Topic: Planning for a future oscar

[Boven]

Saturday night I was getting zero ammonia and zero NitrIte readings.   I added a bit of ammonia and checked again Sunday evening and got the same results, so I did a big water change, about 60%, to get the nitrates down to a safer level.

After work yesterday, I came home with this fella:



It's not the greatest picture, since I took it with my phone's camera and it was having some issues focusing with all that clear stuff in the pic.  That's my new buddy, though, chillin out in a little plexiglass drip acclimation tank that's hanging on the side of the 75 gal.  He's now in the tank proper.  I know he'll grow up to be a big ol thing, but dang, right now he looks so teensy in that big aquarium all alone.  It took him a little time to figure out where to go to get away from the current from the filters.  For now, there's a boat ornament in the tank with him that he can hide inside.  When he grows a bit bigger I'll take that out.  I don't want him to get stuck inside it and really only put it in so he'd have a place to hang out in peace.

It's been about a year since I started planning for this guy and it's just so cool to finally have gotten him.  I'm hoping he'll grow up big and strong and live a long long time.

[Cholly]

Feed him plenty and keep changing the water. You'll almost be able to watch him grow.

[ShieldWolf]

Beautiful boy. Congrats. He'll get big in no time. Especially when he sees you & starts begging for food. Just remember no feeders unless they're home grown & even then its better to stick with conventional foods.

[Boven]

Darn it, I'd written up a response and then my browser went splat.

I plan on feeding him cichlid pellets and some frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp now and then.  I'm too much of a pushover to feed him feeders.

I didn't feed him for the first 24 hours, so he got a pellet last night a little before I turned the light off and one this morning.  He hides when I approach the tank and I didn't see him eat either pellet.  Last night's was gone when I turned his light off.  I don't know whether he ate it or it sank and was just somewhere that I couldn't see it on the bottom.  This morning, he hadn't eaten it in the 10 minutes between me putting it in there and leaving for work.

He hides when the lights in the room come on.  Hopefully that's just him being cautious in his new environment.  He does come out, but will zip back to hide in the boat ornament when I approach the tank.  I hope he relaxes and starts associating me with food so that he'll stay out. 

Since it's not really light out this time of year when I get up for work, I'm turning on the lights outside the room his tank in for a few minutes before turning on the room lights, and then his tank light.  I'm hoping that makes for less of a surprise than just having lights come on suddenly and brightly.  I do want to hook his tank light up to a timer eventually, but don't want to rush it.

I worry about the little guy, but then I worry about any new fish I get until I'm sure they're secure and comfy.

[LittlePuff]

Don't give him feeder fish. It's unhealthy. Try the brine shrimp and see if he will come out for that. Potato chips for fish!! Oscars are shy fish, so what he's doing is normal. Give him a few days

[Cholly]

I rarely use feeders at all any more, just when the guppy/quarantine/hospital tank threatens to over populate. They eat more bugs and such in the wild, anyway.
Earthworms are good for them and every oscar I've known went nuts for them. Red wigglers are probably all he's up to so far, but he'll be on whole night crawlers in no time.

[LittlePuff]

Crickets and earthworms are good too.

[wendyjo]

Congratulations!  So what did you end up naming it?

[Boven]

I finally saw the lil guy eat a couple times.  The first time was when I put some brine shrimp in there.  He didn't react until some of them sank down to the side of the tank where he was hanging out, then he went on a little feeding frenzy.  Saturday, he didn't went to the corner of the tank instead of hiding in his boat when I approached with his dinner and I was able to see him zip up and snag his pellet.

Wendyjo, I still don't have a set name for him.  I shared his pic with some friends and family members and ended up with a whole slew of suggestions.  I've just been calling him 'little oscar.'  Yeah, I'll admit I sorta talk to my fish.  I know they couldn't care less, but I'll tell 'em it's dinner time when they get fed n stuff.  It must be from all those years of having cats.

[Cholly]

Oscars are different. Once he settles in he'll begin to recognize you and will do a "happy dance" when he sees you. It torqued my wife's tail feathers that Clifford would "happy dance" for my daughter or I, but not for her. At least he doesn't try to hide from her any more.