oscars
- Thread starter pufferking
- Start date
I thought I was the only one who hates this fish!
I used to work in a pet store and it used to drive me insane when people would only refer to aggressive fish as Oscars... (is that an aggressive fish? yes oh so its like an Oscar). The availability of the fish is just insane too! From working for about 6 months in that fish store there were only about 2 people who bought an Oscar actually knowing something about the fish and providing a proper home... and we must have sold a few hundred of these guys.
I just think its not all that aggressive and I dont find it looks to be anything special to keep as a show piece.
I used to work in a pet store and it used to drive me insane when people would only refer to aggressive fish as Oscars... (is that an aggressive fish? yes oh so its like an Oscar). The availability of the fish is just insane too! From working for about 6 months in that fish store there were only about 2 people who bought an Oscar actually knowing something about the fish and providing a proper home... and we must have sold a few hundred of these guys.
I just think its not all that aggressive and I dont find it looks to be anything special to keep as a show piece.
its a readily availble fish, that is different that anything else they've seen. It's the first fish I heard of that gets as big as it does and has personality that i ever heard about. but i never kept one.
I equate it to paintball.... I used to play tournaments and we would always run into people with Brass eagle products and they were so excited about the brass eagle guns. (brass eagle was the equvialnt of a yugo or hyndai for paintball). but we were usually happy cause it got people into the sport. it was enough to make them learn about it and grow into the sport. and i know this is true beause my first paintgun was a brass eagle
I equate it to paintball.... I used to play tournaments and we would always run into people with Brass eagle products and they were so excited about the brass eagle guns. (brass eagle was the equvialnt of a yugo or hyndai for paintball). but we were usually happy cause it got people into the sport. it was enough to make them learn about it and grow into the sport. and i know this is true beause my first paintgun was a brass eagle
I still rather love them myself, though I haven't kept them for quite some time. I don't think that there is any other more 'tame' cichlid that you can keep as a pet. Oscars are extremely common, yes, but it is hard to find high quality colored ones. I have yet to find pure white albinos with lots of tiger striping; either they are all white, or they have tiger striping but with lots of black 'smudges'.
I look at rare fish a bit differently: I consider an impeccable show specimen of any large Central American cichlid as 'rare'. How may times do you walk into your LFS, and see a beautiful 16 inch fully colored hmm...Synspilum with a nice nuchal hump and without any defects or deformities? I can honestly say NEVER, even though synspillums are fairly common! Oscars are a bit easier to find, but usually they have the crooked jaws, excessive scarring and unfortunately, most have a bit of hole in the head.
I look at rare fish a bit differently: I consider an impeccable show specimen of any large Central American cichlid as 'rare'. How may times do you walk into your LFS, and see a beautiful 16 inch fully colored hmm...Synspilum with a nice nuchal hump and without any defects or deformities? I can honestly say NEVER, even though synspillums are fairly common! Oscars are a bit easier to find, but usually they have the crooked jaws, excessive scarring and unfortunately, most have a bit of hole in the head.
I have kept only one whitch, I loved, not for itself so much although it was my first large fish. I caught it in a drainage pond in Navato,Ca. back in 1971. got my little stoner butt in the paper and caused a big stink because the 12 acre pond had a resident breeding population of them, also convict cichlids. The city ended up draining the pond to get rid of them. I kept it until we moved in 72 then gave it to the junior high science teacher.
I work at a pet store and i hate them the little ones usualy come in and dont live long. Not nly that people stuff the poor things into small aquariums. people will argue with me ( i dont argue with costomers they create the scene) and try too tell me that they have kept oscars in 10,20, or300 gallon tanks there whole lives.