guys i have two oscar in my tank, a red oscar and an albino oscar. i need help on feeding them cause my red oscar only eat live food. i dont know why he dont like eating fish food. how can i train him to eat fish food?

This is extremely common with Oscars, this is the sort of question that crops up time and time again. It is very important to give Oscars and varied diet throughout the week. Some Oscars aren't picky, other Oscars can be a complete nightmare when it comes to feeding. I have found that they older they get, the more peaky they become about food. However, occasionally you get very young Oscars that can be very fussy about food.

The best advice I can give you is to stop feeding the food that your Oscar eats at the moment completely. A healthy fish is not going to start itself to death. I do think it's a good idea to feed sparingly when the fish reaches maturity. Too often people put in far too much food for the fish. This is often when they become fussy.

So to reiterate what I have already said, stop feeding the food that the Oscar will eat. Remember that fish can go without food for a few weeks so don't feel guilty about it. Keep feeding your other Oscar as you normally do. Go to your fish store and spend some time looking the other foods that are available. If they sell frozen food, check it out, there's often quite a wide variety of food that is good for your Oscar.

I wouldnt feed your fish for 2 days then try him on some frozen (defrosted) prawns and pellets on alternate days. Dont feed him the food you want to ween him of off, in your case the live food. Oscars can be stubborn but dont give in, after a week he should be eating the pellets or prawns. If he dont you can either leave it another week or feed him the live food for one day then back to the others for a week again. He will eat the other food eventually it might take some time. Personally i dont feed my fish one day a week (sunday)


I have 2 examples of other fish with this problem. I have a jaguar in with my oscars. He would only eat when i fed maggots (twice a week) or worms (when i can get them), he would never touch the prawns or pellets. He then got pop-eye in both eyes (eyes swell up) and he couldnt see. Took me 2 weeks of treatment to get it sorted during which he didnt eat. After his eyes got better (and he was starving) he gobbled up pellets or prawns and still does today

The other example is i had a urua in with my discus so he got bloodworm everyday. He wouldnt eat discus pellets or flake. I tried him on bigger pellets but he wouldnt eat them. I put him in another tank where they got maggots on mon and tues, prawns on weds and pellets the rest. Initially he wouldnt eat the pellets but now he does

thanks for the tip guys... by the way my oscar is still 2inches long and the other one is much bigger now(the one who eats fish food). Can i still use this advice?

Hm, did you get them both at the same size? 2" is really very tiny still .. is it looking emaciated meanwhile?
I'd certainly agree to what the others have said, just a bit unsure now with an Oscar that small.

What kind of processed fish food do you feed, floating food only? Some fish don't like to go to the surface for feeding, did you ever try sinking pellets or anything? Or, does the Oscar seem interested when food is moving only? You could try to put some in the water below the surface, near the filter outlet so it would move around a bit, maybe it might trigger the Oscar's hunting instincts.

oscars tend to be like naughty kids and eat only what the deem nice 4 them.

trust me if hes hungry he wil start eating,but keep an eye on him anyway