Male Or Female?

[dreamcharmer]

Can anyone help me? I want to know what my oscar is, a male or female.

 

[Spike_ea_2k6]

Are u feeding them goldfish to him?

as you carnt have oscar and goldfish together

 

[dreamcharmer]

Are u feeding them goldfish to him?

as you carnt have oscar and goldfish together

I feed the little ones to him but he likes the big one, and they get along good. Is that a bad thing?
You called him a he, does that mean my oscar is a he and not a she?

 

[K.J.]

Are u feeding them goldfish to him?

as you carnt have oscar and goldfish together

I feed the little ones to him but he likes the big one, and they get along good. Is that a bad thing?

Don't know about Mr. Oscar, but what size is the tank out of curiousity? got a lot of bioload there.

EDIT: oh, and stocking.

 

[dreamcharmer]

Are u feeding them goldfish to him?

as you carnt have oscar and goldfish together

I feed the little ones to him but he likes the big one, and they get along good. Is that a bad thing?

Don't know about Mr. Oscar, but what size is the tank out of curiousity? got a lot of bioload there.

EDIT: oh, and stocking.

It is a 55 gallon tank. What do you mean by stocking and bioload?

 

[dreamcharmer]

Forgive me, I don't mean to sound stupid but I am new to this Oscar adventure. We actually saved this Oscar from starving to death when a guy that lived down the street from us moved out of a house and just left it there to starve to death. The owner of the house whom we had never met before came knocking at our door and asked us if we wanted the fish or it was going to die as he drives semi trucks for a living and is never home. My son begged us to please let him have it and now the oscar is truly loved by our entire family. And we have bought a very expensive filter system and we buy him real good food ect....I would be very grateful for any information on care or anything that would help our oscar. Thank you.

 

[K.J.]

Forgive me, I don't mean to sound stupid but I am new to this Oscar adventure. We actually saved this Oscar from starving to death when a guy that lived down the street from us moved out of a house and just left it there to starve to death. The owner of the house whom we had never met before came knocking at our door and asked us if we wanted the fish or it was going to die as he drives semi trucks for a living and is never home. My son begged us to please let him have it and now the oscar is truly loved by our entire family. And we have bought a very expensive filter system and we buy him real good food ect....I would be very grateful for any information on care or anything that would help our oscar. Thank you.

I mean, what other fish are in it? By the looks of it, it's overstocked. 50 is just enough for the oscar, I believe, but the pleco and the goldfish are another matter... pleco, if it's a common, will definately need to get out of that tank and probably be sold... goldfish, depending on how many and if common or fancy, will need 20 - 30 gallons minimum for one.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

It looks like a koi, is it? I agree with K.J. as the pleco will need to be rehomed. The goldfish really do like colder water, and the oscar warmer so this may become an issue. If the goldfish is not a koi then it can stay for the time being, but be careful as it may get sick due to the high temp. of the water.

 

[K.J.]

It looks like a koi, is it? I agree with K.J. as the pleco will need to be rehomed. The goldfish really do like colder water, and the oscar warmer so this may become an issue. If the goldfish is not a koi then it can stay for the time being, but be careful as it may get sick due to the high temp. of the water.

Koi. Sorry, I'm not common with the coldwater species.

 

[dreamcharmer]

Forgive me, I don't mean to sound stupid but I am new to this Oscar adventure. We actually saved this Oscar from starving to death when a guy that lived down the street from us moved out of a house and just left it there to starve to death. The owner of the house whom we had never met before came knocking at our door and asked us if we wanted the fish or it was going to die as he drives semi trucks for a living and is never home. My son begged us to please let him have it and now the oscar is truly loved by our entire family. And we have bought a very expensive filter system and we buy him real good food ect....I would be very grateful for any information on care or anything that would help our oscar. Thank you.

I mean, what other fish are in it? By the looks of it, it's overstocked. 50 is just enough for the oscar, I believe, but the pleco and the goldfish are another matter... pleco, if it's a common, will definately need to get out of that tank and probably be sold... goldfish, depending on how many and if common or fancy, will need 20 - 30 gallons minimum for one.

We have the placo which I dont like at all and it is big, and the one big goldfish in the tank my husband thought the oscar would like it and the oscar does. Can you tell if my oscar is a he or she or how could I find out?

It looks like a koi, is it? I agree with K.J. as the pleco will need to be rehomed. The goldfish really do like colder water, and the oscar warmer so this may become an issue. If the goldfish is not a koi then it can stay for the time being, but be careful as it may get sick due to the high temp. of the water.

No it is not a koi, but a large goldfish. My water temp is at 78 is that the right temp for my oscar? The little goldfish are feeder fish for the oscar.

 

[LisaLQ]

You cant sex oscars - both sexes look the same. There's always someone claims they can do it by looking at them, but truth is they're monomorphic - which means both sexes are identical. Without a breeding pair, you wont know what sex it is.

Personally, I'd get rid of the other fish (all of them, even the feeders as they're unnecessary), give the tank a good clean and put some ornaments/decoration in there of some kind. Even a background might make it better. Your oscar is an intelligent fish and might be a bit bored in such a bare tank.

What filtration are you using?

 

[Nevergone815]

You cant sex oscars - both sexes look the same. There's always someone claims they can do it by looking at them, but truth is they're monomorphic - which means both sexes are identical. Without a breeding pair, you wont know what sex it is.

Personally, I'd get rid of the other fish (all of them, even the feeders as they're unnecessary), give the tank a good clean and put some ornaments/decoration in there of some kind. Even a background might make it better. Your oscar is an intelligent fish and might be a bit bored in such a bare tank.

I agree. Oscars are impossible ot sex, the only way i could think of is to get its vent probed. i don't know how this works but from what i heard unless you're a serious breeder than its not worth it.

as for the goldfish... goldfish can go in warmer waters, its a common misunderstanding. if you frop the tank to say 72-75 it will be a middle ground for both. personally i say do what LisaLQ said. Move the goldfish into another tank and then set up a nice decoration set for the oscar. they are really intelligent so it probably likes the goldfish becuase he has somehting else there. he may also jsuyt like the company. i know one of my fish sulks if i take this one fish away from them. it's actually quite cute.

but anyways... as for the pleco... he looks ot be alright, jsut up the filtration a bit. a 55 is plenty IMO for a common pleco and and oscar, jsut a HUGE bioload (they both are poop machines, as is the goldfish). i have never heard of anyone's pleco growing to over 12". mine is 7" and doesn't seam t be growing much more at all and i have a sailfin. but since you thin it's ugly anyways you probably could rehome it. they also can go into cooler water (that's why you can't release them into the wild as they can survive and mess up the natural balance). if you know someone with a nice goldfish pond (not a natural pond) and htey are having algae probs this would do the trick. i once put one into my uncle's pond at like 4" and it grew to about 10" the last i saw it. he is letting the pond self sustain now which is cool, but it gets really murker towards the bottom from all the dead leaves.

as for the feeder goldfish, it's true you can get away with not using them. if you're feeding rosey reds, they are death to fish, they have high fat content and the oils inside them actually break B-complex vitamins into no nutritive value whatsoever, so the fish eating them gets too much fat in their diest and not enough B vitamins. feeder comets any goldfish or hat matter is the same but not as bad as the roseys. if you must feed live foods, i wuld suggest going with feeder guppies. they are the healthiest for the fish cost about the same for the same amount and with the use of flak or pellet food you wnt need ot feed them a whole lot of these anyways.

i hope i helped a bit, and didn't open up a can on myself in the next few posts

good luck and enjoy!!!

 

[Spike_ea_2k6]

Attully u can sex them, but its very diifucult, ive sexed my 3, i can see that your oscar looks like a male to me.

 

[Ferris]

Sexing Oscar's can be very difficult - you may find the following link useful though.

http/www.geocities.com/cichlidiot_2000/sex.html

 

[jayjay]

You can sex oscars, vent them.

You shouldn't use goldfish as feeders.
Taken from here

The main disadvantage of using live fish as food is the risk of introducing parasites and bacteria into the aquarium. Cheap, mass produced fish, especially goldfish, are maintained in squalid conditions. Mortality, even when these fish are kept as pets, is high. While one goldfish might only pose a small risk to a predator, the risk is cumulative over time. So if you feed a predatory fish a goldfish once every two or three days, even after only a few months the chance of infecting your pet fish with something nasty is virtually a certainty.

A second disadvantage is nutritional imbalance. Goldfish in particular are fatty and are not a healthy staple diet for most piscivorous fish. In the wild, piscivorous fishes will take a wide range of species, some herbivorous, others smaller predators. This means that the piscivorous fish will be able to obtain a correspondingly wide range of nutrients. Simply feeding one species of feeder fish is both unnatural and very likely unhealthy. This problem can, to a degree, be mitigated by "gut loading" feeder fish (see Best Practise, below). By contrast, flake and pellet foods have been carefully formulated to provide a perfect diet for fish. While it might seem monotonous to us, these prepared foods are actually the best all-round diet for most fish.

A third disadvantage is that some feeder fish (notably goldfish and rosy-red minnows) contain large amounts of the enzyme thiaminase. This breaks down thiamin (vitamin B1) and over time this will lead to serious health problems.

Common plecs CAN reach 2' long so I can't see how a 55g is big enough. My sailfin grew to 16" and I was expected at least 2" more out of it.

If you know how to sex your oscars are you to going to share how?

Adult size would possibly work, adult males have reached sizes of 16" so one that size I'd safely bet is a male.