You can count on fingers the number of fish that can lead a full-fledged lifestyle both in a real body of water and in an artificially created habitat. This requires a certain tendency to adapt. Thanks to her, it becomes possible to play in colors and sizes of fish. Oscar fish has all the necessary qualities.
What a creature
Oscar is a large-sized aquarium fish that lives in the Amazon. In some encyclopedias, it is called the astronus or the peacock eye. Belongs to the cichlid family.
Comfortable living conditions
A favorite habitat in the wild is water bodies located in Venezuela and Paraguay. In home aquariums it does not grow to significant sizes, and in an artificially created pond can reach up to 30 centimeters in length.
Locals enjoy eating this fish. Professional fishermen catch it using ordinary fishing rods or spinning.
Varieties
Breeders have created many varieties of this fish. Each of them can become a worthy decoration of even a professionally created aquarium. The most common of them are shown in the photo below:
- Astronotus tiger albino.
- Astronotus red albino.
- Tiger Oscar Lutino.
- Red oscar lutino.
- Sunny Lemon Oscar.
- Golden Oscar.
- Bloody Oscar.
- Blueberry astronotus.
- Strawberry Astronotus.
- Voile Oscar.
- Short-body Oscar.
The above photos of the Oscar fish perfectly describe the possible variations of the representatives of the species without further ado. Each owner of the aquarium will be able to choose future pets according to their own taste.
Compatible with other aquarium inhabitants
Oscar fish - aquarium individual. But she has a very complex character. It cannot be placed in the same aquarium with smaller and calmer inhabitants, because the astronotus will definitely attack them. Therefore, when compiling a home aquarium, it is necessary to observe several conditions for the quiet coexistence of its inhabitants:
- The required capacity should not be less than 200 liters.
- To reduce the level of aggressiveness of fish in one aquarium, it is better to populate a couple of individuals at once.
- Neighbors of astronotus fish should be of similar size, with hard scales and hard fin, in order to be able to defend themselves.
Food preferences
Astronotus is an aquarium fish, but very gluttonous. Therefore, the owner of a home reservoir will be very expensive to maintain a group of representatives of this species. To reduce the cost of feeding fish, it is better to limit the content to no more than a couple of individuals and independently procure feed for them.
Cooking at home
Fry should be fed about 3 times a day. An adult is 1 time, but the size of the portion should take into account the size and appetites of the fish. She is fed large meals. For this, a coronet is suitable, but a lot of larvae are needed. In the case when it becomes possible to buy them cheaper or to catch them yourself, it means that part can be frozen.
- As food, you can use gammarus or earthworms, tadpoles and fry of other species. Any food needs at least minimal processing: earthworms - soak for several hours in water that will clean their intestines;
- tadpoles - give preference to the inhabitants of temporary pools, so as not to infect the inhabitants of the aquarium with any infection.
The cheapest way to keep an astronotus fish is to cook it yourself. First, one or more ingredients should be selected from the list:
- salad leaves scalded with boiling water;
- raw beef heart;
- frozen squid;
- sea fish - hake, pollock, cod, saffron cod.
Pass the selected products through a mixer or meat grinder, form a cake, pack it in a regular bag and freeze. From the resulting pancake, it is easier to break off pieces as necessary.
The broken piece is thawed in warm water, drained and then fed the oscar fish. The necessary portion of food is selected according to individual preferences of the individual. This moment should be taken responsibly, since the fish do not always pick up the remaining, and the water, from a long stay in it, can deteriorate. A universal option: to choose a large and angry catfish for the aquarium in which the astronotus fish is located. He will pick up the rest of the feed.
Setting up a suitable aquarium
The curious tendency of the astronotus is to remake the aquarium in which it lives. If desired, he moves and digs everything he can. Therefore, in such an aquarium it is better not to plant live plants. If the capricious inhabitant does not like them, then he will gradually destroy them. In addition, he greatly pollutes his home.
The required volume of the aquarium depends on the number of fish. For a pair of individuals, a vessel of 200 liters is suitable. An obligatory moment is the presence of a built-in filter and the possibility of aeration of water by air currents. But even in this case, at least once a week they change a third of the water to a fresher one. Astronotus is indifferent to the chemical composition of the liquid. The ideal option is not very hard and slightly alkaline water, the temperature of which does not exceed 26 degrees.
According to the above, it is better not to plant living plants in an aquarium with astronotuses. The best option would be artificial plants, well fixed at the bottom. The bottom itself must be sprinkled with round pebbles of large sizes. Why exactly round? The problem is that fish in moments of intense fear rush to the bottom, so if there are sharp stones, they can get hurt.
If desired, the owner of the aquarium to the bottom, you can add several decorative stones. They must be round in shape and sized so that the fish cannot move them. The rest of the decor elements, including thermometers, filters, hoses and so on, can be added inside the aquarium if it is possible to fix them. The aquarium itself must be covered with a heavy lid or a glass surface, because an astronotus fish can jump sharply behind a flying insect or at a time of great stress and fall to the floor.
Proper care of the species
Breeders advise everyone to have a home-made Oscar to rely on nature itself. Not every professional can guess the sex of even adult fish, therefore it is better to purchase at least 5 young individuals first. Gradually, the fish will independently choose a mate for themselves, and the owner of the aquarium will have to choose the one he likes best, and sell or give others the others. A pair of adult individuals is not demanding on the conditions of detention, so it can breed in the same place where it lives. Only albinos who painfully perceive too bright lighting can be more moody. For their well-being, the light should be dim. An astronotus can live at least 10 years in a home aquarium.
Some amateur breeders are fond of staining astronotuses in order to obtain new species. This is strictly contraindicated. A similar process injures the fish, almost completely neutralizing the immune system and reducing the duration of its life. In addition, the paint is washed out over time, and woe to the breeder gets sick fish in his hands and reduced all efforts to zero.
Breeding Features
If desired, the host can provoke the multiplication of astronotuses. To do this, several conditions must be met:
- water should be soft, with a minimum level of alkali, often change it to a fresher one;
- raise the temperature by a couple of divisions.
It is best to start this process during the summer period. In winter, food for fry will have to be bought at an inflated price, and in the summer in the nearest ponds is full of the food they need. And it’s completely free.
If the female is not ready yet, and the partner is too persistent, then it is better to temporarily separate the pair with a glass partition. Readiness for love games can be determined by the increased brightness of the color of the scales.
At one time, the female can breed up to 800 eggs. The couple takes care of their offspring, so you do not need to resettle them. Larvae begin to hatch from eggs after 4 days, in rare cases on the seventh day. On the 11th day of life, fry are able to swim freely throughout the aquarium.
Initially, the fry feed on the mucus that covers the skin of the parents. Gradually, they can begin to feed the larvae of cyclopamia and brine shrimp. A third of the water, where there are fry, is changed up to 3 times a week. If all conditions are met, young people will grow very quickly. But this process is uneven, and peer fish can be of different sizes, which inevitably provokes cannibalism. Therefore, as necessary, they are resettled in different aquariums.