Can Oscars Eat Platy's

[kimmers318]

My husband has 2 oscars in a 90 gallon...a 75 will be set up this fall to move one of them to....just waiting until after camping season to start his 2nd tank. Anyway...my girls have platy's that LOVE to breed....another platy purchase not knowing how fast they have babies! The other com. fish usually eat most of the fry..luckily for me and I only save a few to keep the girls from crying about the babies. I can foresee this seriously overstocking my 64 gal tank! Is there any reason why I couldn't let the platy's do what they love to do in a separate tank and save as many of the fry as possible so as they grow they can be feeders? Hubby has already dealt with ick from feeder guppies so it seems safer to feed fish from one of my nice clean tanks rather than the feeders from stores.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Yes they can eat them.

 

[diademhill]

The only problem with this plan IMO is that you risk giving your Oscars an inadequate diet.
Home bred feeder fish don't bring the disease risks of purchased ones but are a poor diet for Oscars. As you have the fish available, might you be likely to feed more that otherwise?

 

[freddyk]

They'll make a fine and healthy supplement to the rest of the Oscars diet, but is obviously not good as a staple diet.

 

[kimmers318]

The platy's will not be a staple diet...he has about 4 different flake, pellet, and freeze dried food, plus the frozen cichlid delite and beefheart. Not to mention when I feed my tropicals any frozen food they get the leftovers! I have a dwarf puffer who ONLY eats snails and frozen bloodworm (no luck with any dry food yet), plus I have various other frozen tidbits that I rotate with my tropical flakes, tablets and granules. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't any reason not to feed platy's instead of guppies or goldfish.

 

[blitztidus]

They still won't be that safe, they are still in jepardy. It all depends on the size of the oscars, as long as they can fit them in their mouths, they will eat them!!!

 

[kimmers318]

They still won't be that safe, they are still in jepardy. It all depends on the size of the oscars, as long as they can fit them in their mouths, they will eat them!!!

That is the plan...let the platy's do what they want and feed them to the oscars instead of buying feeders!