Why is that Oscars poop so much more than other large cichlids?

My JD and RD eat as much as my Oscar (that is much smaller than my JD), yet they don't poop any where near as much as my Oscar.

Strange question, never been asked that one before. Oscars are bigger than Jack Dempsey's so I suppose it makes sense that they will excrete more waste. Oscars are also very greedy fish and whether you realize it or not, they probably get the lions share of the food when it goes into the tank. They have got very big mouths so can get lots of food into them.

This information might be a complete load of b***ocks, but it is the only answer I have for you

OFL wrote:


Thanks Penn.

My Jack Dempsey is about 10 inches right now and my Oscar is about 4 inches; they are in separate tanks. I was really just using the JD as a point of reference.

I have noticed that Oscar have more waist than other like size fish. I was just looking to open up a strange (maybe interesting ) conversation on this subject; since much of our efforts are to keep "pristine water quality".

My theory is... they will eat much more than they can process, so much of what they eat goes straight to waste and not absorbed by the body of the O.

Like I said, they are greedy fish This may be the reason why plecos produce gargantuan amounts of waste, they are grazing all the time because there is often endless amounts of algae in a tank.

Oscar have quite an inefficient digestive system so this will increase the waste they produce, it has been mentioned on here many times that SD's will eat oscar poo (oscars digestion is that poor)

delboybully wrote:


That makes sense Del. Thanks

right, so maybe that is why feeding foods without 'fish meal' is better since they are pooping machines. I feed hikari, but maybe I should stick with omega one, it uses whole fish.


do u use whole fish food or fish meal?

mylutino wrote:


I use Hikari Staple

in my early stage of raising oscar, i had experimented about the weight
gain of an oscar against the weight of foods consumed. as explains to us
by the food manufacturer, oscar is supposed to grow 35% of food consumed.
we had documented that and it was true. if your oscar can consume 500 grams
of dried pellets in a week, it supposed to gain 175 grams in weight. during
that stage of my experiment, we are not concern about how long it will grew up
but how much weight we can get after 120 days.

i believe oscar pooh that much because they eat like pig.

i use both hikari staple and hikari gold, both are made with fish meal, but I think is good food. Pricier foods like omega one use whole fish, but I cant bear the price tag right now, besides, have had good luck feeding hikari.