My Oscar will NOT eat pellets. I made the mistake of giving him some feeder guppies when I first brought him home to warm him up to his tank alittle and it worked but he refuses to eat any kind of pellet I give him. He will only eat crickets, mealworms, feeder fish, and for some odd reason tropical fish flakes. How can I get him to eat his pellets?

This happened to me aswell, got my oscar and then i bought some feeders for him..

when i went to give him floating pellets he had no interest in them what so ever. All i did was offer him pellets only to eat for a week ( removing them if he didnt eat it ) and he came around, i got the sinking variety of pellets after about five days and he took those, now he eats it all.

he'l get hungry enough..

I think someone else on here had this problem and fed their bloodworms the pellets?

There was a time when my Oscar would only eat crickets and guppy's, but as soon as I took out the jack Dempsey he started eating pellets and sticks

lol, actually I feed the pellets to my mealworms...
And it works fine.
My O will eat any worm or bug, as long as it's alive.
Dead fish i feed to my Gar? Not interrested!
Pellets? No way!
Starving him for some days may work but i don't mind getting live foods.
Mind you feederfish can make your fish sick if not properly quarantined.
Trying to soak the pellets in garlic juice may also tempt your O into eating.
Good luck.

My little oscar won't eat pellets either. I thought I was going to loose him because he was getting so skinny. I got him to eat sinking pellets by putting them into a bowl at the bottom of the tank delivered via a tube from the top of the tank to the bowl. He won't eat any of those floating pellets. His new favorite is earthworms, he is eating those from my hand.

Dont put any food in for 3 days, then pellets only for 3 days (remove uneaten pellets). One day 7 feed him something he will eat. Then back to pellets for 6 days. Then feed him what he will eat on day 7. Repeat. I will be surprised if you get to 2 weeks before eating pellets, I would be amazed if he isnt eating pellets after a month. Hunger will make him eat pellets

delboybully wrote:


x2, i agree
some thoughts:
you could try soaking your pellets in a vitamin supplement and/ or garlic; i've heard this works, well it works for my lures when we fish, the garlic that is.

if i was to use garlic i would throw a few uncoated ones in too hopefully he'l take them, then just change the ratio of garlic- coated pellets to normal pellets slowly.. hope that made sence lol

or
someting like this maby?

www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Nourish.html