Oscar feeding?

1490 Views 15 Replies 6 Participants Last post by TheFishGuy, Mar 26, 2011

Linz

Discussion Starter · Mar 21, 2011

Hey I am brand new to the forum and just got an oscar and a whole bunch of cichlids. I went from a completely peaceful tank to an agressive tank. My question is how much do I feed my oscar I am feeding him frozen super carnivore and the pet store was giving him 2 cubes a day. He is about 8 inches long and I have been feeding him 4 cubes. I have a 75 gallon tank and he is an amazingly different fish than at the store he charged the tank and attacked anyone who tried to clean in his enviroment. He is a sweety and I love him, but I don't want to kill him with kindness either. He eats from my hand loves to be watched and doesn't bother the other fish (unless provoked, my old pleco learned to not challenge him).

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TheFishGuy

· #2 · Mar 21, 2011

At 8 inches it's approaching maturity if not there already. Not knowing how large the cubes are I'd say as much as it could eat in thirty seconds. Once per day. I'd also skip the day of the week that you do your 1/3 water change.

What else is in with the oscar?

And welcome to the C-F.

jd lover

· #3 · Mar 21, 2011

?Hey tfg why do you skip feedin on the water change day? When I change my waters I feed them and add a treat to calm them down a bit and it seems to work

TheFishGuy

· #4 · Mar 21, 2011

Just something I've been doing for 20 years...
Just onee more way to keep your tank clean...
Fish don't need fed every day, only fry...
My adult cichlids get fed once every other day...

Unless my wife falls victum of their begging...

jd lover

· #5 · Mar 21, 2011

o lol i feed them before so i guess it dont really matters but I must ask why every other day? They seem less aggressive when there's enough food to go around

LSBoost

· #6 · Mar 22, 2011

When i was on vacation last christmas, I didn't feed her for 3 weeks and she was fine. I normally feed once a day, as much as she can consume in 20-30 sec. Pretty close to thefishguy's guide i guess.

TheFishGuy

· #7 · Mar 22, 2011

jd lover said:
o lol i feed them before so i guess it dont really matters but I must ask why every other day? They seem less aggressive when there's enough food to go around

Because adult cichlids don't need fed daily.

And your tank stays that much cleaner.

And their color is that much better!

sirnewb

· #8 · Mar 23, 2011

Out of curiousity here, how does less feeding make a fishes color better?

remi

· #9 · Mar 23, 2011

sirnewb said:
Out of curiousity here, how does less feeding make a fishes color better?

I'm no expert, but I would imagine because of better water conditions.

TheFishGuy

· #10 · Mar 23, 2011

A couple of years back we conducted an experiment with wild caught red devils that were losing their intensity over time. The red was fading to orange. Turns out the less you fed the more colorful they got. Could have been the water, or could have been something entirely different like the instinct to intensify whilst on the hunt... Either way we seemed to prove it with a ton of other cichlid species across the board... Guess what species I messed with first...

sirnewb

· #11 · Mar 24, 2011

Hmm, that's really interesting. But when do you start this? Because if I try only feeding once a day, my dempsey gets very aggressive and seems to lose color and/or try to eat my danios.... do they need to be fully mature?

TheFishGuy

· #12 · Mar 24, 2011

Yes, this is done with mature fish

jd lover

· #13 · Mar 24, 2011

O well my o isn't fully mature yet LOL he's only 8 inch still just a teen

TheFishGuy

· #14 · Mar 25, 2011

Your oscar is about 30 seconds from mature. If they can spawn, they are mature.

jd lover

· #15 · Mar 25, 2011

I thought you ment mature as in full size lol but I went 1 day without feeding and my tiger o turned yellow with orange strip in the yellow area is this normal? cause he looked really good like that.

TheFishGuy

· #16 · Mar 26, 2011

Yes, yellowing is natural.

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