Hello everybody! I am an experienced keeper, and just bought my dream tank, a five foot 120g. I currently have 2 tiger Oscars, Peanut Butter and Jelly, plus 3 silver dollars, and one female convict. All are just babies, with the Oscars being about 4 inches, the convict about 3, and the silver dollars about 2.5 to 3 inches. I used established filters in setting it up, and am currently pulling 80 to 90% water changes every 4 to 5 days. I have had theses guys about 3 weeks, and have watched them grow super fast. The Oscars were about 1.5 when I got them. My family loves fish, and this is just one of many tanks I have. I had a albino tiger named Fury who busted her 55g tank in the night and killed herself about 6 years ago. These guys are so much more busy than she ever was! Once I get enough posts I will post some pics. I wanted to ask about food. I feed a good pellet, bio-gold, and and pleco complete diet wafers by tetra, with an occasional piece of salmon. I also use API tropical greens flake, mostly for my silver dollars. Is this a complete enough diet? My son put a chunk of melon in this morning, and that started a war, everybody in the tank wanted some! Is fruit good for Oscars? Just looking for some constructive feedback.
New Oscar Tank, 120g
- Thread starter NewMomma2
- Start date
I have heard about red hook silver dollars, how do I tell what species I have? I posted in the advanced forum because I knew you guys would be able to give me experienced advice. Here is a week old pic
Hello new momma, welcome to MFK!
The bio-gold is a good solid staple, so with that as their main source of nutrition, everything else that you feed is basically an extra snack. To the best of my knowledge, Oscars are omnivores in the wild, and will eat fruit and nuts when available. I believe they should be fine to feed your guys. Salmon should be okay as well. One thing that I used to occasionally feed my cichlids was beefheart from the butcher sliced. The fish loved it, and it is very high in protein.
regarding the silver dollars- will need a closer picture of the fish to tell you. Redhooks have a red fin, very easy to tell
The bio-gold is a good solid staple, so with that as their main source of nutrition, everything else that you feed is basically an extra snack. To the best of my knowledge, Oscars are omnivores in the wild, and will eat fruit and nuts when available. I believe they should be fine to feed your guys. Salmon should be okay as well. One thing that I used to occasionally feed my cichlids was beefheart from the butcher sliced. The fish loved it, and it is very high in protein.
regarding the silver dollars- will need a closer picture of the fish to tell you. Redhooks have a red fin, very easy to tell
They look like regular silvers to me, the redhooks have a more solid red.
One other thing- any reason for 80-90% water changes every 4-5 days? This is not necessary, sometimes less is more especially while the tank is still getting established. When the fish are all fully grown, if you have nitrate problems, I would recommend maybe 50% twice a week, but 90% seems like an awful lot to me. For now, while the fish are still all small, you won't need more than 30% once a week.
The Oscars can reach about 14", 12" their growth slows a lot and some max out at that size. Silver dollars usually get around 6" give or take. The convict will probably only get to 4" if she's a female.
One other thing- any reason for 80-90% water changes every 4-5 days? This is not necessary, sometimes less is more especially while the tank is still getting established. When the fish are all fully grown, if you have nitrate problems, I would recommend maybe 50% twice a week, but 90% seems like an awful lot to me. For now, while the fish are still all small, you won't need more than 30% once a week.
The Oscars can reach about 14", 12" their growth slows a lot and some max out at that size. Silver dollars usually get around 6" give or take. The convict will probably only get to 4" if she's a female.
Im trying to get the best growth rate I can. I used cycled media in the new filters, 4 pounds of bio-star mini cylinders, that I cycled using the 5 gallon bucket and ammonia system, with a powerhead for flow. It took almost 2 months to cycle the pellets, and then I bought the tank and filters, moved them over, did an ammonia challenge on the new filters, 4.0 ammonia removed in 18 hours. Only after this did I add fish. I would never put such a heavy feeding fish in an un-cycled tank. I initially had a little ich, but 6 days of 90% water changes and methelene blue cleared it right up.
Nice, it sounds like you did a good job getting the cycle going. I wouldn't worry too much about growth rate personally, if they are eating well, they will grow quickly. Probably around an inch a month, whether you do 90% or 30% water changes. Just seems like a lot to me. Within a year they will be quite large, I would try to enjoy them being babies while you can.
I've had my two Oscars in my 150g for about 13 months now. Got them at about 1.5" and now they are at around 12" - 13", so they do grow fast. I feed them Hikari bio-gold as the staple pellet, then supplement a few times a week with Krill. They go nuts for the krill. I'm just starting to feed them dubia roaches. Once they figured out that they are food, they absolutely love them and barely let them touch the water before swallowing them.
I do 50% water changes twice a week. My filtration is 1 FX5 canister, 1 k1 filter running in the tank, 1 sponge filter and a 10g sump with lava rock, a reactor with ceramic rings and pothos plants. My parameters tend to run at zero even if I miss a water change. I also don't want to stunt them due to bad water.
Have fun with the new babies, thew grow up really fast and are a ton of fun.
I do 50% water changes twice a week. My filtration is 1 FX5 canister, 1 k1 filter running in the tank, 1 sponge filter and a 10g sump with lava rock, a reactor with ceramic rings and pothos plants. My parameters tend to run at zero even if I miss a water change. I also don't want to stunt them due to bad water.
Have fun with the new babies, thew grow up really fast and are a ton of fun.