75F is perfect btw. Did you check with a thermometer or one of those stick on the outside of the tank things (They can be a few degrees out)?
What kind of filter do you have? Hopefully you do not have a undergravel filter. Those things are crap and do nothing but let the shit pile up in your tank. get a tank mounted cartridge style or a canister filter. I had a cartridge style and changed the cartridge once a month. I gravel vac’ed and did a 10-20%water change once a week. I kept the same discus for 4 years…which is supposed to be one of the more difficult fish to keep.
[quote]Renton wrote:
Taken about 3 years ago. The one in the background is the sole survivor. She won’t let anything else live in her tank now.
The tank is 140 Gallons - In the picture she is about 12" long although it’s impossible to tell. She’s now about 15" long and very powerful.
I’ll see if I can get a shot of her with my hand in the tank for scale. She’s very territorial though and at her current size is capable of doing some big damage to fingers if she’s not in the mood to be messed with. [/quote]
What are you feeding her now? I had a Albino Oscar for about 3 1/2 years but it died when I moved. It got to about 10" in a 50gallon tank. I freakin loved feeding time, I would get about 20 feeder fish and watch it go to town.
[quote]Renton wrote:
Taken about 3 years ago. The one in the background is the sole survivor. She won’t let anything else live in her tank now.
The tank is 140 Gallons - In the picture she is about 12" long although it’s impossible to tell. She’s now about 15" long and very powerful.
I’ll see if I can get a shot of her with my hand in the tank for scale. She’s very territorial though and at her current size is capable of doing some big damage to fingers if she’s not in the mood to be messed with. [/quote]
sweet fish, I keep:
http://www.uaex.edu/wneal/pond_management/images/greensunfish.jpg
mine never got nearly that large, he gre up with 3 other greens and a pumpkinseed
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/juvindex/pumpkinseed.jpg
he killed off his tankmates though. I have no pictures of him on this computer, If I remember I’ll fire up the old computer and post a few.
In the next few weeks I’m getting some of these in a different tank:
http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/western/fishid/images/single_darter-35.jpg
and
http://www.btdarters.com/images01/bstm01_large.jpg
very nice looking oscar renton!
[quote]Pootie Tang wrote:
What are you feeding her now? I had a Albino Oscar for about 3 1/2 years but it died when I moved. It got to about 10" in a 50gallon tank. I freakin loved feeding time, I would get about 20 feeder fish and watch it go to town.
[/quote]
She has a staple floating food 5 days a week, then day 6 she gets either prawns, worms, feeder fish (always amazing to watch), I also make an Oscar feed out of bulls heart, peas, vitamin powder, gellatine. Day 7 no food.
She is a very messy fish - all Oscars seem to be that way. I use a canister filter with two inputs from different sides of the tank (Rated for a 250 gallon tank) and that just about manages the job!
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Renton wrote:
Taken about 3 years ago. The one in the background is the sole survivor. She won’t let anything else live in her tank now.
The tank is 140 Gallons - In the picture she is about 12" long although it’s impossible to tell. She’s now about 15" long and very powerful.
I’ll see if I can get a shot of her with my hand in the tank for scale. She’s very territorial though and at her current size is capable of doing some big damage to fingers if she’s not in the mood to be messed with.
sweet fish, I keep:
http://www.uaex.edu/wneal/pond_management/images/greensunfish.jpg
mine never got nearly that large, he gre up with 3 other greens and a pumpkinseed
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/juvindex/pumpkinseed.jpg
he killed off his tankmates though. I have no pictures of him on this computer, If I remember I’ll fire up the old computer and post a few.
In the next few weeks I’m getting some of these in a different tank:
and
http://www.btdarters.com/images01/bstm01_large.jpg
very nice looking oscar renton![/quote]
Nice stuff Zep - Don’t know that fish as a Darter (going by the url) - looks like a Lake Malawi Cichlid of some type though?
Oscars are cool wet kids 
I had one for many years, follow you from corner or tank to the other corner, Probably yelling Hey air breather gimme some food
I saw your list of chemicals dirtbag, I have always been a natural sort of aquarium keeper (43 years now) and stay away from most all chemicals including salt.
Well except for my current saltwater tank
I am a believer in massive filtration tho, for your 50 gallon tank, I would have an aquaclear 500 (the largest one they make) it is a very nice and easy to use hang on the back filter. Or a nice Fluval cannister filter, again the large one, aka massive water flow and filtration. NO such thing as over filtering.
I personally do not have an issue with undergravel filters, as they do allow large amounts of biological filtering, use with powerheads, not the typical air stones and air pumps. With a nice tropical tank like swords, mollies, neon and cardinal tetras, a few cory cats and yes even some natural colored plastic plants and maybe even some nice sinking wood look product, would be a very nice and pleasing tank most of all easy to maintain. 25% water change a month MAX.
and good to go.
[quote]Mr.Bill wrote:
Oscars are cool wet kids I had one for many years, follow you from corner or tank to the other corner, Probably yelling Hey air breather gimme some food :)[/quote]
Spoken like a true Oscar owner! Mine does indeed follow me from side to side of her tank. If I walk past and don’t pay her any attention she does, what I can only describe as, sulk. She goes to the back of her tank and faces away. She can keep this up for hours. Typical female 
Sure it wasn’t my list you saw? Lol - I do agree with you about keeping it natural as much as possible but I’m happy do bring out the chemicals in emergencies. I simply try to keep the water balanced so well in the first place that I don’t need them.
Nice - I haven’t ventured that way yet myself but I will be doing.
Totally agree - I like the fluval cannisters - powerful and easy to maintain.
Agreed although with the mess my girl makes in her tank I found I had to use a gravel vac so much it was getting silly. She kicks the gravel about plenty as she’s digging and the canister does the rest.
I’ll have to borrow a video camera and get some shots of her playing with a ping pong ball. She plays like mad with them, carries them down from the surface and tries to bury them for some reason then gets confused when they bob back to the top. She can usually catch them before they break the surface - nimble little minx.
Just thinking on - best advice I ever got about aquariums. You are not a fish keeper, you are a water keeper. Look after the water and the fish can look after themselves.
[quote]Renton wrote:
Nice stuff Zep - Don’t know that fish as a Darter (going by the url) - looks like a Lake Malawi Cichlid of some type though?[/quote]
they are a US native. typically found in rivers/streams, some species found in lakes.