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oscar fishes

23 14:26:19

Question
Hello Dillon
I'm Soheil from Iran.I've  always enjoyed having fishes specially when they lay eggs .its just wonderful to witness the whole process.you know,I've had different kind of fishes including angel,parrot,gourami and many more.
Anyway ,currently i have 2 Oscar fishes.one is white the other is brown.I've 2 questions about them for you:
1-what can i feed them ?actually some experts advised me to give them alive small fishes which is available in the market ,i tried that but as my Oscars  spitted out the shells of that small fishes ,it made the water rotten and very soon the water was smelling just horribly.so i stopped feeding them with alive fishes. I've tried the dry food available in market which is some thing like small orange seeds.although they love it very much they are not growing I'm afraid.in fact i have this 2 fish for more than one year but their size has not changed at all though they eat so much of that particular food.
2-As this two are the only fishes of the whole aquarium and it's  quite big(about one meter long)i would like to know whether there is any chance of laying eggs or not?i mean is there any specific behavior which represents breeding season or some thing? or is any thing special that i can do for making their environment more suitable for laying eggs?how can i tell the male Oscar from the female one?in my city no one can do that!
Thanks a lot
Soheil

Answer
Ok oscars need a high protein diet so i would feed them frozen bloodworms and Omega One "Cihlid Pellets". Their are many other things you can give your oscars such as Tomatos, lettuce, cucumber, and some people even feed them hamburgers, but i wouldn't. Well the experts you asked gave you some not so good advice. When you feed oscars live fish their is a high chance of them having a desease that could pass on to your oscars. For live food feed them crickets maybe once a week or so. Also when you feed them to many live fish your oscar will have a bad diet which could lead to "Hole In The Head" and it is something you don't want to deal with. Well their might be a chance of laying eggs, but they might ot hatch if their isn't a male in the tank. Here are some signs of breeding Tail shaking, lip locking, and being together all the time. You sound like you have an albino oscars (White) and a tiger oscar (brown) you are lucky these are great fish. I don't know how to tell oscars apart they both look the same so you can't tell by just seeing the outside of their bodies. I would put a slate in the tank a nice big flat slate of rock and their is something for them to lay the eggs on. Thank you for the question i hope my answer were helpful please reply if their are any more questions!

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