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 Online pet magazine.Almost everything you need to know about pet care.Aquaria - Oscar OcellatusOscar - (Astronotus ocellatus) AKA Oscar fish, Velvet cichlid, Marble cichlid, Tiger Oscar, Red Oscar. These are very special fish pets that can live anywhere from 10-15 years and grow to almost 30cm .
Your Oscar likes his water a warm and wet 23-28oC (73-82oF) with near neutral acidity. Other than that, they aren't the fussiest of fish. They originate from the waters of Western South American rivers, but they tolerate just about any water conditions well. Oscars are natural predators and may seem to have a pretty mean streak however, they will usually get along with other species of fish as big as themselves. Oscars will, and can, eat anything. They will eat flake foods, pellets, worms, grasshoppers, guppies, goldfish or anything else you can think of. I have fed my Oscars on bits of sausage, shrimps, garden peas and bits of raw steak. Young Oscars will eat anything they can get into their mouths! Oscars may adapt to local water conditions. Now they are found in many sub tropical regions of the world. Owners not realising how big they get and when they outgrow their tanks, dump them into their local pond or lake, or even flush them down the loo. This is a big mistake! The Oscars may do fine, but in many cases they have disturbed the whole ecological balance of a lake and caused other species to disappear! They are relatively easy to breed. We didn't have any joy with our two, maybe they were same sex. Sexing them is obviously the tricky part. We had heard that the females won't get as big as the males, that males have slight humps on their foreheads. We were also told that they are impossible to sex. The truth must lay somewhere in-between. Obviously the best way to sex them is to let them sort it out and pair off on their own. Maybe keep about half a dozen or so in a large tank and let them do the rest. Remove the fish that don't pair and you will be left with hopefully a breeding pair. Look at a fantastic new Juwel aquarium here. Water Condition - Water is the life element for your fish
and plants.  Brands such as, Easy-life, Sera, Tetra, or Easy-Life can be found here. Sponsored Links: 
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Astronotus ocellatus are best kept as a singleton or in a very large tank with other Oscars. They are very intelligent fish and have personality. We had two that not only craved attention but actually used to perform like dolphins. Until you have an Oscar of your own you wouldn't believe it! But don't expect your aquarium to be a pretty well planted picture. Your aquarium will be bare of plants as your Oscar will eat them all! And don't expect your Oscar to cohabit with small colourful tropical fish as I'm sorry to say that they will just be eaten too.
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