My husband put minnows in the tank with the oscars as we have turtles in there and my oscars have been eating them well one of my oscars has been impacted I can see that half of the minnow has been out of him for almost a week, I havent seen him eat the past few days and I have no idea what to do, he is now going to the bottom and sitting at the bottom of the tank. Should I try and get him out and pull the minnow out. I know its sickening but I dont want him to die. I think he is impacted and I am afraid he will die if he can't pass the fish. Please help.

you have 2 options really. try to remove it, i would only try this if it is very close to the mouth and you can see most of the fish inside. the main part you need to see is the spines. i would try to remove the spine rather than the whole fish,if you can see the head end of the minnow this maybe easy as the spines fold back when you pull, if you see tail end don't pull as spines will open out more.if you do try this take great care not to damage anything else or leave it and hope for the best. minnows are not a good food for Oscars or any fish and i would remove them all from your tank. the risk of disease from these fish are very high too.

from reading your post im assuming that the minnow i sticking out the oscars butt not his mouth since its been there for a week and he only stop eating in the last few days. could you clarify this for us?

also as marcus has pointed out minnows are not good food for oscars and turtles are really not good tankmates(from a disease point of view).

Any idea what I should do? I can get them out but they have already eaten them? He just can't pass this and I am really concerned. Its no where near his mouth at all hes completely digested well not completely but I am afraid if I pull I will hurt him maybe if I chase hima round the tank it will come loose, its just not buging at all. The other Oscar has no problem with the ones he has eaten. He is larger though although they were the same size when I purchased them.

hmm....thats a good one. obviously, it needs to come out, weather it comes out naturally or physically. if hes looking really bad, i think your last hope is to pull it yourself. id give it another day, and if its not out i guess you gotta do it. by no means am i a vet, but thats what i'd do.

feed you oscars pea's or lentils. this will help make them go to the toilet. you could try to lightly rub the underside of the oscar, fish do this themselves if they are struggling to remove wast food. if its to large I wouldn't pull hard but a light tug may help, lightly rubbing may break down the wast. oscars can take a few days to digest a large meal. you could try a vet but the cost may be high.