Baby Oscar only eats pellets

[32Bit_Fish]

Hi All,

I just bought a 1.5" Albino Oscar fish (very cute). He/she is currently in a 20G tank. He/she only eats pellets and did not touch frozen blood worms or brine shrimp.

I try to feed him 5-6 times a day during weekend. But I can see his/her stomach is bloated. So I should take a break on feeding him/her so much.

I'm planning to do 60% w/c once every two days. I have already noticed he/she grown abit after 24 hours in my tank. What a monster fish!

I appreciate all comments and advises.

 

[jwh]

That's too much feeding imo, oscars are notorious beggars, and it's easy to overfeed if you respond to their persistent and endless begging every time they see you. 20g won't keep it for any length of time, they are probably the fastest growing fish and you'll need to upgrade to a 75g in a couple of months. They're great fish, good luck!

 

[ehh]

5-6 times daily is a ton of food and a ton of waste.

 

[EcastL]

Nothing wrong with pellets only. What kind are you feeding? 5-6 times is too much. Be ready for a monster in less than a year.

 

[FreshyFresh]

A quality pellet food is exactly what you want for an oscar's main food. Problem is, like said, you're feeding way too much and the tank is way too small.

I know an oscar barely the size of a quarter looks ridiculous at first in a 75g tank, but like pops said, within 6 months to a year, you'll have a fish the size of a football.

 

[arowanaman85]

assuming this isn't a joke, if you want them to eat something different, cut off the food they eat, skip 1-2 feedings, give the new food in a small quantity. remove what he doesn't eat.

5-6 tiny feedings (1-3 tiny pellets) isn't over feeding and a 20 gallon at 1.5" is perfectly exceptable. for all we know this is the quarantine tank. I've kept baby oscars in 20 gallon tanks for almost a month, while I waited to see that A, he is eating, B he isn't sick, and C that I can feed a wide range of frozen and pellet foods to get an idea of what that fish prefers, but with oscars idk, mine eat everything and anything I drop in the tank, including the bags of new tank mates

 

[EcastL]

That could be the case for the tank, it wasn't stated. As far as tiny feeding, I doubt that with a bloated stomach and the fish being an oscar. I would stick with the pellets. When it gets bigger there should be no problem with it eating a variety of foods. Oscar=Pig

 

[FreshyFresh]

Well.. typically a baby oscar is not the type of fish you'd drop in an established setup containing fish anyway. They're usually oscar only setups for those of us that keep them. But yeah, I can see testing the waters with it in a 20L for a month, given how brutally beat up and sick they can be from some stores.

 

[32Bit_Fish]

I do have a 75G set up waiting for the Oscar. I feed him/her Colorbits and Omega Chichilid pellets.

 

[FreshyFresh]

You're a step ahead of the game 32!