Oscar help please

[DoubleAA]

Okay, so at my kids daycare school, they have 2 large fish tanks in one of the rooms. been there for years..well the past 3 or 4 months I noticed the water quality and overall quality of the tank was diminishing. I talked to the owner of the school and I was told the the person that was taking care of the tanks is no longer there, that no one else knew how to handle this so they hadn't cleaned the tanks for months....so I promptly volunteered to be the keepers of the tanks.. so now I need you help. I don't know anything about Oscars. This fish is about a foot long and is in a 70 or 75 gallon tank....
what I did:
Last night scrubbed and scrubbed the algae off the inside of the tank... took and hour... I vacuumed the gravel really well wound up doing almost a 50% water change, the filter system sh had on there has bio bags and they were completely mucked up no water could pass, so I cleaned them in a bucket of the old tank water and added bio media to the bags... she had an aqua clear 70 in a bunch of stuff under the tank stand, so I got that cleaned up with a good sponge and bunch of bio media.. there was no heater on the tank the water was at 69 degrees, i asked her to buy a heater and I installed that and set it for 80 degrees.
also i asked her to get some better food then the flak crap she was feeding the fish, I wanted the new life spectrum food, but she could not find it locally so she bought tetra cichlid sticks and a bag of frozen shrimp from the grocery store.... so how much should i feed this thing? and any other advice is greatly needed... sorry about my grammar and spelling i am at work and in a hurry,,,, Aaron

[Lady Hobbs]

Kudo's to you for taking over this tank so this Oscar can have a better life.
There are other good pellets on the market, such as Hikari that's been around for years.

If that tank has been neglected for ages I would think the nitrates would be very high. You may want to check on that and even do more water changes to bring it down to under 20. I would also turn the temps back a bit to around 77.

I've not had an Oscar so others will advise more on raw shrimp. I would think you'd have to be careful that they don't rot in the tank and cause an ammonia spike but they will give advise on that.

[Trillianne]

Not sure where she looked, but if there is a Petco near you, they have started in the past year to carry New Life Spectrum. (Also not an experienced Oscar person!)

[DoubleAA]

Kudo's to you for taking over this tank so this Oscar can have a better life.
There are other good pellets on the market, such as Hikari that's been around for years.

If that tank has been neglected for ages I would think the nitrates would be very high. You may want to check on that and even do more water changes to bring it down to under 20. I would also turn the temps back a bit to around 77.

I've not had an Oscar so others will advise more on raw shrimp. I would think you'd have to be careful that they don't rot in the tank and cause an ammonia spike but they will give advise on that.

Ok will check today when I pick up my kid... I did test the ammonia this AM and much to my surprise there was zero....

[OscarFan]

Awesome! Oscars are awesome fish. I always used Hikari cichlid gold for mywhen Oscar and I fed him about 8 pellets once a day when he was about 9-10". I also supplemented his diet with Shrimp, maggots, frozen bloodworms, frozen krill and fruits 2-3 times a week. Oscars also eat alot of the fruit that would fall off the trees in the wild and have a need for Vitamin C in there diet.

[Goes to 11!]

Good for you for doing something about the situation!

I have an oscar [9"+ish] & he eats the NLS 4mm pellets, [I am out of Hikari Gold lol] Semi-weekly bloodworms, & gets live treats to chase once or twice a month. [My molly & guppy fry provide a constant supply for him].

When he was smaller he would eat crickets but they are not big enough to interest him too much anymore unless they are really numerous & active. He also enjoys shelled peas & chunks of apple or pineapple especially.

I only give the treats after he has eaten his [smaller than normal batch of] pellets because I don't want him to think he gets dessert first ;-)

A couple quick questions:
What are you testing with? & also are you sure the tank is 75[ish] and not a 55 as the latter would be to small for an Oscar of that size[Just asking].

[daniel.00]

I feed my oscar cichlid gold and blood worms and around 25-30% water change a week temp around 26C 78.8F they are a great fish with personality.

[DoubleAA]

thanks for all the replys... i tested the water when i picked up my kid and the nitrates were high.. i asked if someone could do a water change cause I could not do it tonight and they are closed during the weekend. so i am kind of freaking out...going to get in there monday and change the water again... one of the girls there seemed interested in doing the water change, so i hope she did it.. I told her how to do it

[Peanut_Power]

Frozen cocktail shrimp and catfish nuggets from Walmart are perfect for feeding large predatory fish like Oscars. They fill them up quick, provide lots of nutrients, last a long time, and are cheaper. You DO need to keep an eye out for uneaten food. If it stays in the tank for longer than an hr remove it promptly.

NLS is great, but I've had better success feeding Hikari pellets to oscars. BioGold, Cichlid Excel, and Massivore are three great types. PetCo/PetSmart should carry all three, normally anyway.

Only thing I would caution is doing too many waterchanges too fast. I know this sounds counter productive and doesn't initially make sense, but its a good idea. The fish are 'used' to the horrible conditions, by doing many rapid, large water changes you are disrupting those parameters and could actually possibly put them into shock. Stupid I know, but I've seen it happen before. Best bet is to do MULTIPLE small water changes over the next week. Once a day 20% for the next week would be idea. Check the parameters again after that, then use your best judgement from then on.

Another thought would be adding another filter if possible. Oscars are notoriously messy, so the more filtration you have on there the better. Plus its always a good idea to have an extra filter on the tank for back up!

Best of luck to ye!

[DoubleAA]

Up Date,
the oscar tank is shaping up well, as of last night the nitrates have been cut in half.. there is 2 filters on the tank now an aqua clear 70 with a bunch of bio meada (new) and the original filter that had 2 bio bags with the charcoal floss.. i filled the bags with bio media as well.

the second tank was filthy, it was stinky, 50% water change while i was vacuuming the gravel... the water is finally clear, nitrates are high though... trying to talk the owner into another aqua clear filter for this one too.

So, now there is only 1 person feeding the fish. I had advised on how to feed and NOT to over feed the fish. I think we are in good shape so far... people are commenting on how the oscar looks more colorful... I'll be back there thursday to do some water changes...

just a little more work than i had expected.. but well worth knowing the fish will soon be back to healthy and happy... I will try to get some pictures and post them...