Baby Oscar only eats pellets

Frank Castle

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Pellets are fine, stay away from live fish as Oscars are prone to HITH. Veggies are the way to go now....squeeze the inside out of a defrosted or cooked pea or lima bean, then when he gets bigger he will eat them whole. Plus they look just like pellets.

I feed my fish ONCE A DAY, btw lol. Sometimes I skip the next day if I give them a larger load of veggies the night before....gives 'em a chance to clean up the stuff they missed or were too full to finish.

Trouble getting them to eat new foods? Starve them for a day or 2....they won't die, trust me.
 

RD.

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What does adding terrestrial based plant matter do for a fish, that by nature is designed to eat aquatic plant matter as a side dish?

Aquatic based plant matter, such as spirulina, kelp, etc is the way to go. Terrestrial based plant matter, especially uncooked, contains anti-nutritional matter, such as tannins, protease inhibitors, saponins, cyanogens, and phytic acid, which when consumed in excess can have a very negative effect on the growth & overall health of fish.


The heat from processing will reduce most of this anti-nutritional matter, but even then most fish can only digest & assimilate so much terrestrial based plant matter. All of this has been well documented in commercial aquaculture for many years.
 
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32Bit_Fish

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Here are some pics of the baby Oscar. I'm concerned about the fish get stunted in growth if missed a meal or two. LOL

Oscar_1-08FEB2016.JPG

Oscar_2-08FEB2016.JPG

Oscar_3-08FEB2016.JPG
 

RD.

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Fish don't become stunted by missing the odd meal. In nature feast and/or famine is a way of life. Power feeding only results in fat fish.
 
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Frank Castle

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What does adding terrestrial based plant matter do for a fish, that by nature is designed to eat aquatic plant matter as a side dish?

Aquatic based plant matter, such as spirulina, kelp, etc is the way to go. Terrestrial based plant matter, especially uncooked, contains anti-nutritional matter, such as tannins, protease inhibitors, saponins, cyanogens, and phytic acid, which when consumed in excess can have a very negative effect on the growth & overall health of fish.


The heat from processing will reduce most of this anti-nutritional matter, but even then most fish can only digest & assimilate so much terrestrial based plant matter. All of this has been well documented in commercial aquaculture for many years.
You're saying I should avoid a quick bath in the microwave to soften it up on the inside and just give it to them thawed in hot water instead?

I do peas, lima beans and romaine 2x a week, tops. The rest of their diet is shrimp, krill, pellets, flakes, etc.
 

Lepisosteus

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You're saying I should avoid a quick bath in the microwave to soften it up on the inside and just give it to them thawed in hot water instead?

I do peas, lima beans and romaine 2x a week, tops. The rest of their diet is shrimp, krill, pellets, flakes, etc.
I think he is saying aquatic plants are a better alternative then terrestrial plants which would make sense as the only time a fish would eat a terrestrial plant is during the flood season
 
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Skalper666

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Definitely reduce the feedings to only 1 or 2 times a day. As said above, skipping feedings for a day or too will spark a fish's interest in trying new foods.
 

jaws7777

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5 to 6 times is allot. It doesnt matter that the fish is small so his his stomach cut feeding to twice a day a few pellets each meal. Clean water is just as important, trust me that fish will grow fast over feeding is going to do more harm than good.
 
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