I bought Hikari Cichlid Gold mini pellets for my oscar and I'm just wondering how many I should give him. He is about 2.5 inches long. I've used flakes for the past 9 years so I have no experience with pellets.

Rather than actually counting out pellets, feed your little Oscar until you can see his tummy swelling slightly. So the best thing to do was look at before you feed him, he'll be nice and flat, feed him for a couple of minutes, maybe three minutes and you will see it swell slightly. He will then have a nice tummy full of food.

my oscar is about 3 inch. i bought a bag of large pellets. i take 2 of them i give him a hole one and then break up the second one. i due this once a day thats all i feed him. i will only feed him the pellets till the day he dies. from my understanding the pellets are very filling and require less then feeders and other food sources.

Thanks guys, after i fed him he stopped sulking at the bottom of the tank and became way more active.

yea mine is active when its feedign time then after his belly is full he goes to his favorite hiding spot in the tank and sleeps till he sees me home from work then he wants all my attention lol. they are great fish

Feed you oscar whatever he will eat in 3 to 5 minutes and no more. If you have pellets floating around after 5 mins you have put too many in. He will constantly beg for more at other times just dont give in- oscars are professional beggars

Try to vary your oscars diet. I feed mine maggots twice a week, prawns once, hikari pellets once a week and pond pellets twice a week(loads cheaper than hikari). I also feed worms when available (see members articles on how to catch them) and any other insects. Daddy long legs are easy to catch this time of year just open your door/window early evening with the light on and they fly in (just make sure you pull a wing off before you add to your tank or they fly away)

I would strongly recommend that any one keeping Oscars should not feed them on a diet of pellets alone. In my experience with helping other oscar owners pellets are the biggest single cause of Oscar ailments if they are the only food that an Oscar is fed. As others have said they should be fed a varied diet which includes as much live food as you can. there is nothing in the wild that compares to pellets which swell up when in contact with water and make lots of mess if your oscars eat them once they have taken in water. I am convinced that they are not good for the oscars digestion system and they are detrimental to the water quality.

i agree with the last post i joined this forum not that long ago i have 2 young oscars they do get pellets but they get garden worms meal worms flys crickets and they love the live food and i also think the pellets dirty the water up very quickly aswell

don't have one jet but his food wil be

discusfood
red larvs.
chopped mussels
....
like what i give the fish in my other tank.
up to 6sort's of food.

so this my advice.
Havind discus fish i know how impotant food is.

well i guess its jsut a matter of opinion here. i have a friend who has a oscar that is 14inch long and he has never fed him anything but pellets. his oscar has never had any hith or anything. but i do agree that it dirties tha water fast i have to clean my tank every 4 days to keep the debri out of there. i have had my oscar for about 1 month now and he has grown almost a full inch and is very happy. like i said i could be wrong but im not giving him anything that has a chance of having a disease.