messy oscar

[pcfriedrich]

I don't know why people are afraid of large water changes. I do a 90% every 5-10 days.

Its called laziness. I'm not throwing stones, though. I only do a 30-50% every 3-5 days.

 

[Jason_S]

large water changes are fine if you do them on a regular basis. I used to do 75-85% weekly changes on my tanks. the only reason I stopped was because I got another large tank and doing such large water changes on the tanks I had would take several hours...even though it was easy and virtually no labor involved besides moving the hose from one tank to the next it was still becoming too time consuming so I cut back to around 40-50% changes. my preference though is to do the much larger water changes...larger water changes equals cleaner water which equals healthier and faster growing fish.

 

[pcfriedrich]

I have an oscar in a 55 with a senegal bichir , they get along and I know the tank is small for these fish to be together but i really keep on the tank maintenance I do about a 10-15 WC every 3 days and clean the glass and sand but my oscar is really messy and spits food everywhere and I was wondering if adding 2 cory at fish would over load the bioload which I know is on the edge. I was wondering if my oscar would swallow them up considering their small size

convicts are good for cleaning up messes oscars make while eating.

 

[ctenopoma]

convicts aren't agressive are they?

 

[tyl089]

convicts can be very aggressive esp. when they've mated, and protecting their brood.

 

[Natalie]

I have a male convict with my male oscar and both get along very well with no aggression whatsoever. The key is to add only one gender of convicts to your tank (just males or just females). If you add a pair then they will stop at nothing to protect their fry and can be very aggressive.

 

[ctenopoma]

thanks for the advice every one , my bichir has started to eat all the scraps my oscar's leaving behind when it eats, so I guess that sort of solves the problem

 

[pcfriedrich]

I have a male convict with my male oscar and both get along very well with no aggression whatsoever. The key is to add only one gender of convicts to your tank (just males or just females). If you add a pair then they will stop at nothing to protect their fry and can be very aggressive.

I've had two female cons pair up, lay eggs, and get aggressive before. of course the eggs went unfertilized and were eventually eaten. IME, I'd go with all males if you're trying to avoid pairing up.