Oscars Eating Habits

[cuticom]

Merlins my first oscar, and I've read plenty about oscars being messy, but I thought that was just in general, not in particular when eating LOL.

I've got Wardley Shrimp pellets which I've been breaking into smaller pieces and trying o feed him. But they sink so fast I've been waiting till he came close and dropping them in front of his nose. But he missed one today and I couldnt get it back out of the substrate so left it. I just watched him dig it back out and eat it, and absolutely spray his tank with little crumbs. As in suspended particles all through the tank.

Is there a better pellet food that he wont spray everywhere? I've also been feeding him peas, freeze dried bloodworm's and frozen bloodworm's but he makes the same sort of mess with everything. Do I just have an odd oscar or are they all messy eaters? LOL

Emma

 

[Miss Wiggle]

oscars are messy!!!

might be a good idea to get an omnnivorous catfish to clear up uneaten food from the bottom or the tank

mine gets a load of pellets in his mouth, holds them there while they soften for a minute then starts crunching them and spitting bits back out, our syno follows him round munching on his leftovers!

 

[QuotheRaven]

Depending on the size of the tank a close to fully grown Synodontis Eupterus is probably the best one as I found they don't take flack from other fish and are quite large

 

[ox5477]

Even if you dont get a cat, leaving a little food in the substrate is good for their nature. As you saw, he sifted through the substrate to get the little scraps left and it may keep him busy all day and keep him from getting bored. If you feed him alot every meal then maybe its better to get the cat but if you feed a little bit twice a day or something then it will stop the extra food from starting to rot. And frequent water changes which are needed with o's anyways will help as well!

 

[Stang]

I have those pellets for my pictus cats, but the O comes down and grabs them after they dissolve a bit any sprays the pellet all over the tank, they're woeful.

If you're just feeding the O, try some Hikari Cichlid Gold.. you can get it in different pellet sizes, they wont be anywhere near as messy as the wardley pellets.

The catfish in the tank are great for cleaning up the mess too...

 

[idlefingers]

my silver dollars love the fact my oscar's messy when eating.. the hang around him and eat the stuff he spits everywhere!

 

[cuticom]

Currently hes in a 20g, before everyone shoots me I only got him a few days ago, hes only 2 inches and its only quarantine. He has a 125g which'll he move to in a couple of weeks. C He's in the 20g so if something breaks out I'm only treating 20g not 125g. Currently no other occupants, I was thinking a common pleco, but they cost like $50 so thats out.

Any pother catfish that are easily accessible? I quite like sucking catfish, but their aggressive little buggers.

 

[cuticom]

Well he ate his breakfast without making a mess today at least. He's absolutely gorgeous to watch, I'm gonna be sad when he moved across to my Mums 125g display tank, as I wont get to see much of him then. I set up the Q tank with a pile of gravel, and fake plants with weighted bottoms as well as some floating fake plants, hes absolutely hilarious. Since hes only two inches long, he cant just bulldoze the gravel so has to move it piece by piece around the tank.

 

[paul-discus]

I feed the Hikari pellets and don't have much mess.