I've been telling you guys for a long time that we're eventually going to start doing some species
Spotlight style type videos and I thought why don't we start off with one of the most?
Mistreated fish in the Hobby the Oscar so a couple little things I want to talk about before we begin this
species breakdown or how to keep Oscar fish or just some general information to elaborate on
So you guys know this guy's name is Captain Hook. If you look when he was younger, it looks like he's taken some damage
It's gone into the flesh and it's kind of
Kind of healed that way giving the appearance of a little hook on the end of that tail fin or caudal fin is what's known
As and because his name is hook Captain Hook. I got him a pirate ship this one right here
actually
It was pretty hilarious to give him his own little pirate ship and of course while I was at the store
I came across a sunshine pleco which is now in the discus tank in the back there
you see when I had the ship in there the pleco for the most part hid behind it and
Hook would not stop beating it up. You got a few little scratches on him
If you can see right behind his Gill plate and his a few on his nose there
And maybe a few other little places
But that was just from relentlessly trying to get that plaque
Oh, I gave him enough time to get along but it just wouldn't happen
so I had to remove the ship to get the plaque Oh took the pleco put it in the discus tank where she's nice and
happy and
hook is now on his own the
Ship is still out because obviously I want him to heal before we move any further or putting anything back in the tank
So a couple little things I'd like to talk about with Oscars and why they are one of the most abused fish in the Hobby
and
That's kind of the reason why I wanted to make this video in the first place was just to bring a little bit more awareness
And bring caution to people that are interested in keeping Oscars
You see the Oscar gets big fast
Growing to about 10 to 12 inches or sometimes anywheres between 8 and 12 inches within the first year bit depending on diet
tank size and water quality because of this people get these tiny little water puppies that are
Dorable little Oscars and they grow into these big phosphorus fish
Eventually bringing them back to the pet store or in some cases releasing them into the wild where they are not in to
Which when you release a predator like this into an area where it's not natural to tend wreak havoc on that ecosystem
These guys are from the Amazon a lot of distribution in the Amazon
They are not from waterways in Florida. For example
or other tropical warm areas that these are being caught a lot in those Oscars are in those locations because
hobbyists like us
Irresponsible ones are releasing them back into the waterways if you cannot provide for
This fish for the next 10 to even 20 years, then you probably shouldn't get one in the first place
astronaut ace
oscillators
The Oscar fish is a cichlid from South America being one of the most popular cichlids on the planet
Not in terms of quantity
But in terms of recognizability when you get into the aquarium hobby a lot of people hear about the Oscar fish
Probably due to its personality and being very personable fish always greeting its master
Not necessarily highly active fish while some they do have big personalities
For example, as soon as I shot the camera and lights on it
We got a hook here sucking and trying to lay down at the bottom of the tank
Which is not uncommon for an Oscar to do so, fun fact before my channel, maybe about 12 years ago
I kept Oscar fish
Exclusively meaning I only had Oscars. In fact, I had six individual Oscars and six individual tanks
I was that into them a lot of the times in my hobby
I go through these phases where I get so into a certain type of fish
It's the only thing I want to keep in Oscar's at one point where that fish for me when I got all of them
They were all about this size and within a year they were all about hook size
which is about ten inches long the Oscar maxes out typically in the home aquarium many wars between
Ten to fourteen inches long getting to eight to ten inches within that first year typically
Growing much slowly and much more slower
Over the next five to six years maybe putting on an inch every year because they're not only growing in length
They get pretty tall and thick and fat as well
Let's talk about the tank setup and what they kind of need before we move any further first and foremost
These guys are one of the messiest eaters
They have deal plates on the backs of their throats where they grind up the food
So you'll always see them if you feed them a soft pellet. You'll see a lot of it coming out of their deal place
They're just an incredibly messy feeder
Because of that you're going to need to do a tremendous amount of water changes and have ample
Filtration, for example, I would house an oscar in the smallest tank
I would do would probably be about 75 gallons
Which is four feet long a foot and a half wide and about I believe it's about 21 inches tall
I'd most likely have a pair of large
Hang on the back filters or a large canister or maybe a pair of canisters
But a lot of times you don't necessarily need anymore
Wave-making devices and these aquariums on the way
my wracking czar setup is that they're all designed to have the equal amount of
Circulation and flow through them because this Ecotec wave maker is controllable though
I can turn it down for to be more specific for each individual fish because Oscars don't like a tremendous amount of flow
They come from slow moving waters hook-nosed
I'm talking about because it's coming up in the check the me out here big tank big water changes big filtration
Pretty common when he gets into big fish when it comes to decorations
A lot of the times less is more with Oscars form first and foremost. I've already showed you at the beginning of the video
decorations in a big fish tank which is a big tank big fish a
Lot of the times are just gonna get hurt on those decorations
So you do want to make sure that they do have soft
Edges perhaps if you weren't gonna do a themed tank like this, maybe you would have some softer wood in it
But you do not necessarily need a lot Oscar's do enjoy a lot of open swimming space
But again based on their personalities, they like to kind of chill out and lay down and suck when you do a water change
It's not uncommon for the Oscar to lay down in the corner
Now he's upset at me
That's also not uncommon for them to flare their gills and bite the glass
Which is an indication of how tank mates are gonna go with these fish as well rule of thumb
Don't put anything in the tank that could fit in the Oscars mouth
He'll eat it second thing
You kind of want to take pick fish that can kind of take a beating that are pretty robust
That are not necessarily gonna go after the Oscar either Oscar's can get along with a lot of fish
But because there's such a personable fish and there's so personality rich that it really depends
Oscar - Oscar you almost have to test it with fish to see what's going to work
however
I feel you get the most out of your Oscar
By keeping a species only tank whether you have one or perhaps you have up to six and say 180 gallon or bigger the Oscar
Is a pretty easy fish to keep I like to call them the dumpsters of the aquarium world. These guys will eat almost
Anything that you offer still needing a very diet consisting of vegetable as well as protein based
But a lot of people enjoy feeding them feeder fish like goldfish
For example, in fact, that's one of the most popular eyes dudes for Oscars
But we've talked about this before in the past and several videos how unhealthy that can be long term for any fish to feed
Goldfish the interesting part about the Oscar fish. Is that wow?
There's a few variants of it the wild type or the original looking tiger Oscar
Well, the tiger Oscar is more of a selectively bred strain
Concentrating on having more reds in it, but the wild type Oscar is a simply beautiful almost camouflaged looking fish where it has read
Some mostly green and brown and black patches and it truly looks like a camouflaged animal. However
Getting into the Tigers you can highlight on the reds or you can go with the red Oscar like this
There's blood Oscar's. There's albino Oscar's I
Mean, there's albino Tigers their little teeth. There's Latinos just a variety of Oscars to choose from in terms of what you think
You'll be most attracted to in coloration. My preference has always been the Reds. I just find them absolutely
Beautiful depending on the lights. Now. I'm keeping this guy under lights that are rated 5,000 kelvins
Which is the color temperature of the light focusing more on the yellows greens and reds or daylight?
The Oscar overall is an easy fish to keep however, they are prone to
Hole in the head disease being a large fish
One of the benefits of having large fish is you can observe all its features
From far away or even close up you can truly get a look at its Anatomy on the outside
But they have large sensory pits covering the nape of their head now
There's a number of factors that will contribute to hold in the head most believe it'll be water quality
Sometimes it can come down to temperature and diet
But ultimately that is probably the most popular disease that plagues Oscars
But it can be curbed by ensuring that you have great water quality and a varied diet water temperature
These guys can survive at a variable water temperatures anything down from 20 degrees Celsius all the way up to something like 28
I keep my fish at 25 if you guys aren't watching this you'll also notice
I don't know if you can see this good on the camera or not
But he is literally changing color by the end of very diet water temperature
These guys can survive at a variable water temperatures anything down from 20 degrees Celsius all the way up to something like 28
I keep my fish
You
So if you look at the nape of his head a moment ago that was just white like literally seconds ago
I grabbed the camera to see what color he was gonna change here. He goes again
Hopefully, it'll pick it up but isn't that absolutely insane here he goes steam changing
This is definitely a sign of some sort of a mood that he's in whether he's stressed out whether he's angry
Something along those lines it doesn't help but this is blazing in front of him and he's not used to this
So this is kind of new for him
I'm glad we caught this on camera though, because I always find it absolutely fascinating how fast the Oscar
Kent can change their color
Absolutely insane
When he looks his best though, he'll be black and red
Absolutely beautiful. If you're not following me on instagram, you'll see that there's big videos and pictures of them on there
Very
Excited to eat at all times and you kind of got to be careful. These guys will jump they will bite your hands
It's not like a flower form where you can pet them. I mean some Oscars can be trained to be more friendly with you
Folks not one of them know again. These guys do great in a wide variety of water parameters the temperature. I like to keep it
Pretty warm anywhere from 25 to 26 which isn't that warm
But it's definitely where I find them to be the happiest most active and feeding properly not over eating
Water quality is not getting that bad. They're not gasping at the surface anything along those lines and when it comes to tank-raised Oscars
pH anything between 6.5 to like
Up to 8 pH is fine acidic as well as alkaline
Basically, whatever comes out of your tap is going to be more than fine for these guys as long as you provide consistent
Measurements such a personable little fish
This is a tank and a fish that you could sit in front of and you guys will watch each other
For as long as you want, I realized that this is the lonely man's fish if you don't have any friends did an Oscar
Also get an Oscar if you've got a 75 gallon aquarium
You don't mind little to no aquascape and the Oscar continuously destroying it
You don't mind over filtering the tank and doing plenty of water changes, but if you can't do that
Don't get an Oscar cuz these guys are gonna go from zero to 100 real quick
Oh and they live for like 10 to 20 years. So
big commitment
I'm gonna go ahead and be completely honest here and tell you guys that one of my favorite
Features of the Oscar is not only it's a very powerful look but it's and there's so many features
I like about I just it's its eyes. I really like it thighs they like googly eyes
Just kind of like almost like a chameleons
absolutely hilarious
Anyways guys if you enjoyed that how to care for Oscars. I know it was pretty bad. I did just wing it
If you have further information or I forgot something please leave it in the comment section below
I've always said it the comments section is the second part of the video
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