My Rescued Oscar

[freshmike]

Oscars are tough guys. I am sure he will pull through just fine!

 

[AquaNut]

Thanks. With those words of encouragement, I'm off to bed for the night. I'll be here to tell the tales of Chester Bertuzzi tomorrow, no doubt.

 

[Alien Anna]

Yeah.. maybe the CAE can stay in the 20 gallon with the other CAE and the tiger barbs who are moving into it when Oscar moves into paradise err.. I mean a bigger tank. I think I've heard that CAEs don't like each other, though. I dunno where this CAE is going to go. He's pretty big.

If you keep 2 CAEs in one tank you'll end up with one very fat CAE, in my experience.

 

[freshmike]

It's true. I hear they don't get along too well....

 

[AquaNut]

So far I haven't seen any indication whatsoever of any problem between the oscar and the CAE, actually. I'm not saying that I don't think the CAE is gonna get eaten if I leave him in there, and I'm not saying I don't think it's possible that some of Chester Bertuzzi's wounds are from the CAE, I'm just saying that so far they're buddies. I really don't want to flat-out euthanize the CAE, and I'm not altogether sure what other options I'm going to have, unless I keep him. Until I see a problem between them, they'll both have to stay put until I can move Chester. THEN I'll figure out what to do with my two CAE's.

 

[missyintx_99]

Hey Aquanut, I think that all things considered Chester bertuzzi looks great!
ANd I wouldn't worry about him laying on his side. I've read that lots of Oscars do that when they are sleeping.
Keep up the good work!

 

[Alien Anna]

So far I haven't seen any indication whatsoever of any problem between the oscar and the CAE, actually. I'm not saying that I don't think the CAE is gonna get eaten if I leave him in there, and I'm not saying I don't think it's possible that some of Chester Bertuzzi's wounds are from the CAE, I'm just saying that so far they're buddies. I really don't want to flat-out euthanize the CAE, and I'm not altogether sure what other options I'm going to have, unless I keep him. Until I see a problem between them, they'll both have to stay put until I can move Chester. THEN I'll figure out what to do with my two CAE's.

Until Chester gets big I don't think you have a problem with the CAE. Once Chester is big, you'd have problems with everything, but because oscars will try to eat their tank mates, not from the CAE.

 

[The_Budmaster]

I'd try taking the CAE to your LFS, hopefully one of your local shops will take him. From my experience ( which is quite limited so far ) ) the CAE will suck onto big fish, maybe you've got a friendly one tho

 

[Alien Anna]

I'd try taking the CAE to your LFS, hopefully one of your local shops will take him. From my experience ( which is quite limited so far ) ) the CAE will suck onto big fish, maybe you've got a friendly one tho

I don't think a CAE would try that with an oscar - you evidently weren't on the forum when someone posted about their oscar eating a 12" common pleco?

 

[AquaNut]

I have a smaller CAE in one of my community tanks, and he's been known to be quite a brat. I know that the single lfs in my town won't take the CAE; they weren't even interested in taking my other, much smaller one. I think this oscar is easily big enough to eat this CAE now if he wanted to, and the CAE is also big enough to suck out one of Chester's eyes if he wanted to... I'm not sure why they're living harmoniously at the moment, but like I said, until there's a clear problem or Chester gets moved to a bigger tank, they'll have to stay together.

Chester is undergoing tetracycline treatment at the moment and isn't looking too happy at all.

 

[smb]

AquaNut, those wounds are nothing at all. In all of our talks I assumed they were worse but didn't know about this thread (w/ pics) until you just told me about it.

I've had cichlids look way worse after they were fighting and they pulled thru no problem, and to tell you the truth, even tho they were a lot worse I wasn't worried a bit about it.

I think the combination of the bad upbringing he had along with this might have weakened his immune system a bit but cichlids are masters at healing and can take a lot of punishment.

Keep up with what you are doing and I'm sure in about another week or two he'll be fine.

 

[AquaNut]

lol @ nothing at all!! Says the guy with all the big mean fishies!! If any of my other fish had a gouge out of them like that, they'd be toast!! Silver dollars and angelfish aren't as durable as oscars.

Actually, his external wounds have almost completely healed already. His slime coat was a real mess after I moved him, too, which you probably can't see in any of these pics. It was shedding off in long strings for several days. My concern now is that there's an internal problem causing the complete listlessness and all the lying on the gravel/no eating, but I think he at that worm yesterday, so things are looking up!!

 

[smb]

His slime coat was a real mess after I moved him, too, which you probably can't see in any of these pics. It was shedding off in long strings for several days.

Too bad you got a cat in there or you could add some salt.

My concern now is that there's an internal problem causing the complete listlessness and all the lying on the gravel/no eating, but I think he at that worm yesterday, so things are looking up!!

What color was his feces? If it's not white I wouldn't worry about internal probs yet. My Aunt used to breed Oscars and if I remember correctly, they sit and slouch quite a bit. Not saying this isn't a problem with Bertuzzi, but Oscars are noted for pouting and slouching when they don't get their way or are bored.

Keep trying the worms.

 

[AquaNut]

Ha! That CAE doesn't care about a bit of salt. There's about a tsp per gallon in there.

His poop looked errr I hesitate to say my fish had good lookin' poop, but it looked as good as oscar poop could look.

(please no lectures from anybody about salt with the CAE; my other CAE lived in a salty guppy tank for several years and he's just dandy)

 

[Shark_Lover]

Funny... he told me his name's Bertuzzi.

I like his name.