Well i bought 4 ghost shrimp today just because i've always been really curious about them and I figured it wouldn't hurt to have something else help out with the cleaning duties. Well shrimp #1 died while getting poured from the bag(kinda smushed it). after about a day in my quarantine tank I released the rest into my main tank. I figured they would be fine since my oscar is so young. Well after deciding the shrimp were ok to eat he promptly chased one down and put it in his mouth. 30 minutes later he chased down the other which jumped out of the tank and unfortunately is somewhere on my bedroom carpet. The last is either going to be dinner or jump as well.

I tried netting these buggers but its short of impossible.

A general rule is that if it fits in your oscars mouth he will try to eat it. Also remember that oscars grow very quickly so something that wont fit now might fit later

The point of a quarantine tank is to check out the new fish to see if they have any diseases. One day is not enough time to do this in. You need at least 2 weeks

To make is easier to catch fish (or shrimp), remove all decor and then drain a substantial amount of water out of the tank (dont forget to unplug heaters) , then catch the fish (or shrimp)

Clown loach are a good cleaner fish and they look great. But if you get some remember they grow very slow and oscar grow fast. Also clown loach are a social fish and you need to keep them in groups (at least 3)

Maybe you should get some cover glass or some sort of cover for your tank. I have heard of oscars jumping out of the tank

delboybully wrote:


I am aware of the use of a quarantine tank, but in this case I was just getting them used to the difference in water. I probably couldn't tell you if they were sick or not (hard enough just to see). I decided it was alright and released them.

I also really didn't want to completely disturb my fish with the hassle of draining water and removing items. All for a few ghost shrimp. After maybe 5 minutes I gave up on it. Oscar seemed to enjoy himself though so I am currently looking into the nutritional value/risks of ghost shrimps as an occasional meal.

My pleco really handles a lot of the tank cleaning duties(going at it as I type actually) and I figured the GS could clean up after the oscar food wise. And at $1 total I figured I'd try them out. Just never been a big loach or cory guy.

Thanks for your quick feedback. I actually do have a cover for the tank but don't really use it. Think I'm going to start though. I would hate to find my oscar out of the tank one day.

shrimp and Oscars as tank mates? Put it this way, if a plate was put in front of me that had a fillet steak, medium rare, chips mushrooms and fried tomato, but plate would be empty within 10 minutes. Now you know how the Oscar feels

OFL that made me laugh and you got it spot on!!!!

Oscarfishlover wrote:


hahaha point taken. Well he still hasn't been able to get that GS. Very elusive although he'll go back and search for it every so often.

Edit: He finally caught that rouge ghost shrimp. Was actually pretty cool to see the Oscar's predatory skills in action

How much did you pay for the ghost shrimp?

Oscarfishlover wrote:


35 cents a shrimp. $1.46 with tax

spimoles wrote:


Blimey, certainly the fillet steak of the Oscar wild. I love my Oscars to bits, I'm afraid you have to make do with pellets, mealworms and frozen shrimp etc. no fillet steak for them I'm afraid

Haha definitely an occasional meal. Maybe a once or twice a month kinda deal. The little guy will eat me out of house and home if I make it a daily type of of thing.

May look into breeding them though, they don't seem to be very hard to maintain.

That is cheap for a fish. We are lucky in England if we can get small fish for £1 each. Not that I feed live fish to my oscars even if they were free. Not my thing!

I use shrimp as feeders for my cichlids. The fish love 'em!

I wouldn'm mind feeding a little fish like some sort of guppy or minnow, anything smaller than 4 incehs really. But I can't stand to feed anything above that.

I often feed my snake live lepard frogs and it just pains me to watch the snake constrict them and the eat them...but it's still cool:laugh: