Dying Oscar made me interested in aquariums.

[rosita]

Way to Go!!!! The world needs more humans who are willing to rescue
"animals" from horrible conditions--I recall recently a person who had abandoned a barn full of horses--a stallion pony was bending his head at the ceiling as his stall (nailed shut) was FULL of his manure--about 8 feet deep. He was eating the manure to survive, his hooves had grown out and curled up around 6 or 7 inches, mane and tail grown into the manure.

On behalf of fellow creatures, :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[onepawnup]

I'm not much of a fan of PITA. They tie themselves into knots over cats and dogs, but they don't seem to care about fish. Why not?

The answer, of course, is that you can't pick up fish and cuddle them.


Did you ever wonder why peta pick on rich old ladies wearing furs instead of bikers in leather jackets ?

 

[Phuong Tran]

HEy guys thanks for the comments. Very Very nice of all of you. The oscar is doing much better now. Doing a gallon water change about every two days. the water has cleared up alot. His color seems to be getting darker. He looked pale grey color before, but now it seems like he is getting darker. And it seems that the orange stripes and dots on his body are getting more vibrant. Is this natural? Maybe it is because the water is alot clearer and I can see him better.

 

[DaisyTattoo]

In general, the healthier the fish, the better color they have. Thats why alot of times, if you bring home a fish from an LFS they will get more colorful as time goes on since(hopefully) you are taking better care of them than they were getting at the store.

 

[jeff5614]

He might benefit from the larger filter on the 10 gallon. The increased turn over and surface agitation would probably bring O2 levels up more. A good sized fish is bound to use the a lot of the oxygen in a 10g.

 

[RockabillyChick]

yes, make sure you are cleaning up his water slowly. he has gotten used to the filthy water and changing it all at once will shock him.

once you get him in the bigger tank, keep the water as clean as possible and feed him a varied diet of about 3-4 different kinds of cichlid pellets and freeze-dried, frozen, and if you want, live foods.

all live foods you should either raise yourself, of at least quarentine them to make sure they are free of disease, then gut-load them with lots of nutritious foods so when you feed them to the oscar the nutrients are passed on to the O.

in the wild, oscars eat crustaceans and insects, so feed him crickets, earth worms, shrimp, krill, meal worms, etc. avoid feeder fish from the pet store as they can introduce disease to your tank, and they are usually not very healthy for oscars even when they ARE taken care of properly. about 75% of his diet should be pellets, with frozen, freeze-dried, and live foods a few times a week.

congratulations on saving him! oscars are wonderful fish and full of personality. you won't be sorry for saving him!