This is my relaxing hobby. Raising Oscar's & Pacu's for 4 years gives me great satisfaction. I always purchase them when they are under one year old. Although the two pictured above are no longer with me. They were about 1 year old.
100 gallon tank had 2 full grown Tiger Oscars(Astronotus ocelatus), one full grown Pacu(Colossoma brachypomum), one full grown Pleco (Plecostomus) and one Angelica Catfish (Pimelodus pictus). I have found out that this combination of fish helps keep the tank clean. Even though Oscars are terribly messy eaters. The combination of the Pacu eating some of the food while still suspended in the water and the Spotted Catfish eating food that falls to the bottom. The tank is kept some what clean.
I'm was very lucky to have a male and female Oscar so they breed a few times a year. Although they have never yet raised the young one's they still try about 2-3 times a year.
They eat a variaty of large dry pellets, frozen brine & blood worms, live nightcrawlers, live feeder goldfish, live crawfish, live crickets and chunks of veggies and just about anything else I throw in there. Occasionally a nibble on my fingers when I'm a little slow. A couple of times the Oscar's will jump out and bite my finger and as I jerk back they get flung out from their tank and onto the floor. It's lots of fun try to scoop them up and put them back into their tank.
Here are my Pacu's shortly after I got them.
The second tank is a 45 gallon show tank. In there I had 2 full grown Pacu's, one Sharkfin Catfish and one Plecostomus. I found out that the catfish and Plecostomus combination helps keep the tank cleaner. The Catfish eating all that's left unwanted by Pacu's
or Oscars and the Plecostomus keeping the algae under control.
The last tank is just a 10 gallon tank for Feeders. The only way I can afford to feed these guys live food is to buy feeders in large quantities. Even though they do not eat only live food this gets pretty expensive.
I got sick with cancer in late 1997 to early 1999. During that time I was not able to care for all my fish. Both Oscars got "Hole in the Head" and I believed it necessary due to the severity of it to put them down. After a water change, somehow all my aquariums had a bad chemical inbalance or sickness that even with all my attempts to cure this problem could not help my fish.
100 Gallon
45 Gallon
Now starting all over, cleaning and restarting the water cycle. I decided to change the type of fish I wanted to raise. I still wanted and always love Oscars so I purchased 3 that are under a year old. Two albino Oscar's, not true albino's but coloration is of an albino. And one Tiger Oscar also under a year old. Plus a new type I got interested in. Two Ctenolucius Hujeta's also sometimes refered to as freshwater Baracuda also around one year old. To help keep the tank clean a Plecostomus and Albino Cory Catfish. All of these are in a 100 gallon glass tank that I got from my father who purchased it sometime in the early 70's.
For filtration I use a Marineland Penguin 330 Bio-wheel. The temperature is maintained at 78-80 degrees. Decorated with various live plants and rocks.
In my other tank (45 gallons) I decided to go back to raising Oranda's since my father used to raise when I was just knee high. And I raised them from my early 20's to late 20's. I purchased one orange Oranda, one white with orange Oranda, one orange with white Ruykin, one white with orange traces on it's fins Ruykin in January 2000. Also another Plecostomus, all of which are approxiamately a year old.
For filtration I use a Marineland Penguin 125 Bio-wheel. The temperature is maintained at 60-70 degrees. Decorated with various live plants and rocks. The lights and air pump are on timers so that the lights come on during the day and the air pump comes on during nights.
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FINS...Fish Information Service
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