i have a new 2 1/2in oscar and i just wanted to know what live thing i can feed it that i can buy from the pet shop. or how big he needs to get to feed him live stuff. at 2 1/2ins can he eat feeder fish?

I would advise you to avoid shop bought feeders as there is always a small chance you can pass on parasites or disease.

There are a few live feeds that you can get that we would recommend.

Earthworms/worms
Mealworms
Crickets
Grasshoppers
beetles

Just to name a few.

ok thanks

X2 OFL

Just make sure what your feeding him/her is not to large.
For example an earthworm will need to be chopped up for your fish.

The smaller the better I always say

For right now, personally, since he's so little yet, I would just go the pellet and frozen route. Although like staffie said, chopped up earthworms would be good. There's no definite 'size' where its all of a sudden it's 'ok' to feed live, you just have to use your own judgement...oscars eyes are bigger than their mouths.

johnnyphoenix wrote:



when you say frozen foods what do you mean by that??? frozen fish??? is the fozen foods i can buy at patsmart or petco?

Sure, you can by alot of frozen stuff there.

They usually have a big freezer with all the stuff and frozen pinkie mice (for snakes and other reptiles) nearby the fish section. Ask someone and they'll show you. They generally have frozen krill, mysis shrimp (which actually aren't shrimp but are much more nutritious than brine), brine shrimp, bloodworms, and frozen Atlantic silverside fish. Those are much more nutritious and safer for your fish than feeders, b/c they are marine and have been frozen. Its fun to hand feed those...although they are kinda large so I would wait for a while before using them unless you cut them into smaller pieces.

Some people feed them the frozen pinkie mice too, but you have to remember that mammal flesh is very fatty and Oscars can have a lot of liver issues when processing fatty foods. I never use them.

The store I go to also has frozen beefheart chunks, which are good too. You should also be able to buy live mealworms there...I don't know if they have crickets b/c I get those from a local place around me but there's a good chance they might as they're so commonly fed to lizards and such.

They also have freeze dried shrimp and other things too over by where they have the pellets, although even after soaking in water mine doesn't seem to care for them as much .

The mealworms are usually over by the reptile/terrarium stuff. I get Canadian nightcrawlers from a convenience store around me that sells bait, but actually my oscar isn't too crazy about them which seems like a rarity---most love them. I noticed my oscar has a tendency to be cautious and finicky around new food items that might be larger or 'squirming' around, or have a different texture I guess. It takes them a bit to get used to it and then they're ok with it.

You can also get shrimp, prawns, peas etc. at grocery stores, and alot of the time they'll have frozen mixed seafood bags which you can feed pieces to.

I defrost everything Im going to feed first by soaking in some tank water. Usually it only takes a minute or 2 to thaw them, and discard any uneaten stiff. You don't want to let something thaw and refreeze it as a general rule, and remember that a varied diet is very desirable, although you want to keep pellets as the 'staple' diet.

Sometimes oscars can get picky about what they eat and stop eating the pellets...especially if you are feeding alot of 'treats'. If he does, stop feeding him anything for a day or two, and then offer him pellets and pellets only. He'll go back to eating them eventually. I would also try and feed him pellets at least once a day in your feeding routine.

ok thanks its going to be fun trying to find out what mine likes. oh and im thinking about getting another oscar!! woot! lol it truns out that my nabor has a 135g tank that i just bought from her for 20 u.s dollars but im not going to use it for a little bit because i need a stand and the pumps and heater and thing like that and for that big of a tank its going to cost ALOT!

Really a kickass canister filter (that's gonna run you a couple hundred bucks) for that size tank, the stand, and the extra electricity are your main expenditures. Once you get everything in place though it's not too bad. Heaters, air stones/pumps, water additives, food, and replacement filter media are pretty cheap overall.

Once you get 'addicted' though you do start spending crazy money on upgrading things, changing decor, things you don't necessarily need but want, etc. My problem is I have a dog so whenever I go in to the pet store to get dog food and such I inevitably get drawn into 'taking a quick look' in the filter/lighting section. I personally guarantee I'm leaving there with either some piece of sponge/wool, a new filter, a different treat, another LED light, or another 50 dollar decoration I don't need or have room for.

I must have gone through about 5 filters just because I wanted a bigger one, or a different one, etc. It's funny (or not so) when you realize after a couple months that you must have spent about 500 bucks on random impulse buys, but to generally keep them healthy and happy it's not as daunting financially as you think.

I think im have to much fun watching youtube videos of oscars eating stuff lmao

how big and how many tanks and oscars do you have?
Will they bite you if you hand feed them?

johnnyphoenix wrote:

That's my tip of tha day, thanx, Johnny.Í'm gonna check for those but i suspect theyre still very pricey, like prawns over 'here. i hardly eat those myself but my o's and Gar go crazy for them!

And sure they bite when handfeeding, but they seldom draw blood .I worry more about my Gar when i handfeed him.
But my oscar come up to the surfaceabd open their mouth above the surface ,s o i can drop in the pellets, much like tame Koicarp behave.
Plus my tiger allways tastes my hand nowadays when i place the zuchunni in the tank for the plecos.
but very gently, like he's kissing my fingers at all sides.

They must recognize me for any other fingers near the water will be aggressively bitten..no kidding.