Recently my husband & I acquired an oscar that had been abandoned by our former tenant. The oscar was left in a filthy tank without food or filtered water for nearly 2 weeks. We cleaned his tank up & have been feeding him the pellets that our tenant left. Tried giving him 2 feeder gold fish, but he didn't eat them. He just killed them. Would like to have some tips on what else we can do to help him, please.
Neglected Oscar
- Thread starter Alaska Oscar
- Start date
yeah size of the oscar, tank size...and if possible water parameters (If you dont know thats ok) any scars, marks, etc? and hows its behavior? does it hang around the bottom? or is it an active swimmer.
big signs of happy oscars are it being a very curious swimmer as well as perky fins (not clamped). Also how big are the feeder goldfish? remember oscars eat whole so if its larger than its mouth it might just kill it.
Out of curiosity....is he eatting the pellets youre feeding him too? In the long run they are more nutritious than feeders anyway and if hes eatting those I wouldnt much worry about the feeders....some pellet trained oscars wont eat feeders at all. If it isnt eatting anything then there is a trick they use with Discus which is to add garlic extract to the water...its supposed to increase their appetite and get picky/non eaters back to feeding again.
big signs of happy oscars are it being a very curious swimmer as well as perky fins (not clamped). Also how big are the feeder goldfish? remember oscars eat whole so if its larger than its mouth it might just kill it.
Out of curiosity....is he eatting the pellets youre feeding him too? In the long run they are more nutritious than feeders anyway and if hes eatting those I wouldnt much worry about the feeders....some pellet trained oscars wont eat feeders at all. If it isnt eatting anything then there is a trick they use with Discus which is to add garlic extract to the water...its supposed to increase their appetite and get picky/non eaters back to feeding again.
My Oscar loves live redworms, and when he gets larger I'm sure will enjoy the occasional earthworm or nightcrawler. I don't recommend live tubifex, I ditched the tubifex when I noticed some really weird looking things in there that looked like parasites. Frozen brine shrimp are good as well as beef hearts.
good luck with your new pet!
good luck with your new pet!
I feed my oscar june bugs rollie polies cockroaches or just about any other insect that my kids bring to me. I dont use feeders, If they do eat them they get scales all over the tank. Feeders are just a no no in my book. every once in a while I will get some ghost shrimp, but I quarranteen them first.
Oscar is eating the pellets that I give him; he makes a big mess with them too. He's in a 10 gallon tank, I think. You may be right about the feeders; I don't think they would fit in his mouth whole. He seems to be a curious swimmer, making lots of turns. He does have some holes on his forehead, but no scars. Thanks for the reply.
cyberbeer65
Scratch Glass!
Alaska Oscar said:
A 10 gallon tank is way too small for that poor oscar.You need to get him in a 55 gallon at least.
Holy Crap!!!! get a bigger tank or trade him into a lfs. no 8 inch fish can ever be happy in a #10g. this i urgent.plus he might have hole in the head disease from what you said about him having holes in his head. its reltively harmless to oscarsal though not esthetic . not so benign to discus.
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