Questions on SA Cichlids

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i would personally try putting plants in, i always here that they will shread them etc but mine have not, i have a mix of different SA cichlids including a fully grown green terror and a half grown jag. the only fish that causes plant damage appears to be my polypterus as he is big powerful and clumsey. if you are going to use plants go for thicker 'waxy' type plants with a bulb and good roots so that they can take root well. dont go for light weight plants as they will get pulled apart just by your fish swimming past as they are stocky fish.

my fish sleep in the java fern at night and seem alot happier when there are plants in situ (i have tried both with and without). i have also recently added a large root type piece of bog wood which covers approx 80% of the tank with lots of thin twisted branches. this seems to have reduced aggression as it blocks eye lines between the fish. their colours have all come out better since as well.

with plants being so cheap it would seem pointless not to try, not sure what is specificlly native but make sure they are robust (and not red, as it seems to piss them off something rotton)

cheers
 
Given your scenario, if I do it, I'd keep a Tanganyikan tank, a tropheus, altolamprologous, or a full gibberosa tank. Or maybe the others rare types.

Anyway, if you must, IMO it's not a good idea to mix them, rather, get all different kinds of oscars, or just keep a single type. They're all nice, and they are superb pets. They don't do well in hard alkaline water though.
You would have to treat your water, the best is to get RO water and bring the ph and gh up gradually.
 
mr-t;2472409; said:
i would personally try putting plants in, i always here that they will shread them etc but mine have not, i have a mix of different SA cichlids including a fully grown green terror and a half grown jag. the only fish that causes plant damage appears to be my polypterus as he is big powerful and clumsey. if you are going to use plants go for thicker 'waxy' type plants with a bulb and good roots so that they can take root well. dont go for light weight plants as they will get pulled apart just by your fish swimming past as they are stocky fish.
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I am going to try to get some hardy plants in there, and see how it goes. I was thinking of having some floating and secure the others to roots and rocks with nylon line. Do you have any plat suggestions apart from Java Fern, since I kind of like the idea of keeping it SA. It would be cool if the plants were from SA as well.

Spakase;2472707; said:
Given your scenario, if I do it, I'd keep a Tanganyikan tank, a tropheus, altolamprologous, or a full gibberosa tank. Or maybe the others rare types.
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I already have africans, and I have had many different ones, both rare and more common, dont get me wrong I really like them. But I have now got my mind set on building this tank as an SA theme, it would also be a very nice difference from the very bare and rocky type african tank.
 
gomezladdams;2470079; said:
My oscar was deeply offended by silver dollars so I had to remove them.
Plants will get wrecked.
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rofl! My Oscar is still 'deeply offended' by his Silver Dollars 8 mo later, too-ha! But he can't catch them. That was funny, Gomez :-) Silver Dollars are a great clean-up crew. It seems the majority of Oscars just tune them out as "white noise" after a day or 2. Out of my 5 Oscars I've only got 1 that is a Silver Dollar Murderess. But she's great with her Clown Loaches so she's forgiven.
Bobleflaad, I'm not surprised you got attached to those fish :-) Oscars are #1 as far as being interactive wet pets & Green Terrors are beautiful.
 
I have been browsing looking for pictures of Oscars, and that generates two questions:

1. The red tiger seems to always have very clear markings on the lower body but not alot of coloring on the upper part, is this the norm and why?

2. How can you tell the sex of an Oscar?
 
Tiger Oscar colors are incredibly varied. Here's my 2 and both are considered "Tiger" Oscars (the smaller is a Veiltail Oscar but still a "Tiger"). And even though the smaller one has no orange she's still considered a "Tiger". Actually the most common Tiger Oscar you'll find are the ones where their orange goes all the way up to the top of their bodies. I always thought my big one was odd because his top 1/2 had no color.
I also have a Red Oscar, an Albino Tiger (no dark shading) and a Red Lutino. Gets confusing.
Edit: There's no real way to sex them by sight.

I-I_640.jpg
 
Thank you for the answer, I get that there is many different coloring and patterns. I just found it odd that the color is only vibrant sort of half way. My initial thought was that they would color fully up during mating / courting.

If you can not sex them by site, how about venting? I have done that alot with my africans? Is that a bad idea with an oscar or is it not possible to tell anyway. If there is no way sexing them how do you evaulte if they are a "pair" or not.. Do you wait until they breed ?

I already checked you pictures already :-)

Regards
 
Venting is a sure way to do it. If you've got experience with venting Africans then you're way ahead of me as far as being able to sex them. I don't imagine it would hurt any Oscar any more than any other fish if you're careful. If people want to breed they normally get 6 junvies and grow them out together and let them pair off & give back or place the rest. Oscars seem to be a little pickier than a lot of fish with their mates. Convicts will breed with anyone or anything but not Oscars :-) It's got to be another Oscar and it's got to be an Oscar they want. I feel lucky that 4 out of my 5 Oscars will tolerate their tankmate Oscar, I never cared if they had fry, I just wanted them to get along.
 
More like "1000" Oscar babies :-) I'd never seen that page on Oscars before, pretty cool. That picture of "bloody" Oscars is the same exact one that's been passed around for years on the web. It never was determined if they'd been dyed or not. If I remember correctly they didn't keep that bright red color as adults. (I saw before/after pictures elsewhere). I love the wild-caught in the 1st picture, they've got stripes opposed to blotches. I'd still love to have a wild-caught. Sigh. Check out OscarFish.com for some Oscar specific information, it's an Oscar-only forum with the most updated information on Oscars (if I'm allowed to post another forum address).
Edit: My Veiltail doesn't have long stringy fins like the Veiltail in the picture. I'm glad she doesn't, that looks odd to me.
 
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