Hi guys, its been awhile. I have had my oscar for about four months now and he doesnt seem to be growning. I am certain that this is because he will not eat his pellets. I have tried many differant types and it seems as if he will just eat enough to survive and that is it. I have tried cichlid gold, omega one and now i just bought a new hikar bio-gold because it said that the taste is good for carnivour cichlids. I dont know what else to do. My girlfriend has had her oscar for about 1 month, purchased smaller than mine, and he is already bigger than mine. I dont know what else to do. I have tried garlic, that didnt work. What do all you experts think i should try? By the way water parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

You know Bowhunter, I hate to tell you but I had an O that never grew, rarely ate, and he only survived about 5 months. I think sometimes they are breed so much with little care you end up with sick ones. I hope you can turn him around...

BTW: What is the temp in your tank?

Thats unfortunate.
My temp is 78 degrees.

You could try bumping it to 80. they say warmer water causes higher metabolism and they eat more. It's worth a shot!

Just bumped it up. Thanks for the suggestion.

Good luck, I hope he comes around for you!

Have u tried giving it other stuff like frozen shrimp or blood worms. My O's too hate pellets n rarely eat them but they go crazy for shrimp n blood worms. Some O's jus don like pellets i guess.

I have tried fresh shrimp, freeze dried shrimp krill and brine shrimp. A number of differant fruits. But it is all the same. Only eats very little to just survive.

i seldom suggest this... but if you want to spurt the
growth of your oscar, start them with fresh frozen beef heart
or plenty of fresh or frozen worms. for the first two months,
it will grow at 1 inch per month...then gradually introduce
varied food to make them healthier.

PAUL wrote:


X's 10, sometimes all they want is a good juicy worm

do you feed him once a day or offer it to him throughout the day?

if you dont already maybe you could try feeding him every 3-4 hours or so

oh btw.... i agree about the worms, i pretty much raised my O's on insects, bloodworm and during summer they would get a big jucy lizard or two a day.... these made them pile the weight on....

now i feed them pellets without a worry with the occasional treat... although every O is different, they are also all very alike....

biancawinter wrote:


I have tried feeding him through out the day but have found that he is more likely to eat if i just feed him once when i get home from work.
I am going to go out in the yard in a while and if i can get some worms. Hopefully he will eat it.

One thing that i know he likes real well is venison. But does venison have to high of fat content to be beneficial?

Thanks for all the help guys.