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I have an oscar that I give live food to once every other day or so.
Here is the problem:
A friend of mine brought over about 40 of her goldfish for my oscar, as she is getting over crouded.

I don't have the extra room to store that many fish so I thought it would be fine to just go ahead and put them in with him and he could eat them as he pleased.

I think this was a big mistake. He ate all 40 overnight!
I was pretty scared that it was going to kill him to eat so much. I have herd that if you overfeed fish it can kill them.

He was happy to see me in the morning and he ate his normal food, it was as if he didn't just finish off 40 fish that night.

Just so you know, he is about 5" long. The fish he ate were at least 2" long.

I didn't think it was possible for him to eat that many so fast.

Will an oscar eat themselves to death if given a chance? Or do I just hold the record of having the biggest pig for an oscar?

Thanks for any help you can give.
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They will eat them selves to death, and theres a very good chance that your oscar is going to get very sick soon.

YOU SHOULD NOT FEED FISH FEEDERS! Feeders are very poorly kept animals that are usually disease ridden and can spread that disease to your tank.

Feed your oscar cichlid pellets from now on, pellets are balanced food including fish meal which keeps your oscar healthy. The only instance that feeders are necessary is if you have a wild fish that will only eat feeders, OSCARS ARE NOT THESE KIND OF FISH.

I had a tiger oscar and this was when he was about 7-8 inches.

I was going away for a few days so i decided to put some feeder fish in the tank (12 of them) to hold him off while i was gone. Well, he instantely ate all 12 of them. I kid u not, he was pooping and eating at the same time. So yeah, I never did that again, lol

The problem with over feeding like that, is that he's probably mashed more fish into the water than he's actaually eaten. That will drive all of your tank parameter's up, and has the potential to harm the fish, or kill it.

Personally, i only give my Oscars feeders once every month or two. And then, i generally use Commets or something like that from my LFS that looks healthy, and makes the Oscar's work for their treat. Otherwise, my guys get a diet of Hikari Gold, Nutrafin, Pea's and frozen food blocks once a week.

I guess the best way to think about this, is how would you feel if you where his size and just ate that amount of food?? Prety sore, i'll bet. I'd start doing 2 day vacuums on the tank with 10% water changes, as he's going to make a lot of waste, and that will be the main cause for your tank parameters (Ammonia etc) going through the roof!! Start testing now...

they are crazy creatures...will try to eat anything they can find, even they have a feeder fish in their mouth already they will try to eat another one at the same time

regarding using feeders...how many people are just trying to get the chances to see them eating live fish as the main reason for keeping oscars? I guess at least half....so no matter what suggestions you give about how bad feeders are...people will still feed them feeders

I've only feed my oscars feeders once. I felt sorry for the poor buggers and ended up keeping about 5 of the feeder fish. Now we have some sort of Barb (we call them Feeder Barbs) and Giant Danio's.

I've heard a lot of bad things about feeding your oscars live food, so have pretty much steered clear of the practice.

the use of feeders is ok every once in a while. it is best to breed your own with mollies, platys or swordtails though. when you breed them yourself, you know they should be free of disease and you can also feed them an appropriate diet so they will provide some nutrition for your oscar. it is best to only give feeders once a week or even once every other week. if fed too often, the oscar will start to refuse other food and eat feeders only.

in this case, I would not feed the oscar for a day or 2. the 40 feeders he ate should tide him over for a few days. also, I'd do a large water change to keep nitrates in check.

i have some zebra danios in my oscar tank and seem to be fasters and more agile than the oscar they seem to work but i origanally had 12 used to cycle the tank and has been dwindled down to 3 and the oscar seems to be having a hard time catching the last 3 but i think they give him alot of exersize

After a large hi protein feeding like that it would be wise not to feed for a few days and let oscar purge his system. Excess protein waste in the water you don't want. Yes oscars can trick you into overfeeding if you're not onto their tricks, which can lead to a shorter, less healthy life for your oscar.. They should always leave the table a little hungry

The Amazon Nut...

40 in 1 night im inpressed

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

Thanks everyone for all of the replies

As I said when the fish were brought over I had no where to store them- so he got them all.

Since this happened he has been eating 2x/day and seems fine, but I will heed the advice and let him go for a couple of days and do water changes every day or two until he gets his system cleaned out.I also bought some medicine(parasite clear) that I will use just to be safe.

As DaFishMan knows I have had a terrible time with him eating anything but live,(worms, flies, ect..)

But after alot of tough love and good advise from DaFishMan, he now eats his normal food.

I won't be letting my friends bring me any of there overstock any time soon. And I will also stop with his live treats. About once a month would be best as you have all said.

I don't buy feeders. I give him my home breed mollies. But in this case it was a friends fish. I just didn't think it was possible for him to eat that many that fast. I know now, and it won't happen again.

Again, Thanks I would have been devistated to come hom to a dead Oscar.

All the advise I can get sure makes it easier to own fish. This is the best place to get it all.


Last edited by rena_waits at 02-Nov-2004 10:41

At least coming from the friends tank, you know the background of the fish.. A better situation than getting feeders at the LFS, feeders often are the victims of poor breeding and upbringing, and have nutrition deficiencies, and even if not infected, can carry disease. Feeders such as that can hardly have a nutrient value for your fish..

Home bred mollies are a good bet.. I breed platys and guppys and some of those make their way to oscar.

I'm really glad my advice helped and it's good to hear your oscar is now accepting some non-live foods.. To feed him live foods all the time would really get expensive, more veggie diet is needed and less protein.. That's where the different pellets, flakes and such come in. High protein diet for oscars and some other cichlids can also lead to higher aggression towards tankmates. Always happy to help

The Amazon Nut...

ah, i can put 20 feeders in (rosy reds) and they will last my oscar like a week or more, he like s the company, i had a single feeder in there for 2 weeks before he decided to eat it, i guess my oscar is specialbut ofcourse i quarintine them in my ponds, or if its cold, i get out my trusty bucket, i have never lost a feeder durring q-tine.

but if i were to give him pettets everytime i walked in, he would probly eat till he sunk to the bottom.

Now thats a nice oscar, he hangs out with his food before he eats it