Feeding your Oscar
Feeding Oscars is very straightforward. People do tend to worry about how much their Oscar should be fed and how often. One of the most important things to remember is it’s best to under feed, rather than give your fish far too much food. Overfeeding fish can result in poor water quality. Fish can also become obese if they eat too much food so give them enough food, but not too much. If I’m feeling my fish on pellet, I intermittently drop food in for a couple of minutes and then stop. You’ll be amazed that Oscars get through quite a few pellets in the time. However, they don’t eat too much. If you have baby Oscars up to around 5 inches, you could feed them three times a day. Between five and 7 inches, I would feed twice a day. By the time most Oscars reach 8 inches, they are either/or approaching one year old and will do well with one feed a day.
Remember that Oscars should be fed on a varied diet. Whereas I feed my pellets as their main diet, I supplement this with such foods as lance fish, shrimp/krill, cockles and mealworms/beetles. With this type of food, I will give them a fixed amount with let’s say a couple of lance fish and maybe four or five cockles each. A lot of the time, I will tip all the food into the tank together and then it’s everyone for themselves. If of the Oscars only gets one fish then that’s tough, he’ll have to fight harder next time. Sometimes I think it’s a good idea to make them work for their food rather than just handing it to them on a plate, after all, in the wilds, they would have to work very hard for food. Oscars would probably be opportunists and take food when it came their way, so why not do the same in captivity? I only do this occasionally, I do like to make sure that my fish get enough food.
So remember, under feed rather than overfeed. Oscars haven’t gained the nickname “River dog” for nothing, these guys are professional beggars and pull at many people’s heartstrings until they get what they want, most of the time this is food. If you feed them at the same time every day, they will get used to this and it’s fun to see them getting excited as dinnertime approaches. Who said fish have a five second memory?
