oscar help

[T1LL3Y]

hi there peeps. ive got an oscar had him for bout 4 months hes about 4-5 inches long and i feed him on frozen blood worm when i first got him and now cockles and frozen blood worm. is this a good diet or would you suggest any other foods? he is a red map oscar but hes not very dark in colour all the time seems to be dark grey most of the time and is quite shy hisa red marking show amazingly all the time tho. any help please. cheers james

[Paul B]

Oscars will eat almost anything. I feed mine live and frozen and Koi pellets.
She is 16" and about 10 years old. Lives with an 18" plec and two Sun Perch.

White bait are a good frozen food once they get a bit bigger but you must have good filtration as they do ...dooo quite a lot.

[thelooneyflyer]

my 2 are just under a foot long they eat bloodworm, cichlid pellets, earthworms (make sure you remove all soil), sand eels, prawns....the list goes on I just try and keep the diet as varied as possible so that they get everything they need .

[jonodrama]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Oscars will eat almost anything. I feed mine live and frozen and Koi pellets.
She is 16" and about 10 years old. Lives with an 18" plec and two Sun Perch.

White bait are a good frozen food once they get a bit bigger but you must have good filtration as they do ...dooo quite a lot.

Extra filtration is the key! like Paul b i found koi pellets/sticks good when i had my Oscars. meal worms as a treat.

[mike515]

get him onto a decent pellet. Good pellets should be the backbone of all cichlid diets. They are a complete diet for most so you only have to supplement with the more expensive frozen and fresh foods. Most of my cichlids get fed fresh foods twice a week and pellets daily. You can see the difference. The problem with feeding oscars just bloodworm and cockle etc is that it's not balanced enough. Oscars are omnivores so need a fair bit of vegetation in their diet. So you need to be feeding plant matter as well or use a complete food and use the frozen meat/fish for an addition

[Paul B]

Mine also loves a pleco wafer or two. this provides a degree of the plant matter.

P

[thelooneyflyer]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Mine also loves a pleco wafer or two. this provides a degree of the plant matter.

P

mine nick the plecs wafers if he's not quick enough they seem to enjoy them

[_simon_]

Mine currently eats Tetra Dormin cichlid pellets, Spirulina flake, frozen blood worm, mussel, dried river shrimp and freeze dried crickets. If he's quick enough he also eats the carnivore tablets. He's growing like a weed and eats like a pig.

[Turtle Jo]

Mines around 10 inches and lives with 5 African turtles and eats what they eat (snails, worms, cockles, lance fish, pelleted food)

[thelooneyflyer]

Forgot to add mine like a few chunks of cucumber about once a week too