Oscars eating habits !!

Hope all are doing Great in the fish world. Do Oscars really eat ??? when they were small they would eat every thing an want more,no mess. Now that they are bigger , 6" an 4" you feed them an it goes in there mouth an right out their gills all broke up. An that fast too.Non stop !! what's up with that ?? They can't be swollowing any of it. Like I said before they did'nt do that , why now ???
One is I guess, a tiger Oscar (has the orange markings on it ) an the smaller one is a albino, I guess ( all white with a little orange markings on it down low ). Why do they look different, I mean their heads are not the same shape.Is one not a true blue Oscar, or are these albinos just shaped differently ( the head ) The rest of it looks the same...
Thanks Shopdave52

 

My oscars do the same thing when they eat. They are very messy eaters, and this is normal.

Oscars can look quite different. Some even have the bump on the head. They are just like people, and their features can be quite different. I would love to see pictures of your babies!

 

Thanks Gunnie,I can take the pictures of them , No problem. Its what to do with them I don't have a clue. ??? So give me some time to read up on this stuff an will see ! I don't even know how to get the pictures out of the camrea. Little loan send them some where.lol :-[
dave

 

If the food is coming out of their gills and mouth, then you're feeding them too much. My Oscars eat mainly pellets and nothing comes out of their mouth or gills. However, it did used to happen a couple of years ago so what I did was to minimise how much I used to feed them. If you have got the large pellets, something like Hikari, give them three or four for one meal and then stop (depending on how big the fish is) Keep doing that and after a while you should find that they will start eating them properly, even if you increase how much you give them. If they start chewing it up and spitting it out straight away, and stop feeling straightaway, wait till the next feeding time. Oscars won't starve so don't worry.

 

Mine was a VERY sloppy eater. I even saw him eat a nightwalker worm once, and the worm tried to escape out his gills! It didn't hurt him, he just bit it in half, the other half came out his gills, and then he ate that part too. Just be ready to clean your tank a LOT!

 

Ironside has a point. Decrease the amount and frequency of feeding. They will learn that the food they get is not to be taken for granted. They will learn to value their newly portioned rations.

If that doesn't work for you, go to your local food market and order a pound or two of frozen RAW shrimp. That will run you about 3 dollars tops. Clean the thawd RAW shrimp and break the shrimp into smaller pieces to feed the oscar.

Food in pellet form [no matter how big or small it is] will always break apart and escape through the gills. Shrimp will not break into fragments but will be chewed and digested much more efficiently. Your oscars will love you for it.

BTW: Slowly introduce this diet to your fish. One feeding of RAW shrimp a week with pellet food every OTHER day. Then two Shrimp feedings the next week and so on. Three SHRIMP FEEDINGS a week should be max. They only get protein from shrimp. Pellet food will supply the rest of the nutrients.

GOOD LUCK!

 

I have some freeze dried tubifex worms that I give mine every once in awhile. He makes a mess with the chunks. LOL

His normal diet is a krill and pellets. He doesn't make a mess with those.

 

Oscars eating habits!!

My brother's oscar eats on alamang or brine shrimp that is frozen. One time, I feed eat minnows(in our term) or live-bearers fish. When they're small, they'll take small fish, snails, worms( mostly small earthworms),and insects. Try those food.