Update on Oscar tank and African cichlid tank - 5-28-08

[joesayno]

what kind of water did you put in there

[TheChessmaster09]

i like this song! : )

[CROATIANRAMBO99]

i like the song :p lol

[paullywogsand3legdog]

hey how many africans can i put in a 65

[imhacked123]

@paullywogsand3legdog I have a 55 and have over 18 in it and they all have there own territories and dont fight so i would say around 20-28

[Cheddar254]

hey can you please post an update

[lolustupid]

where did you get the rocks for your mixed cichlids tank?

[damafiafz]

hey remov the plants frm cichlid tank ba da way nice tanks

[maynardwix]

I'm sorry, I didn't know these were your tanks. Oh wait....They are my tanks, so thanks anyway, but I'll decorate them how I like.

[fishtanksandkoiponds]

haha i love that answer! your tanks look great!

[maynardwix]

Thanks.

[fishtanksandkoiponds]

No problem, i wanna say that to some people but figure its not worth it haha. what filtration are you running on your tanks?

[maynardwix]

On the 150 gallon, I had 2 Aquaclear 110's and a Penguin 350. On the 75 gallon tank I had one Aquaclear 110 and a penguin 350. I ended up switching out the remaining Penguins for Aquaclears though. Now all I have is the 75 running with the African cichlids, it has 2 Aquaclear 110's running on it.

[fishtanksandkoiponds]

oh nice! what happened to the 150?

[baseballman1321]

how many cichlids should i put in a 20 gallon

[carlosthepwner2]

those are some cool fish

[Ingiequeen]

Tanks look really good and clean.

[Coltons350z]

nice tank. love the oscars and that four line cat. the pattern on that thing is soo dark. mine are really light.

[xxnethersxx]

what is that fish at 0:35

[Coltons350z]

i thinks its some kind of severum

[maximkrouchininin]

what cat fish are they i have 2 and do mot know the name of them cuse my mom got them 14 years ago

[bluebluestar127]

What did you use under the subtrate to make it wavy?

[GNROX401]

i have a problem with my oscar i can't feed him because every time i come in the room he stops swimming and go sits in the corner, the only thing that he will except time to time is blood worms, he has a big problem eating the pellets now, he tries to eat them but they keeping falling out of his mouth, do you think his mouth is sore or something?

awesome oscar man!!!

[strangler520]

@GNROX401 uum ur oscar prolly cnt eat them.. fit em in his mouth.... my bloodparrot does that.... and move slower into the room next time dont just bam door open and thn ur one inch from the tank...... go slow and dont o[pen the door fast... thats how i catch my bloodparrot pluckos and phiranahs....

[titiestothemax]

those oscars are gorgeous

[benchmade556]

hey is it alot of maintence with that big 150 gallon tank with them oscars cause im thinking about getting oscars but that big tank looks like alot of maintence

[AM75G]

Great looking tanks.

[pailek]

what type of filter did u use?

[maynardwix]

On the 150 gallon, I have 2 Aquaclear 110's and a Penguin 350. On the 75 gallon tank I have one Aquaclear 110 and a penguin 350. I am getting ready to swich out the remaining Penguins for Aquaclears though.

[pailek]

Thanks..

[kx250f23]

nice pictus cats. how long did it them to get that big. i just put two little ones in my 55 gallon, and this morning my bichir had its head in his mouth. i dont know what actually killed it. my oscars were chacing them when i put them in. ur oscars didnt ever bother urs

[maynardwix]

I did not successfully keep pictus with the Oscars, when the Oscars outgrew the pictus they ended up killing them. I did keep a four-lined pimelodus with them though, they are just like pictus but get larger. I keep pictus with my African cichlids now though and they do just fine.

[ballbob13]

you should look at my 90 gallon

[Swiftt5389]

check out my new upodate!

[cheesenip990]

how many african cichlids would you consider for a 55 gallon tank

[waterrider123]

excellent tank! I have an oscar myself and was wondering how you would recommend setting up a tank well for an oscar. Right now i have him in a tank by himself with drift wood and quite a bit of live plants. Im a big fan of aquascaping, so its always tempting for me to add plants. It seems they aren't a good mix though. What would you recommend??

[maynardwix]

Thanks, I have not had good luck with live plants in my Oscar tank, they like to dig and move things around too much. I have had to keep the decorating limited to artifical plants. Also they will tell me what they don't want in the tank anymore, The tank now only has 2 large fake plants and a large peice of wood, Also a large rock for them to lay eggs on. If you try any plants, I would first try Java fern, they are a tougher plant, after that maybe Amazon Swords.

[dean30bb]

nice oscars and i love ur pictus cats awsome fish

[maynardwix]

Thanks, they are doing very well, when I get a little extra time I will get an updated video up.

[initialdstreetstage3]

Man, You really do have an impressive setup, Good job on your Africans, I was very amazed when I saw it! Oh, But one question Maynard. Ummm, Will your 75 still be big enough when your Giraffes [ Nimbochrimis Venustus ] Grow up Adult size? Or is it okay when they are with alot more other cichlids, I need to know so my Giraffe doesnt outgrow and I cant add more variety to my tank. Thank you for your time.

[maynardwix]

The Venustus will have to be removed when he gets bigger, I am either going to have another tank setup by then or give him to a buddy that has a large tank setup with other haps. Thanks for watching though, I am going to hopefully post some updated videos here soon.

[starrett1350]

what kind of sand do you have in with the African's?

[Swiftt5389]

Its a sand made specifically for African Cichlids. I have the same stuff. IT has pictures of cichlids on the front of the bag. Runs about 23$ for 20 lbs. hope i helped

[maynardwix]

Swiftt is right, he uses the same sand I do with his Africans, it is a buffered sand, that is why it is a little more expensive, but it is well worth it.

[mcgrady7761]

thank you

[mcgrady7761]

ok real quick question. How do u clean your tank? wouldnt the sand granules get sucked up by a siphoning tool?

[maynardwix]

Yes, you do suck up a little sand when cleaning, but not a lot. I do not use a wide ended syphon like you would with gravel, I use a plain garden hose to preforme water changes. I do suck out a little sand, but not much, but the sand I have is play sand, which is about $3.50 for a 50 pound bag, so replacing the little I remove during cleaning is not a problem.

[nike4231]

oh and can u have a breeding pair of different colors

such as a tiger and albino oscar or is it more likely they will pair with their own color fish??

[maynardwix]

Color really dosen't matter with them, mine are a breeding pair and they are a Red and a Albino-Tiger, so it is just a matter of what you like.

[nike4231]

i wanna get a oscar pair but i dont know how to get a male and the female and if i did how they would pair up

(how did u get your breeding pair)

[maynardwix]

I basicly got lucky, Iwhen I got them I just picked out two Oscars and they just happened to be a male and female. Serious breeders will have a big tank (300 gallons) and will get 6 Oscars and then wait for them to pair up when they get sexually mature, but you need a big tank to do that because they get mature around 8 - 10 inches.

[bentraves]

hey um.. a few questions .. i had a little cichlid setup goin a while back and it was goin well and than they all just died my ph is realy high but i was told for africans ph being high does not worry them do you know any other reasons why they might die?

[maynardwix]

It is hard to tell why they may have died, did you check the other levels in the tank other than pH (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? If the tank hadn't cycled yet when the fish were added, there could have been a spike causing them to die. There also could have been an illness presant, but that is difficult to tell after the fact.

[starrett1350]

Is that a Small bass? and what and what kind of sand did you put in there it looks great!

[maynardwix]

Yes that is a young Largemouth Bass, since this video, I have reintroduced the bluegill I had in there and also added another young bluegill to the tank.

The sand is just regular play sand, you can get it at the hardware store for very cheap, you just have to rinse it VERY well. I have also heard that pool filter sand works very well also, and is fairly inexpensive.

[nike4231]

would you suggest me get a tiger oscar like u have or an albino like theother 1 u have

i cant decide!!!!!!

(will they get the same size and do they have the same peersonalities???)

[maynardwix]

I have Albino-Tiger Oscar (Lutino), and a Red Oscar, but you should get whatever one you like the most. If you can find the wild Oscars, I would definatly suggest getting one of them. They all get to about the same size and have pretty much the same temperment. Only thing is that I have heard that the wild ones are a little more aggressive, but I don't know this for sure.

[nike4231]

will a channel cat like urs grow a foot long in a 30 gal. tank and if so how long will it take??

[maynardwix]

Probably not, a 30 is way to small for a channel cat. I had to get rid of mine because he grew to 18 inches in just 7 months and was still growing. If you try to keep one in a 30 it will become stunted and will not live for long.

[yagoboi808]

that johanii is such an aggressive cichlid

[maynardwix]

I know, I am seriously thinking of getting rid of it.

[jaay04]

Hey I really like your cichlid set up it looks great and so do the fish

[maynardwix]

Thanks, I will be posting an update here soon, I have gotten rid of my large catfish in the 150. Thanks for watching though.

[auzzi13]

hey... another quick question haha... umm, how did you clean your rocks in ur cichlid tank? because i'm JUUUST about to add those kind of rocks to my 100 gallon oscar/severum/everything else tank haha.

[maynardwix]

The ones that were small enough, I boiled them for a little bit, then with warm water, a new scrub brush, and some freshwater aquarium salt, scrubed them up real good, then rinsed them well. For the ones that were to big to boil, I just scrubed them with the aquarim salt and hot water a couple times.

[auzzi13]

i'd like to knwo what kind of rocks are in your cichlid tank, cause i want those kind. did you just snag em off a beach?

[maynardwix]

Lol, I snaged them, but not off a beach. I am not sure exactly what kind they are, but if you have rocks like that on your beaches they should work fine. These were actually used as landscaping before, I scrubed them well first though to make sure they had no contaminents on them. The problem is if you go out and buy rocks, it gets expensive, they charge by the pound, so even if it was $1 a pond, I would have spent around $120 for the rocks I have.

[Thodsters]

what movie maker u use,, i like to know

[maynardwix]

Just Windows Movie Maker, not sure what version, what ever comes with Windows Vista.

[auzzi13]

very nice layout.:)

[maynardwix]

Thanks a lot.

[AmberMacc]

Nice cichlids, And woah, Those catfish have gotten big over a few months, Nice tanks! Just a question, What do you feed your catfish, bass, And oscars and blue gills? Im just wondering.

[maynardwix]

Thanks for watching. The Channel cat has gotten a little to big, I am getting ready to transfer him to a pond this weekend before he grows to big.

[maynardwix]

I feed them a mix of stuff, The Oscars and catfish eat a mix of Hikari Massivore Delite (sinking pellets), and worms, the Oscars also get Hikari cichlid gold pellets and crickets. The bass is mainly on worms, but will be on crickets also here soon. I also know people that have gotten young bass used to cichlid pellets also. The Bluegill mainly eat worms and crickets, when young they will eat cichlid flakes too though and you can get them used to pellets sometimes.

[toolshed333]

looks great Ed.

[maynardwix]

Thanks bud, trying to keep up with it.

[caleq10]

nice they are getting big

[maynardwix]

Thanks, I know they are growing fast, they have slowed lately, but are getting more girth. They spawned about a month ago, getting ready to go again I think.

[i1m1p1e1r]

what happend with the eggs/fry when they spawned? did they die?

[maynardwix]

They had them at night, I didn't remove them after they got fertilized and because of the stress form all the other fish in the tank, they all were eaten by the parents by morning. It was also their first time spawning so it wouldn't have turned out well either way.