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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Bum
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Oscar Poo???
Please do not laugh. I have been seeing, what I thought was left over food pellets, on the bottom of the tank. I just want to know if it could be Oscar Poo. I have never had an Oscar grow so big before and have never seen him go to the bathroom. Everyone says Oscars are messy fish so I just want to know what I am cleaning up. Also, I want to make sure I am not overfeeding him. He is always looking for food everytime I walk by. My water is clear just the gravel is getting dirty. Any help would be great.
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Master
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It very well could be..oscar poo looks like a watered down pellet thats kinda cottony (is that a word?) ....if all you feed your oscar is pellets, 3-4 per feeding twice a day is good...  if you give them other things, I back my pellets down to 2 plus the fresh food |
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Bum
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It is cottony. If you are saying 3 or 4 pellets 2 or 3 times a day is good then I am way over feeding. I am using medium moyen and am giving him around 8 to 10 twice a day. I guess I should cut down a lot.
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Addict
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JD OSCAR
Also, I want to make sure I am not overfeeding him.
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How large is your oscar? This will have a bearing on how much/often to feed.
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So, how much food should you give your Oscar? Baby Oscars fill themselves up very quickly. You will notice that their bellies become slightly rounded, this is the time to stop feeding. As your Oscar grows, distinguishing how much they eat by looking at their bellies is not always that easy. I've found that as the Oscar gets bigger, it can eat a lot of food and you won't notice any difference in their stomach size. For this reason, if I am feeling pellets, I now like to work by the two or three minute rule. Basically, this means dropping three or four pellets in for up to three minutes, and then stop. If in that three-minute period, the Oscars start expelling food from their mouths and gills, cease feeding straight away, even if they haven't had that much.
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Let's go back to feeding your babies briefly. I have already mentioned that they are normally around 2 1/2 inches to 3 inches when purchased as babies. Don't be tempted to put too much food in at once, baby Oscars will stuff as much food in their mouth as they possibly can. They can actually gorge themselves to the extent that they can't close their mouths and it takes them a long time to clear the food. A lot of the food will be expelled from the gills because there is just too much. For this reason, put only two or three pellets in at a time. Once you Oscars get bigger, they are able to handle food in larger quantities.
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Also, you may want to look into upgrading your tank. A 40g will not be sufficient for an adult oscar, unfortunately. |
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Master
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JD OSCAR
It is cottony. If you are saying 3 or 4 pellets 2 or 3 times a day is good then I am way over feeding. I am using medium moyen and am giving him around 8 to 10 twice a day. I guess I should cut down a lot.
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IF all you are feeding your oscar is pellets, 3-4 pellets twice a day is good...if you are feeding live food as well, 2 pellets twice a day with their live food is good...so yes id say 8-10 is overfeeding...remember fishies bellys are the size of one eye |
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Bum
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My Oscar is about 7 to 8 inches. He just grew so fast. I have no other fish in my tank so I am hoping with a lot of care my Oscar will be Okay in the 40g. My family does not want a larger tank in the house. I had to fight for the 40g. Do you think the Oscar is lonely all by himself?
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Addict
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An oscar is usually fine by itself. In fact, in a tank that size, an oscar might eventually harass or kill anything you put in with it. As they reach adulthood, they can become territorial, and anything that gets large enough to not be food would drastically overcrowd a 40g tank even more than it already is.
If it's 7-8", Shawnie's 3-4 pellets twice per day is probably great advice. Without knowing how large the pellets actually are, though, it's hard to say with 100% certainty. You may want to try the feeding method in the article I linked to, where you feed a few pellets at a time until the oscar starts to expel food from its gills/mouth.
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August 29th, 2008
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Fish Master
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I assumed he was feeding the sized pellets that the oscar could consume...small, med, and large cichlid pellets are out there and should be fed according to the size the oscar can consume..either way, 3-4 is great each feeding...like most fish, they will eat and eat forever ..
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