Im Winning!

[markandhisfish]

those of you that got involved in the thread about my oscars refusing pellets etc and only eating crickets/mealworms etc . may be interested to know that even tho i was happy the diet was good , i decided that yes it would be much easier if i could get them back on the pellets. so yesterday i didnt feed them. today i gave them some pellets and what do you know? like curry to a p--shead lol. so now im going to play it that if they eat all their pellets they can have a cricket or mealworm each as a treat in the evening. any uneaten pellets = no juicy bug.

so far seems to be working .

 

[Graphic5]

Thats good news mate, saves a bit of herd work.
any new pics to show us?
have they still got the black edging on their fins?

Rob

 

[markandhisfish]

havent done any new pics cos they havent grown much the last week or 2 , but lutinos seem to grow in spurts rather than at a steady pace , so im sure il get another spurt soon. still got the black edging on the fins . that should always be there now .

 

[simonas]

thats good news ascichlidsare so much easier to feed when they take the pellets especially big huingry brutes like Oscars!!!

 

[markandhisfish]

yeah i thought get them singing to my tune rather than vice versa . they get 3 smaller feedings per day at the moment , and if they eat all the pellets during the day i give them a cricket in the evening , if they dont then they hav a hungry evening . altho tonight for their evening feeding even tho they have eaten all their pellets , they are not getting a juicy bug , as im making a point lol . but if they eat all their pellets tomorrow they can have a cricket each for supper .

 

[Graphic5]

How big are the oscars now then? Are the crickets small, maybe I'm thinking of some other insect. Would my rotkeil eat them or meal worms?

 

[star4]

I am going through it with Chops at the moment, since he tasted the doromin he wont touch anything else so he is going to go hungry!

 

[markandhisfish]

How big are the oscars now then? Are the crickets small, maybe I'm thinking of some other insect. Would my rotkeil eat them or meal worms?

the oscars are about 3 inches , crickets are brown crickets ranging from 1/2 inch to adults. even at this size an adult cricket is no problem for an oscar.

im sure your rotkeil would take mealworms/small crickets. earthworms were a favourate for my sevs .

star try giving him some crickets

 

[snowflake311]

From what I know about the Oscars I took care of years ago. They are like Labrador retrievers and will eat ANYTHING when hungry and they always seem to be hungry.

 

[markandhisfish]

yes true, altho they can also be prety fussy too , and can get bored of certain foods . and as i have recent;y found will try to "train" you to give their favourate foods .

 

[Verminator89]

From what I know about the Oscars I took care of years ago. They are like Labrador retrievers and will eat ANYTHING when hungry and they always seem to be hungry.

Yup, too true. My Oscar when he had only been with my for a week ate 13 White Cloud Mountain Minnow in about 3 days. He was just over 1.5" at the time. He had a fat belly from cichlid pellets before i went to bed, so they certainly are greedy, and constantly hungry.


An Oscar that wants to play funny buggers with me will starve untill he eats what he's given. So far its going ok, although mine hasnt 'played up' yet, or had an oscar style sulk.

 

[markandhisfish]

the reason they are"always hungry" is that oscars are opportunistic predators and will eat whatever they can fit in their m ouths. in the wild they might not get to eat again for a while so will gorge whatever is there when it is there . i guess this instinct remains strong even in domestic bred ones .

 

[star4]

Well I have tried telling Chops again tonight that the gravel vac is not edible and will not fit in his mouth, but he keeps trying to eat it, every week!!!

 

[markandhisfish]

i think the spraybar on my 2217 is on borrowed time. every now and then a pellet gets stuck behind it , and they will try to go through it to get to the food. for now they just hit it hard enough so that it knocks the pellet out and into the flow so it zooms across the tank with 2 oscars racing each other to get to it. i can see it coming that when they are a bit bigger actually going through the thing and ripping it away. at the other end ive modified the 2028 , i took the spraybar off and attatched a short length of eheim hose to slightly extend the return pipe with 2 suckers on it and "bent" it upwards so there is still surface agitation , but no spraybar for them to pull off. it worked pretty well. i may well do something similar with the 2217 while i still can