how do you breed oscars?
i was wondering how one sexes oscars i have two 2.5" oscars and was wondering how they are sexed
i was wondering how one sexes oscars i have two 2.5" oscars and was wondering how they are sexed
breeding oscars
- Thread starter DULOS
- Start date
Sorry buddy, the only way to know the sex of oscars is if you either watch who lays the eggs and who fertilizes them, or you cut em open and examine thier reproductive organs.
Drowning
Drowning
oscars can also be vented but usually not till they are 4-6". like gomezladdams said, put at least 6 juvies in a large tank and let a pair form naturally. they should start to pair off around 5-6". 
In larger fish the breeding tubes will actually protrude very slightly if the fish is very full of food. The female's tube is bigger, and rounded at the end, while the male's tube is smaller, and pointed at the end. Like I said this only works in larger (8" +) fish.
thanks
i think im going to have to get a larger tank to breed but that just makes me more excited cause then i can get even bigger fish.
thanks so much for the input.
Any other advice for oscars?
i think im going to have to get a larger tank to breed but that just makes me more excited cause then i can get even bigger fish.
thanks so much for the input.
Any other advice for oscars?
feed good quality foods--Hikari, Dainichi, Omega 1, and New Life Spectrum all make excellent foods for cichlids. you can also get good quality homemade foods from www.kensfish.com as well as you can buy a couple of name brands from them (Dainichi and NLS at excellent prices). Live foods such as about any type of worms, crayfish (when larger), crickets and the occasional home-raised and well fed live fish can be offered as treats. freeze dried foods such as krill, earthworms, blood worms etc. can also be offered depending on the nutritional values.
take excellent care of the water--as a general guideline I'd doi weekly 25-35% water changes while the oscar is smaller. as the oscar reaches around 6" I'd bump it up to 35-45% and once they reach adulthood I'd probably be doing 60% weekly water changes. all the while always keep an eye on the nitrate level and try not to let it go above 20-40 ppm. also, don't use carbon unless you need to remove meds from the water and in those cases a week or 2 should suffice. otherwise overuse of carbon has been said to contribute to HITH.
have lots and lots of filtration--I'd want the water to turnover at least 12-15 times per hour with fish as messy as oscars. so if you went with a 100 gallon tank the flow rates of the filtration should total 1200-1500 gallons per hour.
taking care of these things should lead to very healthy oscars and keep the risk of HITH very minimal.
take excellent care of the water--as a general guideline I'd doi weekly 25-35% water changes while the oscar is smaller. as the oscar reaches around 6" I'd bump it up to 35-45% and once they reach adulthood I'd probably be doing 60% weekly water changes. all the while always keep an eye on the nitrate level and try not to let it go above 20-40 ppm. also, don't use carbon unless you need to remove meds from the water and in those cases a week or 2 should suffice. otherwise overuse of carbon has been said to contribute to HITH.
have lots and lots of filtration--I'd want the water to turnover at least 12-15 times per hour with fish as messy as oscars. so if you went with a 100 gallon tank the flow rates of the filtration should total 1200-1500 gallons per hour.
taking care of these things should lead to very healthy oscars and keep the risk of HITH very minimal.
I sucessfully bred them in a 75 gallon. Make sure that you have at least 3+ inches of gravel as they dig a "pit" when they are ready to spawn. Feed then plent, my success seemed to be feeding them ghost shrimp. This additional food along with the water changes drastically increased the size of the egg batch, and the hatch rate. Hope this helps