Oscar bit off more than he can chew!

[Madness]

When I started my 150 recently I decided I would pass down my 20L to my daughter who was running a 10 at the time. All went well. We set up the 150, broke down the 20 and the 10 and set up the 20 with her stock. I transfered the stock from 20 to the 150, some dwarf gouramis and serpea tetras. I knew they would end up as food for the oscar eventually and didn't think much of it except - Free Food.

Well, about a month and a half in and the oscar finally decided he'd give the hand-me-downs a try. He's chowed 2 of the 5 serpeas and 3 of the 6 gouramis over night. The thing is, now going on day two, he has had one of the gouramis stuck in his mouth such that the tail can be seen just behind the lips. It hasn't moved at all. He has also exhibited some behavour that suggest he may be having problems. For one his jaw is noticably extended from side to side. Another is that I catch him from time to time suddenly jetting forward while violenlty shaking his head from side to side as if trying to dislodge it. Although, knowing him, he's probably trying to shove it down in.

Anyway, I'd like to hear about anyone who has seen simular circumstances with their oscar(s) and what was the outcome. I don't suppose their is anything I can really do regardless. He's either going to get it out or chew it up or it's going to get the best of him. But I thought it was some interesting behavour to share. I'll keep this thread updated with my own oscar's outcome.

As I side note, I have learned not to put in more feeders than I want him to eat. I've put in 12 rosey feeders and watched him devour them all in a matter of an hour or two. Then he's swimming around with his belly all over extended like a lion that has just engorged himself at a kill.

Oh, he's about 4", maybe 5", right now.

 

[Madness]

These are the best I could do:

Showing how extended his mouth is:

Showing the tail coming out of his mouth, where it has been going on day two:

He actually hasn't even come up to eat at feeding time. Imagine that!!

 

[Madness]

Not even 2 hours after I post this and he manages to spit the half chewed carcus out. I come in to find the texas cichlid trying to chew up the remains.

 

[XSeaNX]

oscars are NOTORIUS overeaters. I never put any more than I THINK they should eat in the tank because reguardless of whether or not they can, they will eat it.

Ive noticed that during feeding they will shove more in their mouth than they can handle just so the other oscars wont get it. Comical to watch but not really a good thing

 

[ashdavid]

All looks normal to me! My oscars did the same thing, take a feeder(usually dead) shove it in their mouths and when they relalize that they cant eat it ,they spit the feeder back out half eaten, they then will not touch the half eaten carcass and proceed to do the same thing again with a new feeder. I also had an oscar eat a reasonably large rock once, unfortunatly he died.

 

[XSeaNX]

yeah I HATE it when the spit out food because it generally spells out more work for me ><.

They tend to do it with prawns which isnt BAD but what annoys me is they will spit it out and eat it again, then spit it out. they will do this a couple of times until the LITTLE mess they made is now a HUGE mess. I swear they try to be dirty fish :laugh:

 

[daveedka]

Pretty normal for O's and most big Cichlids I've kept. My Oscars used to do the same thing with guppies all the time. I tend to not feed as many feeders these days so it isn't something I've seen for a while. A friend of mine used to have a Jag that would kill any feeders it couldn't eat just out of spite I guess. there were no other fish in the tank to compete for food but he still would hunt them down and chomp on them even if he didn't have room to swallow them.
Dave

 

[ashdavid]

The best is when you give them pellets, and I swear that 3/4 of the pellet comes out the gills. Or how about when they take all the available pellets and shove them into thier mouths so that noone else can get any food, so then you have to put more pellets in so the fish that missed out can have something to eat, and the moment you put the new pellets in the oscars spit those pellets out and go for the new ones and the old ones are left on the bottom to rot if you don't get them out. Very fun fish.

 

[Madness]

I became a little worried when it looked as though the gourami was caught in his mouth and he couldn't get it out. His gill flaps were extended way out and he was struggling pretty hard by whipping his head side to side, but it wasn't budging. At least not at first.

 

[Madness]

I've watched mine doing that with the pellets too, David. They are greedy! You need a tank full of dithers just to clean up after them.

My other fish have learned to hang out around his gills when he eats.