More tank pics, updated

[FINWIN]

My megastar, Brick...went from a teeny 2" O on 12/15/18 to a bulky sub adult at 7" right now. He is 7" long, nearly 3" tall (without fin) and over an inch thick. More growth edges on his fins. He's showing off before going to pick another fight with Boss.

 

[Fishflyer]

Wow, Brick is 7 inches already. Sure is beautiful. You picked out some nice new fish. Great markings on all of them. They should compliment your original fish very nicely, but you are an artist. Cool pics.

With their changing and varied colors, and back and forth personal interactions...it sounds like you have a dramady movie, and a light show there.

 

[FINWIN]

Wow, Brick is 7 inches already. Sure is beautiful. You picked out some nice new fish. Great markings on all of them. They should compliment your original fish very nicely, but you are an artist. Cool pics.

With their changing and varied colors, and back and forth personal interactions...it sounds like you have a dramady movie, and a light show there.

It has to be the water changes and tank size. I'm feeding him less times a day now than before and it hasn't made any difference in his growth! He constantly has new growth edge on his fins. I can't believe this rate will be sustainable. I fully expect him to slow up around 10-11 inches. It could be that he has dna to be one of those 'monster' oscars, we'll see. He started off with a plain dusky copper color but then the patterns emerged later. The color seems to be moving up towards his head now.

The great thing about my O is that he still has that baby playfullness and nosy 'puppy dog' curiosity. He watches everything I do when changing the tanks and even drifts up and down to see better.

I've come to the conclusion Boss and Brick are just yanking each others chain. Each of them lost a scale but nothing serious. Brick is the instigator but he's the one who got scrapes. Boss seems to be having a slight growth spurt of his own...this could get interesting again. He's stoking into Brick's 'territory' more boldly again. Anybody wanna write a paper on nutty cichlids????

 

[Fishflyer]

It has to be the water changes and tank size. I'm feeding him less times a day now than before and it hasn't made any difference in his growth! He constantly has new growth edge on his fins. I can't believe this rate will be sustainable. I fully expect him to slow up around 10-11 inches. It could be that he has dna to be one of those 'monster' oscars, we'll see. He started off with a plain dusky copper color but then the patterns emerged later. The color seems to be moving up towards his head now.

The great thing about my O is that he still has that baby playfullness and nosy 'puppy dog' curiosity. He watches everything I do when changing the tanks and even drifts up and down to see better.

I've come to the conclusion Boss and Brick are just yanking each others chain. Each of them lost a scale but nothing serious. Brick is the instigator but he's the one who got scrapes. Boss seems to be having a slight growth spurt of his own...this could get interesting again. He's stoking into Brick's 'territory' more boldly again. Anybody wanna write a paper on nutty cichlids????

Yup I got 2 kookie cichlids, and the 3rd young one is showing lots of personality. They all have personalities that are varied. Yours do and mine do. If we had connecting aquatic passages between the rooms to aquariums in each room, some of the fish would be following us from room to room. I am halfway there. I have an aquarium or 2 in each room.

 

[FINWIN]

I wanted personalities. Welp, be careful what you ask for!
Was able to get a couple of ruler shots of Brick. The first one shows his length...His tail is at the 4" and his head at the 11". The second he's standing on end (he does this when annoyed). You can compare his body height to the ruler there. The third pic is him pouting saying "you've taken enough pictures" then he swam away and hid.

 

[Fishflyer]

I wanted personalities. Welp, be careful what you ask for!
Was able to get a couple of ruler shots of Brick. The first one shows his length...His tail is at the 4" and his head at the 11". The second he's standing on end (he does this when annoyed). You can compare his body height to the ruler there. The third pic is him pouting saying "you've taken enough pictures" then he swam away and hid. . Looks like he is def a showman, amazing growth in 2 months.

>>>Is that kind of quick growth normal for that species, or your care or both.

I like the placement of your marimo balls among your rocks. I will check around for a decent deal for a Costco type volume package of them so I can scatter them around all my underwater gardens. They would look especially good in the Sandtastik Green Sand Green Mars Aquarium. (Green Mars is after It develops an atmosphere and primitive plant forms are developing-- mosses, algae, lichens--which is fungi actually, not plant.). As I remember the marimo balls are healthy for the tank environment and they would do well in nutrient rich well established aquariums. Most of my aquariums have a goodly amount of plants. But not in the cichlid tanks. Marimo Balls would go good in my cichlid tanks. I might try Pothos in the cichlid tanks, but I think my cichlids would shred the Pothos. I put some excess quick growing plants that I don't use as starts elsewhere in their tanks for them to eat. However early on in my experiences with cichlids, back in the stone age when I didn't know any better, I put the cichlids in a planted tank, and they destroyed the plants, fast.

View attachment 1359968 View attachment 1359969 View attachment 1359970

 

[FINWIN]

Yeah, Brick and Patch are the flamboyant ones...Brick is a showoff and Patch is sassy. I don't know if this is normal growth pattern for an Oscar, they grow fast for sure. I hear normally 1 to 1 1/2 inches, sometimes 2. Brick is going at a 2 1/2 inch per month clip. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I think what really surprises me is his body size even more than length...the oscars in some of the lfs his length look like potentially stunted adults (heads huge). But he hasn't grown into his head yet. Could be a test case for Hikari, I hear their products or earthworms get Oscars large quickly. On one of the other Oscar sites a member had a two year old Oscar at 14 inches. And a you tube poster had a wild Oscar 16 inches at only 1 1/2 years. So some of it has to be genetics. So they don't always have to be older to have huge size. I'll continue to document Brick here and see where he ends up it will be fun to see. After doing my research on Oscars I was determined to be on top of

Water quality
Tank Size
Low stress environment
stimulating environment
Good food

The marimo balls kind of roll around randomly and go where they will in the big tank. My powerheads blow stuff forward so the sand at the front is steeper and they roll to the back. Sometimes the fish push them around. They always roll into Boss' pot and he pushes them out in a semicircle around his space. For some reason though they're changing color in the smaller tanks. Temps are comparable so I don't know what the difference is. All the parrots love pushing them around.

Pothos is tough. If you have enough of it it's hard for fish to destroy unless they slice it with their teeth. It doesn't like being rooted unless you have it in submerged pots. If its loose and floating the fish can't do squat except pull and push it around. Mine like swimming through and resting in it. Kong's the only one that breaks pieces off and tears some of the roots.

 

[Fishflyer]

Yeah, Brick and Patch are the flamboyant ones...Brick is a showoff and Patch is sassy. I don't know if this is normal growth pattern for an Oscar, they grow fast for sure. I hear normally 1 to 1 1/2 inches, sometimes 2. Brick is going at a 2 1/2 inch per month clip. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I think what really surprises me is his body size even more than length...the oscars in some of the lfs his length look like potentially stunted adults (heads huge). But he hasn't grown into his head yet. Could be a test case for Hikari, I hear their products or earthworms get Oscars large quickly. On one of the other Oscar sites a member had a two year old Oscar at 14 inches. And a you tube poster had a wild Oscar 16 inches at only 1 1/2 years. So some of it has to be genetics. So they don't always have to be older to have huge size. I'll continue to document Brick here and see where he ends up it will be fun to see. After doing my research on Oscars I was determined to be on top of

Water quality
Tank Size
Low stress environment
stimulating environment
Good food

The marimo balls kind of roll around randomly and go where they will in the big tank. My powerheads blow stuff forward so the sand at the front is steeper and they roll to the back. Sometimes the fish push them around. They always roll into Boss' pot and he pushes them out in a semicircle around his space. For some reason though they're changing color in the smaller tanks. Temps are comparable so I don't know what the difference is. All the parrots love pushing them around.

Pothos is tough. If you have enough of it it's hard for fish to destroy unless they slice it with their teeth. It doesn't like being rooted unless you have it in submerged pots. If its loose and floating the fish can't do squat except pull and push it around. Mine like swimming through and resting in it. Kong's the only one that breaks pieces off and tears some of the roots.

Good list for fish care. Pushing their Marimo balls are probably part of keeping themselves entertained as well as changing their environment around.

Mine like moving their environment around: plants, substrate, ornaments rocks are all subject to bulldozing. Anything within their power to move.

I am going to get some Marimo balls for my cichlids to push around. I may have to culture them first in another tank to allow for some grow . I read that some fish like to munch on the marimo balls. I will get more Pothos too.

 

[FINWIN]

Some not so hot news. The gold spot pleco went belly up last night. No reason, he had eaten and was settling in. Was fine the night before. No fighting with the Syno catfish either. Dim lighting for low stress.

After looking into some info I see gold spot plecs do this a lot, especially when young. I'll see if I can get a credit at the store but I'm not holding my breath, they say on the receipts fish are not guaranteed and all sales are final.

Maybe I'll find a sturdier pleco type equally attractive, like a snowball pleco.

 

[Fishflyer]

Some not so hot news. The gold spot pleco went belly up last night. No reason, he had eaten and was settling in. Was fine the night before. No fighting with the Syno catfish either. Dim lighting for low stress.

After looking into some info I see gold spot plecs do this a lot, especially when young. I'll see if I can get a credit at the store but I'm not holding my breath, they say on the receipts fish are not guaranteed and all sales are final.

Maybe I'll find a sturdier pleco type equally attractive, like a snowball pleco.

. Very sorry to hear about that. And sometimes that just happens. Wasn't too long you have had that, yes maybe you can get that refund or exchange. Are you a pretty regular customer or spent a lot of money there? Petsmart and I think Petco too guareentees their fish and critters. But the small stores sometimes don't. Can't really afford to.

I try to remember to match PHs, or come to a close compromise especially if it is a small or delicate fish.

Like I said, sometimes it just happens. Could have been a delicate one from birth. If there is a great difference in pH, I do it the changes in small increments over hours, or even days. I have the fish store people check pH at the store. Purchase courtesy. That way I have more of my test fluid to do the multiple test adjustments.

Well at least you get another fish and another trip to the fish store. Just tell them how meticulous you are about caring for your fish, water parameters, careful acclimatization and show them pictures. Growth rate ect. I know how much you care for your fish. Do you want me to send the fish store an email? You can review it first.