my oscars love cooked prawns,in fact all my cichlids do, not long ago my local aquatic store had live river shrimp which they went mad for, only thing is they were expensive for a dozen. i have my own prawn pots and catch loads of prawns about 1.5 to 2 inches. if i rinsed them before i put them in would they be ok?
read in a book that freshwater fish cant pick up any illnesses through sea creatures, not sure i belive this.
any ideas???

My mate gave me some live prawns a few weeks ago, he had them left over from Bass Fishing. With the aid of an air stone, I managed to keep them alive for around three days. My Oscars love them. And the thing is, prawns can survive in fresh water for quite a long time, so even if the Oscars do miss them, they don't die that quickly.

I think it depends on where the prawns come from. I wouldn't suggest using forms that have come from near a sewer outlet for instance. I suppose any living creature can become ill and there are parasites in nearly every corner of the globe, including the sea. So unfortunately, you are always going to run the risk of passing on things to Oscars if you feed them on creatures, whether they are alive or dead.

In all my days of sea fishing, I can never remember catching any fish that look diseased. While I've been fishing in fresh water, I've often caught fish that occasionally have fungal infections. The sea is a very big place, there's a lot of water to dilute any nasty things that might be floating around.

In my opinion, there is less chance of passing on something nasty if you take it from the sea, rather than inland waterways.

thanks for that,will try it. prawns come from the edge of thatchers rock, let me know if you want any lol:laugh:

If you get any spare live prawn, let me know,. I'll have to get another source of air stone because the one I was using before is in my tank. I used to catch loads down the harbour. Brixham breakwaters also very good for prawns if you've got some pots. Yes, my Oscars would be very grateful to you if you could supply them with some nice fresh live food. It's really funny seeing an Oscar swimming around the huge prawn sticking out of its mouth, you seen how long their whiskers are (the prawn that is)

By the way, is your webpage still going? The reason I ask as I have never seen it. I did one for a mate of mine a while ago. If you type in phrases such as aquarium installation Devon, or aquarium maintenance Devon you'll find they're at the top of Google, if not seconds. Also pond construction Devon, pond cleaning Devon also comes up very well. The website is called www.aquaticanswers.co.UK

while we`re talking ozzie food, i went to a plymouth aquatic shop and looked at there frozen food section. shop keeper sold me some frozen "lancefish" said oscars would love them.
they look like small sand eels but are fresh water fish......or so he told me.
anyway oscars did love them but after they eat two of them i noticed this oil slick on the surface of the water! i know oscars are messy eaters but the mess was a joke! i may aswell have fed them fried sausages! so they went in the bin, not sure if any of you have tried them but i wont be again.

still got website, havin nightmare with it at the moment as for some reason i cant get into the main page to up date it!

thinking of starting a new one in a few weeks

My Oscars love Lance Fish, can't I've ever noticed an oil slick

hmmm? wonder if the ones i got had been defrosted then refrozen,
where do you get yours from?

I feed my oscar sprats sometimes and after i get some stuff on the surface of the tank, but not an oil slick. It soon disappears. I have fed lance fish and not had a problem. I suspect its just some natural oils in the fish

I feed my o's lance fish they love them,get a bit of yukky off em but as delboy said it soon goes.