I went to my local Aquarium club meeting and one of the members breeds guppies. He brought some babies to share, so I took some home to give my O's a treat. They've never had live food before and I trusted the source. I dumped the guppies in the tank - the O's swam up to them and checked them out, then swam away.

The guppies filled the belly of my Severum instead - he had a nice snack. I fed the O's some pellets and they gobbled them up just like normal.

I'm not worried - but surprised at their reaction.... I thought for sure they'd go after them. Anyone have their O's snub their noses at live food?

whenever i want to watch my os chase such live feeders, i starve them for two days.
upon release of the feeders, they chase them till gone..... a lot of splashing
due to competitions, 3 against each other and an aro....nice to watch.

My O will eat any guppies that will swim into his mouth...
No chasing though.
If it moves and is very close, he'll grab them.
i think chasing a guppy is kinda like us running after an single M&M.
i put in a tiny barb some months ago and my o checked him out, but never even tries to eat him anymore.
Fish does not appeal to my O, he doesn''t even take the frozen feeders i feed my gar.
Bugs and worms are more his thing

Noddy wrote:


that makes sense and is hilarious

Good point Noddy, oscars generally wont bother with small food. Try dropping in 3 or 4 individual bloodworms into a tank with a large oscar!!!!. Its just not worth the effort

Some oscars also get used to not eating live food and so dont go for it although i suspect this is rare

what was funny about the guppies - is the O didn't have to chase - they were right in front of his mouth and he checked them out, then swam off. Sort-of like he sniffed them, snubbed them and left. who knows - they are funny creatures.

My o has enjoyed a few feeder fish from time to time. Worms are a different story though. I fed him bloodworms as a baby, but I'd never given him a full sized live worm until a week ago. I dropped the worm in, he watched it, he followed it as it sank and moved around on the bottom, and it looked like he was about to eat it. Then my catfish spotted the worm. I now know that catfish REALLY love worms.

Your o might not be snubbing the live food. It might be curiousity preventing those guppies demise. Now that my o knows that worm = food, the worm sometimes doesn't even make it to the bottom of the tank.

I have fed my Oscars nightcrawler worms and they usually just grab them as soon as I put them in the tank. The one in his own tank is now snubbing the worms not even acting like he's interested. Their staple diet is cichlid sticks and pellets.

both my os would demolish guppies
my liittle albino o once bit the head of a 40 dollar prochalodis that was just an inch smaller than him
came home one day and it was floting around with no head!

Its funny cuz my mate say ther os not eatting guppies of live food lately but my 2 will eat what ever you put in the tank...or at least try to.lol they love the taste of my hand to...when I hand feed them pallets they have a bit of finger too.
Never draw blood but just about

my oscars have strange eating habbits too.

they will demolish live food such as small fish however make little to no attempt to eat live bloodworm some days but will go crazy for it another. usually its up to the other fish to clean it all up!

strange things but i suppose thats why we love them!!

haha yes strange sumthings hey...i call them freaks all the time.
best interactive pet fish ever. like dogs in a tank.