I have a year old South American Tiger Oscar, this may be a silly question but, can an Oscar choke? I have a bunch of dice like you use for D&D and I put them in the tank for him to play with. I thought they were big enough he couldn't put them in his mouth but I was wrong. He spit it back out and I immediately removed them but it made me wonder. Is he capable of choking himself or am I worrying about nothing. I want to put some items in his tank to entertain him but not at the risk of his well being. If any one has any info on the subject I would really appreciate it.

irato

I am pretty confident that an oscar can't choke on dice but my friend had theres swallow a pleco and the barbs caused it to get stuck in throat. I hate to say this and ruin your fun but an oscar does not play, not in the sense that a human or even a dog does. Oscars are curious and will investigate them and if they don't like them they will push them around perhaps giving the illusion that they are playing.

that's good to know that they don't play. i didn't know if i need to keep him busy with stuff or not. thanks for the info.

choking is very nil for the oscar or any other fish unless what they've got have reverse torn or spike. I used to feed my oscar with small mice. One time, I gave them somewhat bigger than the usual 1 inch size. After two hours, they just eject the mice in her mouth. My pangasius usually got pebbles whenever they grab the frozen meat (in competition with my oscars, later on, I am amazed on how they spit out the pebbles with out the meat.

Ummm....maybe choking isn't the correct term to use, however a fish can die if it gets something stuck in its throat. Fish do know what is food and what isn't, I very much doubt your Oscar would try and swallow the dice.

oscars do play i think. i have a ball in my tank and my oscar loves pushing it around and just playing with it:)

thanks for all the info guys. I'm new to this site and all but i can see that it is full of people who are full a knowledge. thanks again.

any time:). we are here to help:)

Did you see what numbers your oscar threw. you all missed the main point here that oscars dont have arms so the only way for them to throw dice is with its mouth. more important is did he get a doubble 6?? its now your throw.

hmm. a gambling oscar:)..kool

I believe oscar is not playing on that aspect. My oscars used to move things away from their preferred location. Once that thing/s is/are out of their place, they never touch them again. One time, I tried to put it back to the original location and i observed they push or throw it/them away again using their mouth.

well my oscar tosses a little fake plant up and down all over the tank and he pushes his ball all over the tank to. never to the exact spot he just leaves it when he gets bored or thinks im gonna feed him lol