I began adding new foods into Leo's diet. Leo is a 5 month old 6 inch Natural Oscar. His staple and only food source for the first 5 months was Hikari cichlid pellets. Now I introduced beef heart into his diet. I now feed him pellets in the morning and beef heart once in the afternoon and again in the evening. I believe the morning pellet feeding should be adequate as far as vitamins. I know oscars need a good source of vitamin C. I believe the morning pellet feeding should be sufficient. I decided to add the beef heart to enhance Leo's growth. Is my information sound? Is it correct? Should I alter this diet? Any advice is appreciated

hi there, welcome to the site

If you're using a good Cichlid pellet then they should contain most of the essential vitamins that your fish will benefit from. Beefheart is good for growing fish but it's not the sort of food I would feed on a regular basis. Some people make their own and they put all sorts of different types of food in it including but some additives which is obviously a good way of introducing vitamins into a fish's diet. However, your fish store should have a variety of different types of food that will be a very healthy addition to his diet, Krill, shrimps, cockles and muscles, Oscars really like these. You can also try garden earth worms, meal worms, beetles, crickets, any little garden critters that you find will be a good source of vitamins for a fish

I only feed once a day and I normally stick to pellet for most of the time, with other foods such as Krill, Lance fish thrown in two or three times a week. They will also eat blood worm that I put in for my other fish.

Sounds like you are doing the right job at the moment, you certainly haven't given us any cause for concern as what you're feeding your fish.

Thanks for the information. Living on the coast of the Carolinas, I have access to lots of fresh sea food for Leo. I like the meal worm idea I was researching a way to harvest my own. It should be quite an experiment. Leo is in good health, always active, and even allows some close contact during hand feedings.
Thanks again

I'm not so sure about raising mealworms yourself, it's probably easier to actually buy the mealworms themselves, they are very inexpensive and for a couple of quid, you have got few days supply. Oscars love mealworm beetles.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealworm#Rearing_M...s_Into_Adult_Beetles

do they sell the mealworms in petsmart because i know they sell crickets


when i had my oscar i gave him a half of a grape and he loved it

Yeah Oscars love fruit, I gave Leo some pineapple the other day, he devoured it, but he does that with most things. I would like to keep the meal worms until they mature into beetles, I have read the Meal worms are the larva and the beetle is an even better treat for Oscars. I like to alter his food a little each week. One week beef heart once a day. Next week I'll do Meal worms, the following week maybe I'll try some of those Meal beetles...and every other day some fruit, and Hikari Gold as the staple pellet. Thanks for the info, I always enjoy learning.

mealworm beetles are one of my O's favorites, but he usually finishes the whole box of worms before they transform.lol
Now my wife got him morio worms and he likes those too.
They're like oversized mealworms and are transforming quickly.
I wonder how big the bug out of those morios will be...
guess I'll find out soon enough....

my fishes always have two kind of foods every day. two oscar with pangasius
take beef heart and grass shrimp. since pangs don't take shrimp, i introduce it
first so that oscar will be slightly full when i put the meaty beefheart for the
pang.

the other two with the aro always have live guppies because i can not contradict
the misus..... but i still drop grass shrimp for regular meal.

pellets and earthworm are the foods my grand children used to throw in. the problem
is... i came home one afternoon and all my plants were uprooted by my 5 year old
grand daughter who was looking for the worms

should i cut the head off of the mealworm because i heard it can eat your oscar's insides

nope, the mealworms will drown in moments and will not do any harm, imo.

BIG-D OSCAR BOY wrote:


Negatory Ghost Rider.


A Decapitated mealworm head eating Oscar stomachs. Yikes.