Preparing to Spawn Oscars
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|
Oscar Pre-Spawning Factoids |
|
|
Basic Diet |
Pellets, goldfish, crayfish, nightcrawlers |
|
Breeding Quarters |
55 with UG filter, flat slate, cichlid-proof plastic plants |
| Dither Fish | Other oscars + pacamáo catfish |
| Temperature | 76 F |
|
Water |
Did not check pH. Just aged water. |
| Water Changes | Frequent |
| Behavior | Some mouthing and some tail shaking |
|
Pre-Spawning Clues |
None -- started with four strangers to one another |
Prologue: Your most recommended method of oscar spawning involves buying six to twelve baby oscars, growing them to adulthood, and letting them select their own spawning partners. Well, this is America and we don't want to wait two years -- especially if we have a dozen or so mature oscars waiting in the wings to become stars. So we selected four nearly equal-sized oscars and placed them in a well conditioned 55 gallon aquarium.
LA
Sidebar: Cichlids do not mate for life. (Just ask the angelfish breeders.) Most cichlids are opportunistic feeders and breeders. If you can sex them accurately, a healthy male and female will pair bond and usually spawn. Oscars are extremely difficult to sex prior to spawning. Warming the tank up five degrees increases the pair bonding but is not always necessary. Since oscars like to break heaters almost as much (perhaps more) as they like to breed, we'll leave the heater out for now. Aug 13, 2007
LA
Eenie -- Smallest of the four oscars and the least colorful. Possibly a
female?
LA
Elvis -- mellow fellow with a slightly crooked jaw and some missing
scales. Good color.
LA
Thank you. Thank you very much.
LA
Minie -- Missing scales but best color of the four oscars.
LA
Moe -- Largest of the lot with a strange pinkish red coloration.
LA
Eaenie, Minie, and Moe at the end with the just added potential spawning slate.
Aug 15, 2007
LA
All four oscars in one happy group. Aug 17, 2007
LA
Still checking out the suddenly appearing piece of slate. Aug 17,
2007
Water Quality: Since these guys (and gals) eat like pigs, I was making nearly dally 80-90% water changes. The aged water comes from other 55s right next to the oscars. To make a long story longer, I was distracted by a telephone call and drained these guys to the gravel floor. Feel free to skip this step. It is not recommended. Aug 18, 2007
LA
Here's a very scratched up Moe. It's a good thing oscars are
tough.
LA
Not good -- but only temporary.
LA
Elvis and Eenie were unscathed by flopping around on the gravel.
Conditioning Menu: During this experiment the oscars received a variety of foods during the day. Not all of them preferred the same foods. All of them liked their koi pellets (their first meal of the day). They ate goldfish grudgingly. Most greedily snapped up nightcrawlers. And most enjoyed hunting down and grabbing up crayfish. Some had their lips grabbed by the crayfish first, but soon learned to surmount that minor difficulty.
LA
Since oscars are cichlids, we expected disputes. Aug 18,
2007
LA
These were more pushing and shoving as opposed to actual arguments.
LA
Next day there were some pretty good oscar bluffs. Aug 19, 2007
LA
But mostly all the oscars just got along together -- at least while we were
watching.
LA
Finally some of the oscars started getting serious. Aug 20, 2007
LA
Some lip-locking going on.
LA
Some head-to-tail slapping but no apparent pairs and no breeding tubes
showing.
LA
More lip-locking. Same two oscars arguing but still no apparent pairs.
LA
These are oscar territorial disputes as opposed to pairing.
LA
So, it was time for another (more careful) routine water change.
Aug 20, 2007
LA
All oscars temporarily living in peace after their 75% water change..
Our Dither Fish: Since there's so many oscars to argue with, we probably don't need a dither fish. However, we had a large lunker catfish in there that would eat any food that the oscars passed up. So we left the pacamão catfish in there when we removed the former inhabitants of this tank. Whoops. I just remembered that I forgot to put a "not for sale" sign on these oscars. I'll add it as soon as I get back to Aqualand. This is my day off. Aug 21, 2007
LA
9-inch pacamão catfish that stays very hidden most of the time.
LA
Time for another water change (and gravel cleaning). Aug 22, 2007
LA
Which always mellows the entire oscar pack.
LA
But just like kids in the back seat, someone always restarts the
argument.
LA
Which pretty much leads to an oscar bitathon.
LA
Eenie seems to have suffered the most from lip-locking.
LA
She's (?) avoiding kissing for a while.
LA
Time for another oscar distraction. Aug 23, 2007
LA
Some of the crayfish put up a very good fight. Most went down
smoothly.
LA
Tasty, filling, and the carotenoids bring out their red (and hopefully
spawning) potential.
Another Sidebar: Oscars probably survive just fine on cichlid pellets and cichlid sticks. However, we find that most fish respond quite well to live foods -- not as a sole diet, but more as a dessert. Cichlids are often encouraged to breed when their water temperature increases. We're holding off on adding a heater because it also increases aggression. Not good in the case of large fish. We have not added a heater yet, but will if we still see no signs of breeding tubes dropping. Aug 24, 2007
LA
Not much happening today. Aug 25, 2007
LA
Eenie and Elvis hanging together on right side of tank. Aug 26,
2007
LA
Minie and Moe hanging together on the left.
LA
Eenie ate the most pellets. They chewed them, spit them out, and
cleaned them up later.
LA
Elvis and Eenie now have the entire 55 to themselves and the pacamão
catfish. Aug 29, 2007
LA
Naturally they cleaned their spawning slate again -- still no breeding
tubes visible. Aug 30, 2007
LA
So the evil spawnmeister covered the slate except for one corner.
LA
Time for a brief snack and a 75% water change. Their water was a
little murky.
LA
And time to argue with their dither fish which pretty much ignored the
incensed oscar.
LA
They totally cleaned their slate. Not much action other than water
changes. Sept 3, 2007
LA
Still; quite protective of their territory -- especially the probable male.
Wrap Up: Since
there's no way to exactly predict what organisms with a carbon atom in
them will do, we gave up on these guys ever spawning. Adieu to
oscar spawning for the nonce. LA December 8, 2009.
LA
Here's a picture that Chris Bruner sent me to rub it in.
Chris Bruner, January 30, 2010
I read your oscar spawn after you say you used my pic I think I
have a few keys that's made it easier for me there little
tricks/triggers you have to pull. When making new pairs intro all same
time neutral tank or separate in buckets for hour or so slowly raise
temp 80-81 cover half tank. I think the biggest part is water changes in
55gal I'd change 2 buckets 1 day next 3 buckets next 4 buckets. All from
tap the key is lowering your tank temp 2-4 degrees with your new water!
Replicates rainy season new fresh cool water. If nothing in couple days
say 4, pull em, put in buckets again 2 hours same Then bump temp up 1
degree. N when you thought they were fighting for turf or pecking order
the 2 that fought together I'd bet $$$ that's your pair! Idk, just my
thoughts.
© 2007,
© 2009,
© 2010
LA Productions
aqualandpetsplus.com
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Corner of Sixth & Euclid Avenues
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