difference between live foods when feeding oscar
- Thread starter sharpie
- Start date
Whenever I find a lizard outside(once or twice a month) I just grab it
and throw it in the tank. There really is no chance for him to do anything to the oscar, the lizard just swims around until the oscar seemingly inhales him from below. I throw flies in but I cant imagine those are filling at all.
and throw it in the tank. There really is no chance for him to do anything to the oscar, the lizard just swims around until the oscar seemingly inhales him from below. I throw flies in but I cant imagine those are filling at all.
live foods are bad enough, but then taking something from outside and feeding it to a captive animal, thats asking for problems. there are other diseases and parasites out there besides what the feeder fish will most commonly have. and there is at least one disease that can be spread from fish to humans, so im sure theres got to be something out there that can go from isects and invertebrates to fish. in addition to pathogens you have chemicals. these days there are so many herbicides, fertilizers, etc being used that i wouldnt consider anything form the wild to be safe. we know that pellets are safe and a great diet, why try to screw up a beautiful animal with something you dont know is safe?
Oscars are actually an Omnivore that leans heavily to the protien side of the spectrum. they do not typically eat plants or vegetables but do get some vegetable matter in their diet both in thewild and in a balanced tank.
I have no qualms at all with catching bugs, nightcrawlers and many other types of wild caught food. I rinse it carfully and do not bring in anything that was dead when I found it. I certainly don't trust pellet food any more than I do my home caught stuff. There are enough contaminants that go into FDA inspected human food that I'm sure the packaged fish food is at risk as well.
There is no doubt In my mind that these fish like to hunt, and should be be given live samplings as part of their diet. My personal reccomendation for feeder fish is home raised Guppies or convicts. Goldfish (Comets) are heavy on the fat and cartiledge side and low on the nutrition side. additionally goldies are not tropical fish and It seems to me it makes more sense to feed similar type fish to what an Oscar may find in the wild. In addition to feeder fish, I raise snails for my cichlids, also ghost shrimp. I also collect earthworms, crayfish (Be sure to QT them for several weeks) Tadpoles and frogs. Occasionally I'll feed the flies or crickets, but my Oscar has a different personality than tank raised fish and it's a little harder to feed him things that can swim to the edge and crawl out. Anything that you don't raise yourself should be rinsed and quaratined. I hear good and bad things about Blackworms, I have fed them to my fish but really Blackworms are small and For the occasional treat I find them to be a bit of a pain.
All of that being said, you should find a good prepared food for the staple diet. Nutrition is essential for Oscars, and a ballanced prepared diet with supplemental live feedings is IMO the only way to go. Oscars are like most men, if you offer them steak and salad, they'll eat the steak even though the salad is better for them. If you Oscar starts refusing to eat the pellets, don't give him any treats. eventually he'll get hungry and eat the pellets. Too many people let their Oscars train them.
Also as far as size, I have never seen an Oscar that wouldn''t eat another fish that would fit in it's mouth. a 1 inch Oscar will gladly eat a 3/8 inch guppy. I typically start any fish on prepared foods and make sure they know that is their regular diet then go on with live treats even with very small fish.
dave
I have no qualms at all with catching bugs, nightcrawlers and many other types of wild caught food. I rinse it carfully and do not bring in anything that was dead when I found it. I certainly don't trust pellet food any more than I do my home caught stuff. There are enough contaminants that go into FDA inspected human food that I'm sure the packaged fish food is at risk as well.
There is no doubt In my mind that these fish like to hunt, and should be be given live samplings as part of their diet. My personal reccomendation for feeder fish is home raised Guppies or convicts. Goldfish (Comets) are heavy on the fat and cartiledge side and low on the nutrition side. additionally goldies are not tropical fish and It seems to me it makes more sense to feed similar type fish to what an Oscar may find in the wild. In addition to feeder fish, I raise snails for my cichlids, also ghost shrimp. I also collect earthworms, crayfish (Be sure to QT them for several weeks) Tadpoles and frogs. Occasionally I'll feed the flies or crickets, but my Oscar has a different personality than tank raised fish and it's a little harder to feed him things that can swim to the edge and crawl out. Anything that you don't raise yourself should be rinsed and quaratined. I hear good and bad things about Blackworms, I have fed them to my fish but really Blackworms are small and For the occasional treat I find them to be a bit of a pain.
All of that being said, you should find a good prepared food for the staple diet. Nutrition is essential for Oscars, and a ballanced prepared diet with supplemental live feedings is IMO the only way to go. Oscars are like most men, if you offer them steak and salad, they'll eat the steak even though the salad is better for them. If you Oscar starts refusing to eat the pellets, don't give him any treats. eventually he'll get hungry and eat the pellets. Too many people let their Oscars train them.
Also as far as size, I have never seen an Oscar that wouldn''t eat another fish that would fit in it's mouth. a 1 inch Oscar will gladly eat a 3/8 inch guppy. I typically start any fish on prepared foods and make sure they know that is their regular diet then go on with live treats even with very small fish.
dave
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well there u go who ever wanted to know... live is ok just make sure its safe i.e.... rinse and quarentine and live fish is better if they are "home grown" :joke: pellets are good and i was doing a little more reading on oscars and found out: "although they do not eat veggies directly, they can be tricked into eatin it, one example like pellets with spiralina and brine shrimp with spiralina for juviniles" well u get the idea 
not all diseases will show up within a few weeks, and i like my fish too much to risk that contamination. remember, it only takes one sick feeder EVER to ruin an oscar's life. with the great quality we now have in some pellet foods, there is no need to risk their health. but if someone is set on feeding live as a treat, the only option for that in my opinion is feeders you have bred yourself.
Oscars are opportunist. They'll eat almost anything they can get in thier mouths. In the wild they tend to eat a lot of insects and larvea. But honestly you should never feed them anything live from outside. With all the pesticides and acid rain and everything else that polutes our enviroment you ( including the air itself ) you never know what your giving them. They don't need live food to be healthy. If your really interested in giving them live food the best and only way to do it is breed them yourself. I've had O's for over 20 years and have never fed live food. But if you must I recomend rosy reds they don't require a heater. Told this to a co-worker who didn't believe me and after six years of raising his albino on live feeders from the LFS he got a parasite and died of Hole in the Head. Not a pretty thing to witness.
your coworker's oscar's end sounds too familiar. it seems every oscar fed feeder fish ends up with hole in the head, and even the occasional treat can do it, it only takes one feeder to introduce something, so my rule is NEVER feed live food unless it is absolutely necessary (somespecies require only live, moving food).
i feed my oscars peas and vegies but alot off fish blocks pretty much what ever thay can fit in thier mouth wich covers a broad range off food
