..five oscars to be exact. In my 90 gettin' treated, by the time they're healed I'll have the 180 up. They don't even recognize floatin' cichlid sticks as food. Wonderin' if they've ever had anything to eat but feeders. Other than that, they're active and actin' like oscars should.

I can actually see the skull of the largest, which is 'bout 9" long, smallest is 5". Two tigers, a red and two albino tigers. They were donations to Petco. They were in a too small unheated tank and lookin' pretty forlorn. My wife started feelin' pretty sorry for them, so I adopted 'em.
With a little TLC, thinkin' they should heal up nicely. Anyways...

Also found a lone 1 1/2" Altolamprologus compressiceps in with four or five 3"to 4" JDs. Little battered and worse for the wear, but he'll heal up well. I asked how much he was, and the salesman asked me if I knew WHAT he was. Told him and he got him out. I mentioned I was surprised he hadn't been battered to death yet, and he said he was a cichlid that he thought he could be pretty mean. I said it was no match for JDs. I generally do agree with ya MC on the undeserved reputation of JDs as vicious bruisers, but on the other hand they can be very aggressive with smaller fish, especially ones small enough to be potential prey. I was surprised the little guy wasn't in worse shape.

WYite

So... yah taking Saints rescue job now?

Nice find and good luck with them. It's nice to see they are now in good hands.

If only there were more people with Wyite's mad skills doing rescue stuffs.

Ain't it amazing what Oscars can live through? Somewhere in their genetic history is some cockroach and a pact with some fishy devil.

I'm sure they'll come around to pellets soon enough, but if they put up a fight on them, I've had good luck with Oscars and the Tetra cichlid sticks that look like compressed cheesy poofs. They make a god awful mess in the tank, but they seem to like 'em.

SBL wrote:

So... yah taking Saints rescue job now?

Yup! I'm gonna drive 2,000 miles to rescue fish in Pennsylvania!

WYite

Well now you have a whole tamk dedicated to Oscar puppies...I am sure they will make it out...

Well, they're starting to look better, and eating like horses, as o's should. My camera takes crappy pics , I think because I can't lower the shutter speed enough for photos, but videos come out pretty good. I'll get some vids up once I get my computer back (it was supposed to be done already, but that's another story).

WYite

So there was some discussion in ninjastars thread on O's 'bout HLLE, and I'll throw in my two cents that I support the theory that HLLE is a result of poor water conditions and poor diet.

Anyways, Mrs. WYite packed away the software for my camera. I have a video of these O's when I got them. As I said, they had bad HLLE. As soon as she digs out the box with my CD-roms, I'll take an after video. The change is amazing. The head of the largest has healed so that you can no longer see the skull, the erosion on the heads and operculums of the rest is almost completely healed over and the erosion along the lateral lines is almost non-existent. The only disappointment is the nostril on the larger albino. It had eroded up the skull toward the eye for approximately 1/2", as wide as a pencil eraser. The skin and scales have healed up around the edges, but I don't think it's going to close up.

The only things that I've done are: 1.) daily water change for the first two weeks, down to every other day now, and 2.) Improved diet. The feeding regimen is just mixin' up Wardley's cichlid pellets, a frozen gel food with a relatively high spirulina content (high for piscivorous fish, anyway), freeze dried blood worm squares every third or fourth day, frozen krill every third or fourth day and a single frozen silverside each once a week. Now that they're healing up and puttin' some flesh back on the bones, I started my usual big cichlid feeding schedule and started skipping feeding completely one day a week.

Took garlic to get these boys eatin' when I brought 'em home, can't keep 'em down now, in typical O fashion, LOL.

Gettin' the wood for the 180 stand tomorrow, and hope to get a good start on the cuts. Hopefully I'll have it up and running next week!

WYite

Nice, good to hear they are doing well and good to hear you are moving along on the room. I can't stress enough how just ole clean water can do wonders for fish along with good diet. In fact most disease can be eliminated just by those two things...IMO good diet and water quality are the two most important things in keeping fish healthy and happy. Anyway I am rambling now but it is nice to hear they are doing good.

Glad to hear they are doing better!!