Lookin for ideas for different treats.

Oscars ae getting pretty big now and starting to get big appetites as well.

Was wanting to know what some of you feed your oscars/cichlids for treats.

They currently are eating about 50 feeders a week plus cichlid gold and freeze dried shrimp, and the occasional handful of crickets.

Oh, and I'm not sure if this was answered anywhere else but, can you feed them worms you get at walmart in the bait section?

 

With worms there's a simple way to clean them out. Make up some oatmeal and wash the worms in cool dechlorinated water, put the worms in the oatmeal for 24+hours to let them clean out their digestive system. Ive done it before, no harm to the fish. Also, have you tried any of the fallowing?
Silk worms
butter worms
super worms
pheonix worms
fruit flys?

 

have you tried giving them some fruits as a treat ? my oscars will eat banana, strawberry, white grapes (deskined), black cherry (deskined) to name a few.

 

San Francisco bay makes some great frozen foods. Beef heart and Emerald Entree would be good. Why do you feed so many feeder fish? It's important to get some vegetation in there. Emerald Entree has some great ingredients that would probably be beneficial to your fishies.

If you aren't raising your own feeders, I'd worry about disease. Also, if you are using goldfish they have a very low nutritional value. I'm sure they love eating them though, lol.

 

Good morning,

I kept Oscars years ago. Mine loved crickets that I bought at the bait/tackle shop. I also fed them night crawlers from my yard and the bait shop too.

Freeze dried krill would also be good. I use the ones below for my fish now and as far as krill go, these are huge:


Also you can try freeze dried Meal Worms:


I also use freeze dried whole earthworms:


Ken's is a great source for fish foods.

Always pre-soak freeze dried foods before feeding.

Ken

 

have you tried giving them some fruits as a treat ? my oscars will eat banana, strawberry, white grapes (deskined), black cherry (deskined) to name a few.

Did not know that they would be interested in any fruits. Will have to try that.

San Francisco bay makes some great frozen foods. Beef heart and Emerald Entree would be good. Why do you feed so many feeder fish? It's important to get some vegetation in there. Emerald Entree has some great ingredients that would probably be beneficial to your fishies.

If you aren't raising your own feeders, I'd worry about disease. Also, if you are using goldfish they have a very low nutritional value. I'm sure they love eating them though, lol.

I only started feeding them the feeders recently, but they seem to enjoy it and I personally find it interesting. I am not feeding them goldfish but the rosy minnows from petsmart that I get every wednesday when they come in. I then let them stay in a ten gallon I have setup up next to it so that I can check to see if any are exhibiting sick behaviors and remove them to a separate tank. I am trying to set up a 29 gallon atm to try and breed the convict male I have with a suitable partner, that is, when I can find him one. As far as the veggie thing goes, I'm not too worried, as they will occasionally tear apart a veggie wafer if my pleco doesn't get to them fast enough.

Good morning,

I kept Oscars years ago. Mine loved crickets that I bought at the bait/tackle shop. I also fed them night crawlers from my yard and the bait shop too.

Freeze dried krill would also be good. I use the ones below for my fish now and as far as krill go, these are huge:


Also you can try freeze dried Meal Worms:


I also use freeze dried whole earthworms:


Ken's is a great source for fish foods.

Always pre-soak freeze dried foods before feeding.

Ken

Right now I'm going to finish off the bottle of krill then I think I'll order some of those earthworms. Thanks for the links.