heard the bristlenose pleco has more of an algae diet. also i would not mind looking into those big snails if they dont munch on plants to much.

    im trying to keep maintenance to a minimal, and let good filtration, good bacteria, and fish/clean up crew do the work.
     
  11. FishVixen

    FishVixen Active Member

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    With oscars and your tank in front of a window minimal maintenance is impossible IME. The algae eating clean up fish are way to small for oscars. They just become expensive food. If you have ammonia in your tank you need to step up on the water changes to at least 50% every week. Oscars and plecos produce large bioloads and water changes are essential.
     
  12. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Having Oscars and wanting "minimal maintenance" is impossible if you ask me. And only a 25% water change 2 weeks ago. I'd have to say that's not enough.
     
  13. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    ammonium is pretty much zero and its been a few weeks from the last water change (25%)

    i could probably go more than a month if not a little longer before i would have to change the water because of ammonium. i do change the water tho to get the bottom cleaned with the syphone.

    i have a 1,000gph sump that has lots of mechanical filtration along with biological filtration, with my return spraying across the bottom so it keeps the bottom some what clean.

    in my opinion, large water changes are not needed, great filtration is. that is what has worked best for me.

    the algae is not bad, you cant even see it unless you look real close, it just annoys me.

    also i have heard the pleco is not a large biological load, the oscars on the other hand.....
     
  14. MOD_Dawn

    MOD_Dawn Active Member

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    hate to disagree, but both oscars and plecos are known for their huge amount of waste that they excrete.
    Even with the best filtration that money can buy (or even several filters) you still need the water changes to keep their environment stable. If your water reading is stable without water changes for several weeks I'd be checking the expiration date on your test kit OR making sure it isn't a strip test (as I've had both before and with my own experience the strips can read differently than the liquid tests).
     
  15. buzz4520

    buzz4520 Well-Known Member

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    i have to agree with anthony and dawn. on our 125g (which houses 3 - 12in+ oscars, 1 - 9in dempsey, a 14in & 8in pleco) we do a 95g water change w/gravel vac every week. we're running 3 filters ( magnum 350, magnum h.o.t 250, a/c 110), we also clean one filter each week. the nitrite & ammonia are zero...the nitrAtes are usually around 15 - 20. as far as a clean up crew, check into to some of the trap door snails.
     
  16. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    finally an answer to my question and not everyone telling me to do water changes............HAHA. thanks buzz, and white devil.

    dawn, the test kits are NOT out of date and are NOT the test stripes............

    i dont have a tester for nitrates.......before i did a little research on it there other day, i never really knew about them. BUT nobody really mentioned nitrates either, people were saying to do water changes for ammonium, but that is ZERO.

    i understand the need for water changes, and well as my oscars or getting bigger (they are not even near full grown) im seeing the need for increase in water changes. with that being said, i have had my own experience with not doing water changes and have had success. i know people with pond set ups that never do water changes, what is the difference there?

    also i KNOW plecos produce alot of waste, but i have heard there waste is not that large of a bio load. if you have scientific answers on that, that would be cool.

    and buzz, if i may ask, why do you clean one filter a week? seems like your washing away good bacteria.

    i could be way off base with ALL of this. im eager to learn, and if you have scientific evidence on some of these things, that would be great. i enjoy this hobby very much.
     
  17. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Water changes are necessary because even if you have a large bio load that can convert all the ammonia into nitrite then into nitrate the nitrate in high levels will still cause health problems in fish.

    What are your nitrate levels out of curiosity ?
     
  18. WhiteGloveAquatics

    WhiteGloveAquatics New Member

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    oscars are dirty freakin fish, filthy finned creatures however they are awesome specimens.

    Cleaning one filter a week doesnt harm the bacteria at all, it takes the mulm off and you clean the filter guts in a bucket of tank water not fresh water. Fresh water will nuke the bacteria THEN you will have issues.

    Give us all the water test results and we might be able to help further.

    Hows the GP? im about to turbo mine in 9 months when the warranty is done.
     
  19. blowfishRus6

    blowfishRus6 Thread Starter New Member

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    again, i dont have a nitrate tester.......

    what about a nitrate remover made out of an algae screen?? supposedly the algae removes the nitrate. if that works (i need to read more into it, maybe some of you guys know) then i would have my good bacteria that removes the ammonium (my test are always very low for that, so i know thats working) i could have the algae screen to remove the nitrates. also the algae screen promotes the algae growth on the screen and not so much on the tank (fixes another problem) thus as far as i know reducing water changes due to bad water conditions.

    if there is other bad water conditions, let me know and i will look into it.

    but i still have the waste and just overall messyness of the oscars. i have my return from the sump blowing across the bottom that helps keep the mess floating around and eventually picked up by my over flow. i still need another pump for that tho to help out more.

    all of this is cutting down on my overall maintenance, and well i dont mind setting things up to cut down on maintenance.

    maybe together we can work towards the goal. and also feel free to enlighten me on anything i am missin.

    i dont mind doing some water changes, but im not trying to do HUGE water changes twice a week.


    whitedevil. the gp is good. basic 3.5 pulley set up, can keep up with alot of cars around town (pulled on a 05 gt mustang the other day) 130k miles. transmission is showing wear. ol lady drives it more than i do, she LOVES it as a dd. cant really complain about it.

    turbo is gonna be sweet, they always are.
     
  20. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    The problem I have is you keep saying "low ammonia". There should be absolutely NO ammonia, unless your tank is in the cycling process.