baby oscar fish eating habits(2-3 inches)

jagarundi said:
Did anybody read the size of his fish? At 2-3 inches, they can't handle the smallest of the pellets so Cichlid flakes or tropical flakes would be ideal at this stage, along with some brine shrimp. They are WAAAAAAAAAY too small to try to tackle Rosy reds as someone suggested. If they keep spitting the food out and you're sure it's not coming out of their gills, since Oscars are VERY messy eaters, then I would try skipping a day or two before feeding them again. They will learn to accept what's given to them after being hungry for a couple of days.
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2-3 inches can easily take out small rosy reds and eat pellets.
 
jagarundi said:
Did anybody read the size of his fish? At 2-3 inches, they can't handle the smallest of the pellets so Cichlid flakes or tropical flakes would be ideal at this stage, along with some brine shrimp. They are WAAAAAAAAAY too small to try to tackle Rosy reds as someone suggested.
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I was aware of the size and Im positive that they could eat small pellets.
I wouldnt suggest putting tuffies in there but if you put a few 1"ers in there they would be gone very quickly.
Maybe in your area the tuffies are sold at a larger size, I dont know.
 
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Mine was eating extra small pellets and small feeder fish (minnows) when I brought him home at 1.5-2"
 
jcpaisley said:
I get frozen beefheart gumdrops for mine...he loves them so much, I have trouble getting him to eat his pellets...
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feeding red meats and other similar foods that they would not normally eat is not recommended, as the fat and nutrient content is horribly unbalanced from their true nutritional needs.


as for feeding live foods (rosy reds, goldfish, guppies, minnows, whatever you want to call them), that is not a good practice either. once again, nutrition prevails. remember what happened to the guy who ate McDonald's for a month straight? There is not much difference in the nutrition of fast food to us compared to live goldfish/feeders to oscars. Pellets, sticks, and flakes were formulated specially for oscars with their proper nutrition in mind.

If you want your fish to get big quick and be susceptible to disease, illness, and live a shorter life, feed it live foods exclusively. if you want your oscar to grow at a normal rate and be more colorful, lively, and healthy, feed it primarily pelleted foods, with the occasional live feeder (not more than twice a month IMO).

everyone assumes that since oscars are such voracious predators when it comes to small fish, that that is their normal diet. such is not the case.
 
In my defense, the beefheart actually comes from a recipe I found online and researched. It includes nutritional suppements. And he only gets feeder fish once every 1-2 weeks as a "treat", and I am about to try to start breeding my own (which I know has nothing to do with nutrition but should help with disease). The majority of his diet is pellets. What are the sticks you refer to? I have never noticed them in the LFS, and am up for adding some nutritional variety...
 
jcpaisley said:
In my defense, the beefheart actually comes from a recipe I found online and researched. It includes nutritional suppements. And he only gets feeder fish once every 1-2 weeks as a "treat", and I am about to try to start breeding my own (which I know has nothing to do with nutrition but should help with disease). The majority of his diet is pellets. What are the sticks you refer to? I have never noticed them in the LFS, and am up for adding some nutritional variety...
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Tetra's line of cichlid food (and specifically the Oscar diet) comes in a Stick variety in an orange can. I usually mix that with sinking and floating pellets, so mine get a good variety.


do you mind sharing the link for the recipe? I'm curious. :)
 
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