you know everyone tells me not to give goldfish as feeders. i now have a spare 10 gallon tank just sitting idle. was wanting to create a feeder fish tank with it but is there a feeder fish thats ok to feed my oscar? like say, minnows?

I would go for guppies. minnows are better than goldfish.

10 gallons wouldn't be big enough for more than just a few minnow. you will be completely wasting your time. The time effort and money that it takes to breed fish for food, you might as well go and buy them

so feeding them fish from time to time isn't gonna hurt him? just as long as its not goldfish,right?

if you catch wild minnow you need to quarantine for 4wks

yeah one inch minnows at my LPS are $.13 ea. i just thought it wasn't healthy for the fish if you got the feeders at a pet store. cause of disease and such. i mean its not that big a deal we feed him a pretty diverse diet its just awesome to watch him hunt!!

I wouldn't say the odd guppie would do any harm. but the main problems are infection from the fish as you may not have cared for it so well cos its going to be food. 2nd is oscar may only want feeders after and not eat other foods.

what about pet store bought minnows?

sh*t marcus, my oscar will eat about anything you throw in there. but thats sound advice i'll take!

I would still keep for 4wks. 2wk min. to be honest i would go for crickets or locust, thats what I go for when i get live foods. be careful to that your oscar don't get damaged while chasing food.

btd71 wrote:


Goldfish are very popular and are bred in huge numbers. They are often a very weak fish because of interbreeding which makes them very susceptible to diseases, this is the reason why these particular fish are not recommended as food for Oscar. However, you always run the risk of passing on disease by feeding live fish to your, doesn't necessarily just have to be a goldfish, you may well cope a dodgy tetra which is diseased when you feed it to your Oscar. Most reputable fish stores will not sell any suspect fish for a few days just to make sure that they haven't got any disease. However, not all shops do this. You're much better off sticking to good quality foods such as pellets, substituting that diet with krill, blood worm, garden worms, crickets etc. etc. just my opinion

OFL wrote:


i would x2 that. its better advice. i buy crickets, locust and meal worm along with lob worms. that all I give as far as live foods. its far safer for my fish.