Shy Oscars

[Citrinellus]

i'll give you a small list of what you can feed them. included but not limited to:
crickets
mealworms
mealworm bettles
small tetras
guppies (swordtails etc)
baby convicts
ghost shrimp
wax worms
tubifex worms... things along that line for live foods.

Tubifex worms have a high percentage of passing parasites. I would say more of a risk then feeder fish in some cases. Also, ghost shrimp have been known to pass parasites also. He is better off just breeding some convicts knowing that there won't be a risk of passing parasites.

Thanks greatly appreciated, love you long time!

Err... Thanks? I think... On the good choice.

 

[Citrinellus]

tetras are fine. i needed no such equipment, just a good amount of artificial moss at the bottom for fry to hide in and a few artificial plants to lay eggs on. all i do is feed them and they bred themselves.

convicts are fine too as far as ease of breeding goes, but i don't suggest that anybody feeds only one kind of fish. with tetras you can have many different species to feed your oscars. fish need variety and over all the cons will be more expensive. you pay 3$ for each of them, then you gotta buy a seperate tank for fry and it takes alot more food to feed convicts than it does to feed tetras which will add to expense in the long run.

if you choose to feed live, you need a wide variety and unless you have 4 other tanks at your disposal, i don't recommend convicts as you need to dedicate 2 separate tanks to just breeding convicts AND if you buy only 1 pair that means inbreeding which will further dull the quality of your feeder.

again, variety is key.

Ok... I've tried breeding tetras with a low success. Either the adults ate them or the fry were just to fragile to raise. Also mixing different types of tetras wouldn't mean anything as far as nutrition. Also how does a single pair of cons make it inbreeding? They're not breeding with their offspring. Also, how would you know if your tetras weren't inbreeding? Say one of their young escaped being fed and ended up spawning with one of their parents?

 

[jlsmonkey]

lol everyone behave

i think i will go with cons, the risk of inbreeding is small, cons look cool and they are from the same area which the oscars would have definitely had eaten them and i just happen to have 2 extra tanks, one was used for fish and one used to be used to a snake which escaped and has been lost ever since.

i got new measurements, 3' long, 1'3'' wide as the average, 1'9'' tall

my first ones weren't to far off just wanted to make sure and im gonna use a gallon calculator to find the approx. gallons

bye bye till tomorrow

 

[jlsmonkey]

x that last remark i believe i may have looked wrong, will add new more accurate measurements 2morrow

 

[TwistedPenguin]

1st things 1st. You've GOT to check your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and you've got to get a tape measure insteading of guessing on the tank size. Nobody should be 'advising' you on what other fish to add and what temp to keep it at until we know the most important things-what is the size of tank? And what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

 

[jlsmonkey]

twisted i will post these when i get the information u impatient person

 

[TwistedPenguin]

No, it's your fish. I'm just saying there's no sense changing things or adding fish or whatever until you know the basics. I'm stepping out anyway. Good luck!

 

[Aromantis]

1st things 1st. You've GOT to check your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and you've got to get a tape measure insteading of guessing on the tank size. Nobody should be 'advising' you on what other fish to add and what temp to keep it at until we know the most important things-what is the size of tank? And what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

THANK YOU!!! I read through this and that's exactly what I was thinking! Why would you even think about adding fish to a tank with unknown gallonage and possibly sick occupants? Figure out what's actually wrong with the fish before jumping through hoops to help them. I would suggest to just stop feeding feeders for now, because that can't really hurt physically or economically. Then get them on pellets and supplement with feeders AFTER you've figured out what's wrong with them. Good luck.

 

[jlsmonkey]

who said anything about adding more fish to the O tank? i said a while back that i wasn't going to add anything

we all know i have to check the ammonia nitrite etc. and find out the gallonage but i cant exactly do that at the moment because all the stores around here are closed now and were a while ago.

also i said i was going to stop feeding feeders i believe, and breed my own Cons IN A SEPARATE TANK

and an update on my fishes, i left the light off for a few hours and they became much more active, so they might have been a little sick of the lights the pleco became more active as well which i good

chances are that i am gonna clean out the second tank and get it ready for the Cons

 

[Aromantis]

Actually, I was simply explaining the thoughts that went through my head while reading through the thread. And the main idea of my post was that you should not even start making plans for breeding convicts until AFTER you have dealt with the situation. You don't need feeders (i.e. convict fry) at all if the fish you have are no longer in existence. So once you have completely sorted out why your fish are acting the way they are, and once you are certain there are no medical issues involved, THEN it's time to start even THINKING about setting up a new tank for feeders. Simply put, take it one step at a time.