Added large tire track eel and 2 large Oscars to my 500 gallon pool pond...

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2bfishy

2bfishy

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Oct 8, 2017
38
8
13
Iowa
Hi,

Yesterday I added a 1.5 foot tire track eel and 2 large Oscars that are both about 8 inches long to my pool pond. The tire track eel and oscars have been together a long time and were in the same tank at the LFS.

My pond is a 8' diameter Intex snap set pool pond with 1" of pool filter sand as substrate and three Tetra Pond flat box filters that comes out to about 1500 gallons of filtration. The pool pond is set up in a large room in my basement. It sits on insulation boards and I have no heaters in the pond, I just use a room heater to keep the room around 78 to 80 degrees.

I also have in my pond:

9 - sun catfish ( range in size from 6 inches to 9 inches)
2 - four line pim catfish (9 inches)
2 - zamora catfish (6 inches)
5 - peacock cichlids ( 6 inches)
5 - Buenos Aires tetra (5 inches)
2 - blood red hi fin lyre tail swordtails (6 inches)
1- Senegal bichir ( 6 inches)
1 - zebra spiny eel ( 9 inches)
1 - fire eel ( 12 inches)

I have had my pond up and running for a year and a half now and all fish are doing great.

Questions: how long should I wait before I start feeding the Tre track eel and oscars? Should I give them at least 24 hours to settle in their new home and then feed the pond? I am really worried that my tire track eel and oscars are going to be stressed. What signs should I be looking out for? The LFS says the eel and oscars had good appetites and don't think there will be any problem for me to get them to eat. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Fishman Dave said:
Personally with an active and hungry pond I would not wait. Just carry on feeding the pond as normal.
Click to expand...
I think one of the hardest things is for a fish to get used to being in a pond instead of at eye level in an aquarium. When I stand up and peek over the side of the pond, the oscars immediately lay down on their side when they see me coming. The large eel is hiding behind one of the flat box filters but at least he is peeking his head out :)

I have never had oscars or a large eel before. What should I feed the oscars and the eel? It it ok to feed earthworms to the eel?

My small fire eel and zebra eels only eat frozen blood worms still.
 
Sorry, with the fish you have already I had assumed they were already on larger foods such as earth worms, pellets, mussel meat and cut up fish pieces. All of which the oscars and fire eel would also tuck in on.
The oscars will soon associate you coming to the pond with food, especially if you feed little and often, but just be careful to make sure everyone gets something, the oscars can become quite boistrous taking everyone’s food even if they can’t fit it in their mouths fully!
 
Tonight I fed the pond bloodworms, earthworms, bottom feeder pellets, cichlid gold pellets, and nobody was really eating much. Looks like all the fish just have to get used to the newcomers. Most of the fish seem scared of the large oscars and eel. Both the oscars and eel appear to be gentle giants and appear to ignore the other fish. I hope I did the right thing getting these beautiful fish. I'm missing my happy community pond though. Hopefully the fish will relax soon and accept the tire track eel and two big oscars as their new pond mates
 
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I was able to take some video of my pond with my phone but I don't know how to attach video to this thread
 
Hi,

Just want to give you an update. I am happy to say that all the fish are now comfortable with the newcomer large eel and two large oscars. The oscars are both now 12 inches long. How big do they get? I read they can grow to 15-18 inches, is that right?

It turns out the large eel is not a tire track eel instead he is a black spotted eel! He is really beautiful but still very shy and most of the time hides under a flat box filter and just pokes his big head out which my other smaller eels do as well :)

I don't have a you tube account so I can't copy a video link into the media panel. I have video taken on my phone. Can I attach the video from my phone?
 
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