New Oscar, help needed! (Picture of the problem..)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
G

GobyGuru

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2010
153
0
16
Ontario
Hey everyone!

Well, my buddy knew I was after an Oscar and he happened to have a Wild type that doesn't fit into his breeding plans.. so he offered it to me for free. I warned him that the Goby may take him down but he insisted I take him rather than sending him off to a LFS to get diseased or whatever.. at least with me he has a good chance at life.

Everything is good, besides the fact that the Goby has nipped him a few times. It wasn't aggressive, he just slowly lurched up to the Oscar and tried to put his mouth around him... not like the usual Goby feeding response which is highly aggressive and fast. The Oscar didn't fit so he gave up (I hope lol) the Goby hasn't gone near the Oscar since.

But, he left him with what seems to be missing scales and minor tissue damage..

the picture:



He is acting normal (or, at least normal from what I've seen) so it doesn't look like it's causing him problems. Should I do anything to assist the healing? It seems pretty minor so I don't know if it's worth it to add aquarium salt just for the Oscar... any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
 
Will do! The tank is a 68 gallon, 3 foot long, 18 inches wide, 24 inches tall. The Goby is 11 inches and the Oscar is like 7 inches. (Plan on upgrading soon, when they get to big for the tank which will be a while)

The Goby hides in that cave all day and night, and practically never comes out (most active at night, and even then he isn't considered "active") he only moves to get to a new ambush position, and he moves slower than a snail. I haven't seen him swim fast AT ALL since I've had him, unless it's when I am trying to net him or something like that. He's got like 2.5 extra feet to swim forward, 6 - 7 extra inches to turn and 24 inches to swim up and down if he wishes, or to find an ambush position higher in the tank at night.

The Oscar takes the top of the tank so far, and the Goby the bottom. The only problem is that the Oscar thought it would be a cool idea to go straight into the Goby's cave upon introduction, so I think the Goby was just establishing who's boss.

Thanks for the help! I'll keep an eye on it and treat with aquarium salt tomorrow (I work at a pet shop so that shouldn't be hard to get lol) I'm also going to do about 30 - 40% water change tomorrow.

Thanks again!

PS - My set up, running a Whisper X30 and a Marineland c220 canister for filtration. Room is heated constantly to 78 - 80 for my reptiles so no heater needed:



(that was before I got the Oscar.. also divided the cave with a rock in the middle so they can both enjoy it without bothering each other too much..)
 
updated picture of the Tank, with the Goby being a lazy stump as always and the Oscar at the top (just took this now)

 
Sorry for the triple post but, The Oscar doesn't seem to be interested in EATING the Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets I have been offering him sparingly.

He seems interested but when he takes one he will just spit it back out.. perhaps he is just stressed from the move and the encouter with the Goby? should I wait a few days before trying to feed him again? (i've been scooping the spit out pellets with a net so I don't have to gravel vac yet...)

advice/opinions on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
 
No problem. Everything should be good in a couple days. You may need to upgrade sooner than you think, Oscars grow pretty fast. If those are the only 2 fish you plan to keep, you'll probably be able to get away with a 75-90. But if you plan on getting any others I'd go with a 5-6 foot tank.
 
BlackPiranhaz said:
Sorry for the triple post but, The Oscar doesn't seem to be interested in the Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets I have been offering him sparingly.

He seems interested but when he takes one he will just spit it back out.. perhaps he is just stressed from the move and the encouter with the Goby? should I wait a few days before trying to feed him again? (i've been scooping the spit out pellets with a net so I don't have to gravel vac yet...)

advice/opinions on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
Click to expand...

What was your friend feeding it? Sometimes they act weird about being moved, but also if it's been eating something different it may prefer what your friend fed it. Though I've never known an Oscar to refuse anything. Mine eats NLS Thera A+ 3 mm pellets and Omega One freeze dried Bloodworms, Shrimp, Mysis Shrimp and wafers from Omega One. It goes nuts when it sees the shrimps and bloodworms containers. Like, splashing me and flying from one end of the tank to the other excited lol
 
Gatorxxx420 said:
No problem. Everything should be good in a couple days. You may need to upgrade sooner than you think, Oscars grow pretty fast. If those are the only 2 fish you plan to keep, you'll probably be able to get away with a 75-90. But if you plan on getting any others I'd go with a 5-6 foot tank.
Click to expand...

Gatorxxx420 said:
What was your friend feeding it? Sometimes they act weird about being moved, but also if it's been eating something different it may prefer what your friend fed it. Though I've never known an Oscar to refuse anything. Mine eats NLS Thera A+ 3 mm pellets and Omega One freeze dried Bloodworms, Shrimp, Mysis Shrimp and wafers from Omega One. It goes nuts when it sees the shrimps and bloodworms containers. Like, splashing me and flying from one end of the tank to the other excited lol
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't plan on putting any more fish in.. the Goby killed the previous owners prized Oscar, and he killed 4 of my piranha... LOL but I am positive that Oscar was much smaller than mine. However.. if he makes a snack out of this Oscar I think I am going to stop feeding him "expensive feeders" (well.. not in the case of this Oscar.. but my 4 piranha getting mauled was a differen't story.) and keep him alone.

But I would LOVE if this cohab works! I wanted a wild type Oscar anyways and this is the only one I've seen around here in ages, kind of like the Goby. Don't know why my buddy didn't want it so badly but OHKAY lol!

I am going to upgrade to 75 - 100gs.. just gotta figure out the perfect tank size for these bad boys for the future.

My buddy was feeding him Pollock fillets. Uncooked ect.. me and him decided to feed our fish Pollock instead of Talapia because from what we have seen, the Pollock has less bad stuff in it and more good stuff.. so the choice was obvious)

He also fed him Hikari carnivore sticks (for like aro's and all that) with Cichlid gold like I tried, I put in a small piece of Pollock for the Goby earlier today and I think the oscar was munching it because it was bitten, but if it was the Goby it would have been gone haha and tonight threw a few pellets of CG for the Oscar.

I also have mysis shrimp and blood worms, so I will give those a shot tomorrow. I can also get frozen silversides with no preservatives which I'd like to try for the Goby and maybe the Oscar if he goes for it..

Sounds like your Oscar has a good feeding response man, I hope mine turns around after he isn't so stressed from the move and the bites lol

Thanks again!

PS - the decision to feed Pollock is recent.. but I know they are marine fish and tilapia are FW... is that a problem? I have only tried to feed it twice now but I'm not sure if I should continue that...

Does it matter if the fish I feed comes from FW or SW?
 
BlackPiranhaz said:
Yeah I don't plan on putting any more fish in.. the Goby killed the previous owners prized Oscar, and he killed 4 of my piranha... LOL but I am positive that Oscar was much smaller than mine. However.. if he makes a snack out of this Oscar I think I am going to stop feeding him "expensive feeders" (well.. not in the case of this Oscar.. but my 4 piranha getting mauled was a differen't story.) and keep him alone.

But I would LOVE if this cohab works! I wanted a wild type Oscar anyways and this is the only one I've seen around here in ages, kind of like the Goby. Don't know why my buddy didn't want it so badly but OHKAY lol!

I am going to upgrade to 75 - 100gs.. just gotta figure out the perfect tank size for these bad boys for the future.

My buddy was feeding him Pollock fillets. Uncooked ect.. me and him decided to feed our fish Pollock instead of Talapia because from what we have seen, the Pollock has less bad stuff in it and more good stuff.. so the choice was obvious)

He also fed him Hikari carnivore sticks (for like aro's and all that) with Cichlid gold like I tried, I put in a small piece of Pollock for the Goby earlier today and I think the oscar was munching it because it was bitten, but if it was the Goby it would have been gone haha and tonight threw a few pellets of CG for the Oscar.

I also have mysis shrimp and blood worms, so I will give those a shot tomorrow. I can also get frozen silversides with no preservatives which I'd like to try for the Goby and maybe the Oscar if he goes for it..

Sounds like your Oscar has a good feeding response man, I hope mine turns around after he isn't so stressed from the move and the bites lol

Thanks again!

PS - the decision to feed Pollock is recent.. but I know they are marine fish and tilapia are FW... is that a problem? I have only tried to feed it twice now but I'm not sure if I should continue that...

Does it matter if the fish I feed comes from FW or SW?
Click to expand...

Oh he does, mines my water puppy. As for where the food source comes from, I'm pretty sure that doesn't matter. But I'm far from an expert on fish diets. I just know I like the ingredients of New Life Spectrum over Hikari and since NLS doesn't sell freeze dried shrimps and bloodworms I use Omega One freeze dried products. I've wanted to get some fresh scallops, market shrimp and mussels to freeze and feed them as treats as well. In fact, the next time I go grocery shopping I'm going to pick up some of each as well as some organic zucchini and squash to give my plecos and loaches (of course the other fish can nibble at that too).
 
Gatorxxx420 said:
Oh he does, mines my water puppy. As for where the food source comes from, I'm pretty sure that doesn't matter. But I'm far from an expert on fish diets. I just know I like the ingredients of New Life Spectrum over Hikari and since NLS doesn't sell freeze dried shrimps and bloodworms I use Omega One freeze dried products. I've wanted to get some fresh scallops, market shrimp and mussels to freeze and feed them as treats as well. In fact, the next time I go grocery shopping I'm going to pick up some of each as well as some organic zucchini and squash to give my plecos and loaches (of course the other fish can nibble at that too).
Click to expand...

Yeah I looked it up briefly and apparently Pollock is perfectly fine to feed very often, almost as a staple because it's white meat. Where the fish come from doesn't seem to matter it seems.. so I will continue with the Pollock because it seems to have much better stuff in it than the Tilapia I've seen at the stores.

Is NLS expensive? the Hikari Gold was 11.99 for a giant bag of the big pellets, if the NLS isn't too expensive I'd be willing to pick some of that up in a day or two and try that as well as all the other stuff I am going to attempt lol.

I tried to get shrimp but the only ones I can find have like 35 - 60% sodium!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Pollock has like 8% and the Tilapia is around 11 - 15% I believe... not to mention the shrimp I find are all cooked *facepalm*

I have a Pleco in the tank too actually.. I forgot about that nasty little creature LOL (stabbed me with his fin when I first put him in the tank) he is growing like a weed and I haven't "target" fed him since I got him.. the only food he gets is scraps that hit the bottom and the tiny amount of algae that shows up sometimes.

I may try to feed him zucchini/squash as you said, but I'm not sure if I want to put tons of money into a 3 - 4 inch pleco that is probably going to get mauled one of these days lol (besides he is growing, "fat" and healthy so maybe no need anyways?)

Thanks a ton Gator! I really appreciate the help!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom