Feeding Oscar

[AquaNut]

Cool. Thanks once again for the tips, smb. I'm not too worried about the food purchases; if Chester Bertuzzi doesn't end up eating it, I'm sure someone else will (pretty sure my angels would eat these cichlid pellet things... so would my silver dollars - they'll eat anything ). Good reminder about getting worms at bait shops. I live in the self-proclaimed Salmon Capitol of the World, so there are lots of marinas and bait shops here. lol However, there is little that Jenica likes more than digging up earthworms , so I'd hate to deprive her of such an activity on such a fine day as today.

I know goldfish aren't the best feeders, but until he settles in and I know he's eating, I'll feel safer knowing they're in there as an option (even though I like the lil guys). Once Chester moves into a bigger tank, would a pair of cons produce a suitable food supply? Doh. My questions never end.

 

[smb]

Once Chester moves into a bigger tank, would a pair of cons produce a suitable food supply? Doh. My questions never end.

I would have to say not really.

IMO-

• Either the Oscar will eat one or both of the parents.
• The con parents will make life miserable for the Oscar when they breed.
• If it did work, the fry would only be good enough for half a meal for the O anyways.

If you mean in a different tank, it would be fine and they could keep up since you don't want to feed live feeders too much anyways. Sounds good to me.

 

[AquaNut]

Oh! I definitely meant in a different tank!! Would a pair of cons be okay in a 33 if they were the only fish in there? (I did warn you that I know NOTHING about cichlids... I'm sure I did ) Yeah.. I just meant as a 'live food supplement' instead of buying feeder fish, especially if he turns out to be really finicky about non-live foods.

 

[missyintx_99]

I'll jump in here!
I think a 33g for a pair of breeding cons should be fine as long as you don't put anything else in the tank with them. When con's breed they get extremely aggressive and would kill anything else with them. And they breed like rabbits! So live food supply would definately be coming steadily.

Just a brief thought about the Angels and pellet food, let me know if they eat it!
I bought some Hikari Gold cichlid pellets, baby-sized and they sort of nibble on them but not much. I had first purchased the mini-sized ones and they were too big, thats when I went back and picked up the baby sized ones. Between that and the large Wardley's pellets, I have lots of different pellets around here! It has helped to mix it up and give all my cichlids some variety. Oh, and my girls goldfish love the pellets! So I'm sure something in one of your tanks will eat them up!

 

[AquaNut]

Oh please do jump in any time, missy!! I really appreciate your advice. I really can't believe how much of a newbie I feel like when it comes to this oscar; he's very different from my other fish.

As far as the cichlid pellets go, I haven't tried them on anybody else yet, but the four little golfish in Chester's tank ate the ones I put in there for him. He still hasn't eaten anything that I know of.