I have had my oscars for about 3 months and for the first 2 months or so I feed them hikari pellets with occasional feeder fish. About a month ago I bought krill and meal worms and added them to their diet and it seems like in the past few weeks they have grown larger and quicker then in the first 2 months. Also they look healthier, thicker and they have much more brilliant colors. How important is a diet with variety as far as oscars are concerned and what should I add to make it better.

Diet is very important you might try to get your O to eat some veggies like peas or carrots. You can also add a vitamin supplement to the food you feed. I use a liquid vitamin supplement actually made for humans just soak the food in it for ten minutes or so before feeding do this a couple of times a week.

My O is crazy about live crickets. You can also feed beef heart. There are a couple of good recipes on the web for making your own or you can buy it frozen. Shrimp, prawns, just about any kind of fish are also good as well.

I stay away from feeders because if you buy them from a LFS you never know what your getting. I know some people do it after quarantining them for a couple of weeks but to me even that isn't safe. You could raise your own feeders but I couldn't watch fish I raised be eaten by a fish I raised I think it's cruel.

I'm sure some of the other members will chime in with more ideas on food and diet for O's

If you eat a poor diet, you put your health at risk, the same goes with fish. The problem is, there are quite a few cichlids that are susceptible to various diseases. Probably the most common is hole in the head.. nobody is actually 100% sure, but a poor diet is thought to contribute to this disease. As long as you give your fish a healthy diet and carry out regular tank maintenance, there is no reason why it shouldn't live for a long time without having any health problems.

The following is only what i have heard.

If you just give your fish one type of food it can get hooked on it and wont eat anything else. If the food you feed is a good quality pellet, nutritional problems probably wont occur. The problem is that oscars can then get bored with the food and wont eat it. Then you have an oscar that is bored with the type of food you have been feeding but wont eat anything else. Best way to avoid this and also to stop any possible nutritional problems is to feed a varied a diet as possible

Oscar can be fed pellets, prawns, muscles, lance fish, worms, maggots, meal worms, any insects (when i get daddy long legs/crane flys flying in the house in summer i pull a wing off to stop them flying away and pop them in the tank)

Diet is very important. If you look at my baby Oscar Nemo, he is just about 2 1/2 months old, and already about 4 inches. Since the begining, he has been fedd live brine shrip, Live bloodworms, and now that he is bigger, he gets pellets, bloodworms both freezedried and live, freezedried mysis Shrimp, and some flake. He gets a mix of this every day, and his growth has been great.