Petting Oscars

[Uriel]

Is petting your oscar cruel ? Seen some video's of people doing it and also my friend said his loved to have it's belly tickled but not sure if it's cruel or not and wondered what peoples opinions where ??

 

[walkers101]

"tickling" oscars is the most friendly way to send them into a trance to move them without netting them i have done it on all of my oscars its a lot less cruel than stressing them out in my opinion

 

[KittyKat]

As long as your hands are clean (and don't have soap on them) and you are not rough, then it should be ok. Potential problems could arise if you remove most of the fishs' slime coat or have something toxic on your hands. I have been catching large and delicate fish by hand without any ill effects for as long as I have kept fish.. for example, in my opinion, it is by far the safest way to move plecos and Corys as they can easily become tangled in a net.

 

[markandhisfish]

agrred i always move plecs by hand too.

 

[fishnovice]

Me too -you can't net 12in plecs.They don't see to mind being touched. Much more stressful for me as I usually end up getting soaked trying to cath them.

 

[Uriel]

Cheers I've got them to feed from my hand and thought it would be nice but didn't want to do anything that would injure or unnessecarily stress them. Course its up to them whether they want to come to my hand or just bite it now that they associate it with food

 

[star4]

My smallest Oscar Rusty will swim through my hand so I tickle his belly when I am doing water changes, My lodger Tigger will occasionally nudge my hand or brush past it, my 3rd Oscar Chops would rip my fingers off if I tried to touch him!

 

[markandhisfish]

i tried to handfeed cheech and chong yesterday , they were more interested in trying to eat my finger than the food