Hey,
i think i might of overfed my oscars. I recently bought two oscars, about 2 inches big. So after i got home and set up the fish tank i decided i was wonna put a little gold fish in there with them, and well they chased him for a while but thats it. The next morning i woke up and the little gold fish was gone, so i fed them a couple of pellets and went to work. When i came back around 2 or 3 i found out that couple of little cousins came to visit and they fed the oscars AND tossed 3 more gold fishes in the tank, and well the little albino had the tail of one of them sticking out of his mouth, the other one was gone, and there was still one alive. I quickly took it out but after that they both have been at the bottom like lopsided and not doing much. So i think there is something wrong with them
This is not my first time I've had fishes but it is the first time I've had oscars so im a little worried
thx

firstly, you need to check your water conditions. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH. It is vitally important we know what the readings are whenever fish start behaving strangely.

I would advise you not to feed goldfish to your new Oscars. They really aren't the best type of food to feed to your Oscar. I would strongly advise you to give your Oscar a varied diet three times a day. for instance, you could give it pelletes twice today, and maybe some shrimp, krill, bloodworm as well. just feed as much food as your fish will eat in two or three minutes and it will get enough food, and you will not feed too much.

Just keep an eye on him, he should be okay. But you must check your water

OFL is giving you the best advice,many people think goldfish is a good part of a oscars diet. how would it get it in the wild,fairground?? No a mixed diet of pellet,shrimp bloodworm,mealworm etc is what your oscar needs an less you like watching them kill goldfish.dry food companys put a lot of resurch into there pellets and this alone would be fine to feed. the only thing more important to diet is your water conditions in my veiw. get these 2 right and you will be half way there.

you will soon find out that your oscars are pigs and will eat all the time if you let them and will just get fatter and fatter..i would go by the feeding times ofl said..it worked the best for me:)

based on my recorded data, the first 7 months, my oscar grew 35% of the total weight of food consumed. If your oscar ate 2 or more of your gold fish, it will gain weight 35% of that gold fish. I always feed my oscars every morning, raw meat, quantity of which is good enough till the last bite protrude in the mouth.
so far, they remains healthy until now.

live feeders form your lfs are not a good source of food for your oscar. they hold little nutritional value(unless you raise them yourself and feed them properly) and are prone to carrying diseases. in the wild oscar feed mostly on insects and crustaceans with the occasional fish that they can catch. a varied diet with a quality pellet as a staple is the best way to get your oscar to grow quickly and be healthy.
like was stated earlier feed only what they will eat in 2-3 monutes and remove any uneaten food. when small feed your oscars 3 times a day and reduce that to once a day when they reach about 5 inches in lenght. when they become full grown this can be reduced again to once every couple of days if you like.

also when your oscars start behaving in an odd manner the first thing to do is to check your water parameters like ofl has said. this will help in telling you if there is something wrong with the tank and what your nest step might be in fixing the problem

Can i ask why do you reduce the amoutn of food for oscar when they get bigger?

Fish have to work hard to find food in the wild, they don't just have it dropped in front of their noses every day. Also, many of the fish in the tropics, especially Amazonian fish often go without food for long time during the dry season. Once the Oscar reaches adulthood, they don't need to eat as much. It's rather like children, they get to a stage in their lives where they eat absolutely loads because they are growing and they need the food. That's why you should feed baby Oscars quite a bit, it helps them grow properly. However, It is quite common for Oscars to go off for a food as they get older. Reducing the amount of food you give them every day can stop this happening.

Thanks for the explanation OFL. Makes sense.

Also i havent fed my baby oscar in about 4 days because hes being stubborn on pellets.

im begginning to worry that this might stunt his growth. should i feed him now with like prawns and stuff so he can grow and move him to pellets when hes larger?

Will he still not eat pellets after four days? I never said it was an absolute guarantee:laugh: have you tried a different brand of pellet?

Don't worry, you're not going to stunt its growth in just a few days. Stunted growth is normally caused by poor water conditions. There are lots of other foods that you can feed, so go ahead and give him some other food. If he is going to turn his nose up at pellets, try and feed him on whole shrimp, crickets, worms, anything that contains vitamins.

Oscars can be funny creatures. I can't promise that the advice I give you on here will always work.

Yeah i tried other pellets, he spit them out.

Im worried that if he spits them out, and only eats prawns and stuff.. he will never eat pellets as a staple diet.

Yeah maybe ill just feed him freely. If he doesnt eat pellets ill try something else but primarily go to pellets.


Interesting to watch he likes playing in the air bubbles and swimming up and down.

Hey THX so much for all the comments and answers i got, they were all really helpful.

My two oscars seem fine now, i stopped feeding them live feeders because it looks like they are too small to eat them with one bit and they just sit there for hours trying to swallow the little gold fish. So i guess until they are a little bigger I'll start feeding them live feeders.

I feed them pellets as a staple diet and they seem to love it. I also give them dried bloodworms once a day and crickets from time to time(its a lot harder then u'd think to catch those little critters lol )
They love the pellets so much that they actually jump out of the water and take them off my hands its the most awesome thing I'd ever seen.

The only problem i have now with them is that the Albino tiger has become extremely aggressive and bullies the other one, i have a little boat ship decoration and he wont come out of there because when he does he gets bullied . The albino tiger is so aggresive that he even picks on the fish tank cleaner O.o So I'm kinda worried that he will end up killing someone and was wondering if i should leave him alone in another fish tank or just let the other ones tough it out ><

Thanks