a few more oscar ?'s
- Thread starter sharpie
- Start date
sharpie said:
are you talkin about decoration? decorate how you want my oscars never used them any ways they always just swam at the top of the tank waiting for food. you dont need any decor to keep your fish healthy! oscars not have terracotta pots in the lake! :duh:
what is black water extract? never heard of this so its false. you dont need it cause ive never used it and all my oscars were fine!
kyle :dive2:
Balck water extract is a mixture of humic acid, and tannins. Basically water that has been treated with peat, and then concentrated. It will tint your water brownish, and lower the ph. Useful for spawning SA cichlids from blackwater environments, but completely unnecessary for maintaining them.
decor can have a huge affect on the success and health of the fish. my jaguar cichlid greatly appreciates his 6" PVC pipe T-connector. now oscars may not have terracotta pots in the wild, but they do have closed in places to defend as their territory, something you can simulate with rockwork, driftwood, clay pots, or PVC piping. an animal used to having a shelter/territory being stuck in a habitat (your tank) without that shelter could be stressed and obviously you dont want that. so give it something to hide behind and defend. oscars are from slightly softer and acidic waters, so that should be the goal, but blackwater extract would not be the best way to do it.
Agreed, all fish, with the exception of maybe tuna, benefit from having structure in the tank. I also agree that oscars are from soft slightly acidic waters, but don't really feel there's any reason to try and emulate this, since they've already proven that they can thrive in a number of different water chemistries. water QUALITY is much more important. If I was maintaining an oscar, I would put my energy into larger more frequent water changes,and leave the alteration of water chemistry up to those crazy dwarf cichlid nuts.
My oscar used to always tear up any plant in the aquarium until I put a floating plant in. I bought a regular artificial plant, cut the bottom off it and tied it together with fishing line. He also has a ping pong ball, since I placed those 2 things in the tank my 3 other fake plants have stayed put.
Never heard of blackwater extract either( doesn't mean anything considering there is alot of things I never heard of like please and thankyou from my children ). I wouldn't add it, soft water should be all you need. As for decor my O's love drift would and smooth rocks. They're very clumsy so avoid anything to rough like lava rock.