Astronotus Ocellatus | Oscar Fish

Oscar fish, or to give it its proper name, Astronotus Ocellatus is a species of fish from the Cichlid family. The Oscar fish is a South American Cichlid. They are piscivorous, which means they eat other fish, so care should be taken with what else you put in the tank. A section below "Fish Tankmates for Oscars" covers this in more detail.

Oscar fish body shape tend to be flat to the side with a wide dorsal and nearly meets the back. The size of the chest and abdomen dorsal medium, while the caudal fin slightly rounded.

Based on the color there are two kinds of Oscar fish, ie Oscar brown base color as in the photo below, and type of albino white. Brown Oscar has a body reddish brown or blackish with red, orange or golden yellow pattern adorned on the side of his body. While Oscar Albino has a white body with red or yellow pattern on the side of his body.

Brown Oscar with characteristic pattern-color of wide, strongly colored and has fins dark brown or black with red lines at the edges are classified as good-quality Oscar. Just as Oscar Brown, Oscar albino with a wide pattern is also very popular.

Today, there are several Oscar Fish Types available to the Oscar enthusiast. The most frequently found are (in alphabetical order) the Albino Oscar, Lemon Oscar, Lutino Oscar, Red Oscar, Tiger Oscar, and the Yellow Oscar.

Oscar fish are reasonably easy fish to crossbreeding and this has given us many varieties of Oscar fish types from the above list and adds more interest to the hobby.

The photo you see here is just one such cross breeds. This is an Albino Tiger Oscar fish obviously bread from an Albino Oscar and a Tiger Oscar and I think makes a very attractive variety.

Bear in mind that all these Oscar Fish types originate from the common Oscar and Cichlid fish family, native to the mighty South American rivers like the Amazon and the Orinoco. Due to breeders of Oscars we now have a greater selection to choose from.

Besides the color based, types of Oscar fish also distinguished by the size of the fin. Based on the fin's size , there are two kinds of Oscar. First is Oscar-Slayer with a long-finned and the second is a short finned Oscar.

Things you need to know about this fish, in normal conditions, Oscar fish behavior tends to calm. However, during feeding, while it is laying eggs, or feel disturbed, Oscar fish will be aggressive and fierce, so do not hesitate to bite anyone with his sharp teeth. Should be more careful when feeding or taking the Oscar fish eggs to avoid these fish bite.

Koi Care: How to Take Care of Your Aquatic Pet

Koi Care: How to Take Care of Your Aquatic Pet

by: Andy Fletcher

When you decide to keep Koi fish as pets, you must learn a few very basic and vital things about Koi care. Proper nutrition and water quality are the two deciding factors that you have to look at while thinking about Koi care.

Koi fishes are hardy specimens of fish and they can live for long periods of time, sometimes for more than 200 years though the average life span is around 25 to 35 years. These Koi fishes are easy going hassle free kinds of pets and don’t give much trouble to their keepers and you will find it easy to take care of them.

Koi Care – Pond Water Quality

One of the most critical conditions of Koi care is perhaps the quality of the water in the pond. You would be surprised to know that Koi needs fresh and good quality water for their habitat more than food. A Koi will not starve to death if it doesn’t receive food for several weeks, however, it can die in one night if the water quality turns out to be very poor.

You always have to pay attention to how you will sustain your pond water quality through proper filtration and supplies and you also have to chalk out or fix a budget for your pond water quality maintenance expenses.

Nutrition

Another thing to keep in mind is Koi nutrition and proper nutrition will ensure that the kois can protect themselves from diseases, they will grow up to the right proportion and size and you don’t have to worry about good body conformation.

Nursing

One more thing that you should remember about Koi care is that you need to react promptly and take necessary precautionary steps or measures of redressal to combat Koi health problems and accidents. That means if the need arises, you have to even apply first aid to a sick or injured Koi or administer the correct medication.

You also have to take into account the seasonal care pattern for Koi fish. For e.g. in the spring months, Koi fishes feel their worst while summer happens to be their best season for grow out. The Koi fish usually spends the fall months preparing for the harsh cold weather of winter by generating enzymes.

And during winter months, the Koi fishes go deep into sleep or hibernation. Thus it is clear that Koi fishes require separate types of care and maintenance during the various seasons of the year.

Predators

While on the topic of Koi care, I must inform you about potential predators that can feast on your pet Koi. You have to guard your fish from raccoons for these masked and dark circled bandits have been observed to be the most common predators, if you are really serious about Koi care.

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Fresh Water Ornamental Fish - Diseases Pictures

White spot or Ich (ick) as it is also known is one of the more common diseases found in fresh water aquarium fish. Ich is a protozoan disease. The scientific name for the disease is Ichthyophthiriasis. It is wide spread in all fresh water fish, but is more common in aquarium fish, most likely because they live in close contact with other species and because of stress.

Black Spot disease caused by the larvae of parasitic digenetic flukes, Cercaria and Metacercaria. The fish disease is caused by a parasite (larval trematode) that burrows into the skin of a fish causing the formation of a cyst approximately one millimeter in diameter. In general, even heavy infestations of these parasites do relatively little damage to the fish. Fish with heavy infestations on the eyes may be blinded.

The term "Black Spot" refers to the formation of small cysts in the muscle and skin around which the parasite lives. The cyst accumulates black pigment cells. These cause little harm to the fish. Young fish have growth problems if heavily infected.

Chilodonella is a single cell microscopic parasite that attacks a fish skin and gills. Later the skin may be broken down and the gills destroyed. The fish will rub against objects and become inactive. The fish may also behave like they have irritations, by glancing off aquarium decor, they may have clamped fins and difficulty breathing. If the gills are affected they will stay near the water surface and gasp for air. Cloudy spots develop on the skin. The skin patches turn white and begin to disintegrate and usually over a couple day period. This opens the door to secondary infections and/or fungus.

Paradise Gouramis First Ornamental Fish Aquarium in Europe

Macropodus opercularis fish better known by the name of Paradise Fish were one of the first freshwater ornamental fish are kept in the early days of the aquarium in Europe. The paradise fish or paradise gouramis, are small freshwater labyrinth fish found in ditches and paddy fields in East Asia, ranging from the Korean Peninsula to Northern Vietnam.

As the first ornamental fishes available to western aquarium keepers, Paradise Gouramis have been imported to Europe as early as the 1800s. These small fish (adults are typically about 10 cm (4")) are ideal lone inhabitants of aquariums. The paradise fish is one of the more aggressive members of its family, by being more aggressive than the blue gourami. Yet they are far less aggressive than the rarely kept Combtail.

Generally, Paradise Fish behaviour are fairly combative, harassing and attacking each other as well as potentially killing small fish. In the wild, they are predators, eating insects, invertebrates and small fish. The popularity of this species has waned in recent decades as much more colorful (and often, less pugnacious) species of gouramis have become widely available to hobbyists. However the privileges of paradise fish, this species is one of the few fish that can change its color (lighter or darker) in response to stimuli.

Other existing features of this fish maybe because paradise gouramis also tolerant of virtually any water conditions, surviving in cool and warm waters alike. They can be kept in outdoor ponds, or even the simplest of unheated aquariums. They will accept virtually any food, but should be given a reasonably high-protein diet (as opposed to vegetable-based foods of the sort sold for goldfish.)

Paradise fish are bubble nest builders. As is typical of most bettas and gouramis, Paradise fish spawning involves a male building a bubble nest with floating mat of saliva-coated air bubbles, often incorporating plant matter and then attracting a female to it.

Breeding can be triggered by raising the temperature, although have found that they will breed in winter with no apparent change in environmental conditions. When the female is ready to mate she will approach the male and turn on her side. The male wraps his body around hers, and she releases eggs at the same time that he releases sperm. The eggs are lighter than water and float up into the nest. The male gathers the fertilized eggs after each embrace, spitting them up into the bubble nest.

After spawning, the male has no further use for the female and may violently attack her (and any other fish that approaches the nest.) Once the fry hatch and have begun to swim freely, the male is best removed and the fry raised on infusoria or newly hatched brine shrimp.

In Taiwan the native populations of Paradise Fish have been reduced to low levels by pollution in the rivers, and now it is listed in Taiwan as a threatened species. The Aedes mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is breeding in the absence of one of its main predators, and dengue fever is threatening the Human population.

Feeding Tiger Barb Fish

Pellet feed on ornamental fish aquarium was made for a healthy and long-lived as well as generate an optimal color, so not too much fat content. Ornamental fish generally eat pellets feed or flakes which have absorbed the water, it means the water had to be absorbed by the feed before being eaten by fish, not after being in the digestive tract.

But apparently there are few species of ornamental fish such as Tiger Barb (Barbus Tetrazona) who grabbed the feed so fast sometimes even food have not had time to absorb water. As a result, we will see Tiger Barb fish are swimming with a diagonal position or with head downwards, because its digestion disrupted.

To prevent this, give time the flakes to absorb water. The trick is to hold the flakes in water for a few seconds before released, or drop the flakes near the outflow of the filter pump, so that the feed will be drifted and absorb water before the fish eaten.

No longer in a hurry when feeding your Tiger Barb fish or other ornamental fish aquarium, so that your ornamental fish can live healthy, long-lived and pulled out the optimum color.