about five minutes ago my oscar just ate one of the algae eaters head first and is swimming around the tank with it my oscars about 3 and a half inches long and the alge eater is about two is this two big for him to eat any help would be appreciated. thanks

your oscar should be fine it mite take him a while to completly get it all in his mouth and eat it. Thats like a meal and a half for him so i would skip the next meal till he has digested it.

cheers mate thankyou

Your joking matt...This could become stuck in the Oscars throat. If its still there in an hour..net the Oscar and try and gently remove it by hand as this could kill your Oscar if it gets stuck

Alot of plecs/catfish/alge eaters have very strong skeletal structures and spikes in their fins ....BE WARNED!!

Yes I agree, you are running the risk off the Oscar having serious problems if the fish gets stuck in his throat. Oscars have got eyes bigger than their belly and they will try and eat anything, whether they are capable of swallowing it or not.

Is this a common plec, or bristle nose catfish? BN catfish are not really suitable as tank mates, unless you can get a large fully grown one. If the fish appears to be stuck in the Oscars mouth then you would be advised to manually extract the plec. Hopefully it will be able to split the fish out by itself, but if it can't, you mustn't leave it like that for too long.

I'd try to get it out, personally.

I've never even heard of Oscars going for plecos. First for me! Kinda funny, Oscars are the garbage cans of the fish world. They're almost as bad as carp when it comes to eating anything and everything!

well the same thing happend to my oscar when he was about three inches and i just didnt feed him the next meal and he was fine.

MATT stop giving advice to people when your knowledge of keeping oscars is limited!!!!!

I concur with the others, net the fish and try to remove the plec. You may find that the plec is stuck due to its spiny fins sticking into the oscars mouth. You may have to cut these. If you have to do this you have to be accurate (dont cut the oscar) and quick. Once the oscar has been out of the tank for 3min then put him back in the tank for 10 mins and then try again

delboybully wrote:


oh i didnt read that it was a pleco my bad i just thought it was a normal feeder or something.

Just out of curiosity would it might be possible to try and push the plec forward a lttle bit (obviously not too much or too hard)? Perhaps to collapse the fins that might have splayed outward?

I think Noddy has had some experience with this.

if it's a pleco it's time to move fast.
Concider the pleco lost.
Catch the oscar, and clip the finspines of the pleco and remove the pleco.
Try to remove the finspines with pliers..
If it stay too long in the throath of the oscar they will both die.
This all applies to plecos, algae eaters have no spine and will be spat out if the oscar is fed up or full.

Both these fish died, for the oscar couldn't close his mouth anymore.




Hope you are in time.
A chinese algae eater will be of no harm.

if the situation is in this position, you can no longer alter the situation.
it will be useless to pull the plec out... just wait and pray the plec would
be totally gulp or else you will lost both of them.... same fate like this...