Oscars not eating

I know this has been asked a thousand times but I just wanna be sure if I'm doing it right. How long can I humanely starve my Oscar to get him to eat pellets?
It's been 4 days and It seems like the baby Oscar doesn't see the pellet as food at all. I've tried three different types of pellets including the sinking one and bloodworms but he isn't interested at all. He isn't stressed or sulking anymore and is quite comfortable around me. He's in there with two other baby Severums.

I haven't tried shrimp yet cause I don't want him to get hooked on shrimp.
Ammonia : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : 10 ppm
75 gallon

 

I know this has been asked a thousand times but I just wanna be sure if I'm doing it right. How long can I humanely starve my Oscar to get him to eat pellets?
It's been 4 days and It seems like the baby Oscar doesn't see the pellet as food at all. I've tried three different types of pellets including the sinking one and bloodworms but he isn't interested at all. He isn't stressed or sulking anymore and is quite comfortable around me. He's in there with two other baby Severums.

I haven't tried shrimp yet cause I don't want him to get hooked on shrimp.
Ammonia : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : 10 ppm
75 gallon

A young oscar can go about 2 weeks while an adult could go up to 4 weeks. I would cut those numbers by at least 1/4 just to be safe.

 

I've never had oscars specifically, but you might try soaking the pellets in garlic before putting the in the tank. you could also attach it to the end of something (like skewed on a bamboo stick or something) and make it bounce around the tank a bit to try to get his attention focused on it. do the severums eat the pellets?

 

I've never had oscars specifically, but you might try soaking the pellets in garlic before putting the in the tank. you could also attach it to the end of something (like skewed on a bamboo stick or something) and make it bounce around the tank a bit to try to get his attention focused on it. do the severums eat the pellets?

Wow that's a great idea! Naved16 could also poke next to the pellet to simulate a struggling fish.

 

I've never had oscars specifically, but you might try soaking the pellets in garlic before putting the in the tank. you could also attach it to the end of something (like skewed on a bamboo stick or something) and make it bounce around the tank a bit to try to get his attention focused on it. do the severums eat the pellets?

Severums only eat them when I soak them for a while and sink them, they just go nuts. But they don't seem to notice the floating pellets. They're still very new to the tank so I'm not worried about that.

 

Wow that's a great idea! Naved16 could also poke next to the pellet to simulate a struggling fish.

I'll try the garlic trick but I don't really know if it works. I tried it with my Betta once and she has never spit anything out that fast.

 

I know this has been asked a thousand times but I just wanna be sure if I'm doing it right. How long can I humanely starve my Oscar to get him to eat pellets?
It's been 4 days and It seems like the baby Oscar doesn't see the pellet as food at all. I've tried three different types of pellets including the sinking one and bloodworms but he isn't interested at all. He isn't stressed or sulking anymore and is quite comfortable around me. He's in there with two other baby Severums.

I haven't tried shrimp yet cause I don't want him to get hooked on shrimp.
Ammonia : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : 10 ppm
75 gallon

If the Oscar chooses not to eat, you can't really force him, but you should leave just a few pellets every time you'd usually feed the fish until he finally gets the idea. Oscars are super trainable (be careful, they'll train you too), so you can get his attention by pressing your finger to the glass and moving it around. Soon, he'll get used to following your finger. You can then direct him to where the pellets are. You can also tap the tank lid when you feed them so they'll automatically swim to the top of the tank for pellets when you tap. The garlic trick also works, I hear, but that's more of a short term thing unless you feel like soaking fish food in garlic juice every day.