Oscar

Astronotus ocellatus is a species of fish from the cichlid family known under a variety of common names, including oscar, tiger oscar, velvet cichlid, or marble cichlid. Oscar found native to Amazon region of South America, where the species naturally resides and often found for sale as a food fish in the local markets. The fish can also be found in other areas, including China, Australia, and the United States. Although its slow growth limits its potential for aquaculture, it is considered a popular aquarium fish. Temperature : 22C (72F) to 30C (82F) pH: 6.5 7.5 ppm Hardness: Nitrate :<40 ppm A. ocellatus examples have been reported to grow to about 45 cm (18 in) in length and 1.6 kilograms (3.5 lb) in weight. The wild-caught forms of the species are typically darkly coloured with orange-ringed spots or ocelli on the caudal peduncle and on the dorsal fin. The species is also able to rapidly alter its colouration, a trait which facilitates ritualised territorial and combat behaviours amongst ornamentals. Juvenile oscars have a different colouration from adults, and are striped with white and orange wavy bands and have spotted heads. They are not the most colorful aquarium fish around, and certainly not the prettiest. They almost certain appeal to people because of the way they interact with their owners. They have been nicknamed the "River, or Water dog" because of the way they behave. They often shake their heads and tails just like a dog. Oscar Fish is definitely one of the more intelligent aquarium fish. They seem to have the ability to recognize their owners and almost seem to be aware of what is going on outside of their aquarium. They are strong to move rocks and decor around with ease, an Oscar aquarium can sometimes look like a battle zone. Plants don't last very long so they are not good for a planted aquarium.Take measures to protect breakables like heaters submersible lights from rock moved by fish. As being fast and furious if kept with other carnivores like Arowana, the later may not get food no. The oscar being a carnivore and they may attack the other fishes like gold fish, damaging eye and body resulting in serious damage.Even juveniles show same aggressiveness that no consideration of age relaxation applicable for oscar. In its natural environment, the species typically occurs in slow-moving white-water habitats, and has been observed sheltering under submerged branches so drift wood, clay pots, rocks etc. shall be kept in their tank. The tank for keeping Oscar should be more than 150 lit. capacity. The Oscar may grow to 7 inches or around in captivity at one year. The thickness of glass also should be near 10 mm.

Oscars are omnivores, ideal food for this specie includes:

Earthworms Bloodworms Tubifex Pellets Granules for cichlids Insects (for example flies) crickets

Beef heart can be offered to your Oscar too, however it must not become their main diet. Feeder fish (Guppies or Goldfish) are considered suitable food by many fish keepers, however these might pass a disease to your fish, thus feed them feeder fish only if you're 100% sure that feeders are of high quality, ideally breed your own feeder fish.

Common varieties of Oscar.

1. Tiger Oscar fish - this most resembles the original Wild Oscar fish and is extremely common 2. Albino Tiger Oscar fish - if you want to be pedantic then this is actually a Lutino Oscar fish as it exhibits colour pigmentation, whereas true albino creatures do not. However, for the sake of stopping confusion, they are normally referred to as albino. This particular fish all so has some Tiger Oscar fish in it as well. 3. Red Oscar fish - first bred over 40 years ago, the red Oscar fish is truly beautiful when displaying its vibrant red colouration 4. Veil Tail Oscar fish - these Oscars have been bred to exhibit long fins. As you can observe by our example, the fins can become damaged quite easily. Nevertheless they are beautiful fish with their long flowing fins that often look like silk 5. Red Lutino Oscar fish - this is what we would call a red Lutino Oscar fish, although some people may still referred to it as albino, does it really matter?

Oscars are monomorphic. This means that males and females look the same. So identifying a pair is difficult other than breeding time. The ways to get a pair is to get a known pair or keep 6-10 juveniles together and let them pair by themselves. At breeding time, the females egg tube is overall in the shape, not unlike the pointed end of an egg. The males sexual organ is pointed and looks rather like a thorn. Once a pair has been formed you should remove the other fish from the aquarium, since breeding Oscars are highly territorial and can hurt intruding fish. If the spawning does not commence immediately there is not easy fix that can kick start it. What you can do is provide the pair with suitable conditions and wait for the spawning to start. The courtship behaviour can be very violent sometimes too violent and resulting in the death of one of the Oscars before any offspring has been produced. Oscars will do well in soft acidic water as well as in harder alkaline water, as long as you avoid any extremes. Keeping the conditions similar to their native home in Central America is always a good idea. Frequent water changes are important to ensure suitable water chemistry and low levels of soluble waste. Do not change more than 25 percent of the water at once. Changing 20-25 percent of the water once or twice a week is a good rule of thumb. Efficient filtration is also required since Oscars are renowned for being messy eaters and producing plenty of waste. If you have a 50 gallon aquarium you should ideally use filtration that is recommended for a 100 gallon aquarium. Feed the pair bait fish or frozen fish. Prawns, crickets, earth worms and other meaty foods are also suitable. Some Oscar keepers feed their fish raw meat from cows and pigs, but this is highly unadvisable since such meat include too much animal fat and can harm the health of your Oscars. Remember that wild Oscars feed mainly on small fish and eating cows, pigs, sheep etc are therefore very unnatural for them. Pellets should also be avoided since a majority of the pellet will slip through the gills of the Oscar and never end up inside the stomach. Your fish will still be hungry and the water will be polluted with uneaten pellet material. An Oscar pair will typically dig a pit in the substrate or choose a hard surface, such as a flat stone, as their spawning site. Both the male and the female Oscar will guard and care for eggs and fry. The will be extremely protective and aggressive during this period and should be kept alone. Just like with many other cichlid species, it is common for an Oscar pair to fail their first attempts to raise offspring. Newly hatched brine shrimp is a suitable first food for Oscar fry. You can feed the powdered flake food, but they will grow much faster

on brine shrimp. When kept on a brine shrimp diet the fry will be 1.5-2.0 inches long after three months. Keep in mind that one Oscar pair is capable of producing tremendous amounts of offspring. You might have to cull the batch if you cant provide all the young Oscars with suitable housing. A mature pair of Oscars can produce up to 1000 eggs which can all hatch. Breeding age at around 18 months . Oscars prefer to lay their eggs on a flat surface, they will not lay their eggs directly on the substrate. If there is nothing in the tank for them to lay their eggs on, they will clear a patch of gravel/sand until the bottom of the tank is exposed and then they will lay their eggs there. If you want your Oscars to breed then you are probably wise to put something in the tank like a piece of flat slate or rock. Before breeding they finalise the breeding substrate and often do rehearsal before they actually start laying eggs. The days very close to the breeding they often stops feeding and at this time stop feeding them again or try with a very little amount of feed. Be careful of not spoiling water with excess uneaten feed. Oscars more than often lay their eggs in the evening, or at night.Some professionals use to give a rain effect or water exchange to make changes in water temperature which can induce fish. When the Oscars are ready to lay eggs, you will see their sexual organs protrude from underneath them. The female Oscar will then start swimming over the area where she is going to lay. She could well spend quite a long time moving around in circles, rubbing her underside on the surface of where she is deposit the eggs. Female oscar may lay a few eggs and then let the male swim over the top and fertilise them. When all of the eggs have been laid, both the female and the male will hover over the eggs and fan them with his pectoral fins. This is to oxygenate them. They will also become very protective and aggressive. Often they will eat any unfertilized or bad eggs. Never try to disturb Brooders. Are more likely to encounter a fungal infection if you are hatching the eggs artificially. In cases where you are artificially hatching eggs, methylene blue can be used to control fungus but you must not use it in your aquarium as methylene blue can damage your biological filter. The eggs normally take 3 days to hatch. If they are fertilised they should turn a lightish tan colour. If they stay white, they are not fertilised. After hatching, the Fry will have a yolk sac that will feed them for around four days.