Ever changing tank

[Guyb93]

My last post was about my eba having there first fry , they did well it was there first eggs and they managed to have actual swimming fry , for a day .. my convicts over powered the mom and dad it was such a learning curve that certain members did warn me about my eba are fine they have a few war wounds but nothing serious .... my convicts are gone I re homes them today to another hobbits who has multiple cichlid tanks , and low and behold I impulse buy an baby Oscar ... 5 inches couldn’t help it had my eye on it for a while now iv also bought a 10g breedin box that submerged into the water .... I know Oscar .. breeding eba doesn’t sound great but from research eba and oscars are compatible, but I’m not sure breeding will be a reality, have I made a good change or a bad change ? I’m really not sure at the moment

 

[AilyNC]

What's EBA? I've seen it posted and curious. Sorry I've absolutely no help to offer

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

What's EBA? I've seen it posted and curious. Sorry I've absolutely no help to offer

Electric Blue Acara

 

[AilyNC]

Electric Blue Acara

Oh cool, I saw they might be hard water but was googling EBA and getting nothing relevant

 

[Guyb93]

Sorry I assume as a cichlid hobbyist everyone knows what eba is

 

[AilyNC]

Sorry I assume as a cichlid hobbyist everyone knows what eba is

Oh I'm just a tropical neebie

 

[Wills]

So I think this is a good step Especially when you are in your 5 foot tank. Whats the total capacity of the 5 foot, I'm sure you've told me.

I think the things that will make this work will be the scape and decor of the new tank and also dither fish. Something like black bar silver dollars would be good. You would potentially be ok with growing some smaller characins on while the Oscar gets to adult size. Something like Columbian Tetras, Buenos Aires Tetras, Marbled Headstanders, Hoplo Catfish would work and make a nice South American tank.

For the scape I would look at these tanks here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTuItoi_5Hvtm0Ifhgh49iQ (but stay focused on the fish you have and dont get inspired haha!) I think these are good examples with lots of roots and rocks to break up line of sight and the fake plants floating at the surface, even some of the cool botanicals you can get now like some palm fronds would look good. Making spaces that the Acaras can get to and the Oscar cant will really help too.

Oscars are always tempermental, some end up in solitary, others get on great in sometimes surprising community set ups and everything in between. Just need to keep an eye on this guy, really nice looking fish

When you say 10g breeding box what do you mean? Does this go inside the tank somehow?

Wills

 

[LostBear]

What's EBA? I've seen it posted and curious. Sorry I've absolutely no help to offer

Thank you for asking - saved me from publicly admitting my ignorance.

 

[Guyb93]

So I think this is a good step Especially when you are in your 5 foot tank. Whats the total capacity of the 5 foot, I'm sure you've told me.

I think the things that will make this work will be the scape and decor of the new tank and also dither fish. Something like black bar silver dollars would be good. You would potentially be ok with growing some smaller characins on while the Oscar gets to adult size. Something like Columbian Tetras, Buenos Aires Tetras, Marbled Headstanders, Hoplo Catfish would work and make a nice South American tank.

For the scape I would look at these tanks here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTuItoi_5Hvtm0Ifhgh49iQ (but stay focused on the fish you have and dont get inspired haha!) I think these are good examples with lots of roots and rocks to break up line of sight and the fake plants floating at the surface, even some of the cool botanicals you can get now like some palm fronds would look good. Making spaces that the Acaras can get to and the Oscar cant will really help too.

Oscars are always tempermental, some end up in solitary, others get on great in sometimes surprising community set ups and everything in between. Just need to keep an eye on this guy, really nice looking fish

When you say 10g breeding box what do you mean? Does this go inside the tank somehow?

Wills

Yeah my 5ft is around 110g -500l and first thing I did was make a few little hide holes for my acara because I love them lmao and panicked a little when I put the Oscar in I have lots of drift and bog wood they are not as tall as I would like but I’m thinking of getting some bamboo or a South American equivalent of some sort to give height, I plan on buying some very tall plants for the back as the tank is used and the previous owner has put what looks like a car window tint on the back glass and looks terrible lol , so far so good though all is peaceful, my eba seem to find safety in numbers and seem to live ok with the Oscar .. my pleco on the other hand is throwing his weight about she is not keen at all , My pleco seems to try and collect all the food in the tank and just store it in his cave he don’t even eat it lmao but the eba can go in his cave and eat his food but the Oscar best not he flairs up at him

 

[LostBear]

Yeah my 5ft is around 110g -500l and first thing I did was make a few little hide holes for my acara because I love them lmao and panicked a little when I put the Oscar in I have lots of drift and bog wood they are not as tall as I would like but I’m thinking of getting some bamboo or a South American equivalent of some sort to give height, I plan on buying some very tall plants for the back as the tank is used and the previous owner has put what looks like a car window tint on the back glass and looks terrible lol , so far so good though all is peaceful, my eba seem to find safety in numbers and seem to live ok with the Oscar .. my pleco on the other hand is throwing his weight about she is not keen at all , My pleco seems to try and collect all the food in the tank and just store it in his cave he don’t even eat it lmao but the eba can go in his cave and eat his food but the Oscar best not he flairs up at him

I had no idea that places were the hamsters of the fish tank! We had one - so I knew they were would-be aquatic dragons, growing ever bigger and uglier with every passing day (common place - roughly 15 feet long hahaha)

 

[Wills]

So the good news is that you should use US gallons so you actually have 132 gallons Have you ever seen these - https://aquadecorbackgrounds.com/ I think they are awesome and really want to get one when I get my next cichlid tank (hopefully early next year).

Plants might an issue with the oscar as they are known to rescape tanks them selves you can sometimes get away with plants attached to rocks and wood etc though?

Could you paint the background? Just a solid black always looks good for cichlids.
Wills

 

[Guyb93]

So the good news is that you should use US gallons so you actually have 132 gallons Have you ever seen these - https://aquadecorbackgrounds.com/ I think they are awesome and really want to get one when I get my next cichlid tank (hopefully early next year).

Plants might an issue with the oscar as they are known to rescape tanks them selves you can sometimes get away with plants attached to rocks and wood etc though?

Could you paint the background? Just a solid black always looks good for cichlids.
Wills

It has already pushed my heater to one side of the tank so gotta get rid of the glass one and get a steel one just in case and it’s basically solid black right now I’m just not used to it I think and it seems to be permanent like really stuck to the glass I can’t peel it off so looks like I’m gonna have to get used to it lol it is big tank tho and still looking empty even with the Oscar and I feel I have really limited myself to what I can keep now lol dwarfs are out Im guessing no corys am I stuck to 6 inch cichlids and bigger but from reading online because I was eyeing up a Midas , that large cichlids are not a good match for oscars or my eba

 

[Guyb93]

That’s the black back and how empty it looks lol

 

[HoldenOn]

Oscars

 

[Wills]

Yeah you need a much more complex scape in there This is my old tank - not in its prime this is from just before I shut it down to sell it. Lots of wood, line of sight breaks all the way to the surface, lots of nooks and cranies for them to hide in and space for the smaller fish to get away from the bigger but still plenty of space for the big fish to swim and explore.