Does anyone know how to prepare the freeze dried krill for oscars? I know you have to 'pre-soak' them but how long. I waited a minute or two an my oscars ate them put spit up whole pieces a few minutes later. Even after they spit them out they chased them swallowd and a few minutes later they came out again.

Actually you dont really have to soak them. Your Oscar does this because it is hungry but since u soaked the krill its taste has gone. (How would you feel if i took your chicken and soak it in water?). Just try feeding it without soaking.

IMO You really should soak all freeze dried food. When freeze dried food is placed in water it expands, you want this to happen before it is digested by the fish. Five to ten minutes soak is good. Honestly I don't think this affects the flavor nor do I think the fish cares.

What he's spiting out is the the part of the krill that is not beneficial ie legs, skin, shell etc... They take it in and spit it out because to them it's still food floating in the tank and their short term memory isn't all that great.

yes i agree with that when my 2 os get meal worms i find all the little empty shells floating about same withe crickets bits of leg an wat not oscars no wat to eat and wat to spit out julie

This is exactly right the Oscar is spitting out the shell. these are excellent food for Oscars and can really enhance the red and orange colouring in Oscars f they are fed regularly over a period of time. I was lucky enough at one stage to have a salt water lagoon near to where i lived and was able to collect them for nothing . I used to bring hoem bucket fulls of them freeze them and feed them live. Meal worms are another food for enhancing the colour of Oscars.

I see so i was wrong ... Well thanks for the correction

being wrong and just not knowing is 2 diffirent things you just didnt know i new nothing till i found this forum ive learned a lot since joining but im still learning every time i come on here thats wat its all about julie

Freeze-dried food is probably the next best thing to live food when it comes to how much goodness the food contains, so I would just put in straight away and let your OSCAR eaT it. You'll find that occasionally they will spit bits out, other times they won't. It always makes me laugh when people feed their fish on peeled prawns, give them the whole prawn, there is miles more goodness in it. Fish eating prawns is a little bit like us eating bran, a nice bit of roughage.

wow, I didn't expect so many responses so quickly. Thanks for the info - Jon

OFL peeled prawns are easier to get and loads cheaper too

Most of the goodness is in the outer shell of the prawn. Actually, I don't feed my fish prawns (only occasionally do I feed prawns when I catch them, and then I still feed them whole) I give them a shrimp that I buy from the aquatic centre. They are frozen whole and make excellent food.

I agree with OFL with using shrim. Seems cheaper 'round here. I have. I don't feed them whole, I can't imagine my lil' cichlids that I have eating a whole jumbo shrimp:laugh: To do so, just cut up a buch of little peices of shrimp, put them into ice cube trays, and put them into the freezer. My fish love it. They get it once every other week. My SW fish get in every other day however, it's part of their staple diet:)