The real key to fish growth is water changes. Especially with how messy Oscar's are when they feed. You will soon see half of what they eat comes flying out of they gills and snows down to the bottom of the tank. And then comes the poo. At twelve inches Toni poo was as big around as a pencil and three to four inches long.
As a fry if you think about it they stomach is only about the size of a single piece of corn at best, maybe even smaller. So don't over feed. I wouldn't worry so much about the exotic frozen food so much (prawns and mussels). A good pellet will have all the nutrients a growing fish needs. And that opens another war that's been raging for years, Northfin vs Hikari vs New Life Spectrum. Northfin and NLS are better ingredient wise, they don't have as much terrestrial fillers as Hikari. And most if not all of thier ingredients actually come from water based animals and plants vs terrestrial sources like in Hikari.
I had my Oscar before I learned of such things and she was raised on Hikari cichlid gold till around six inches then went to Hikari carnisticks. At about four inches in size I started to give her a piece of freeze dried krill with each meal. This caused an explosion of color. Feed it three times a day till around six inches. Then drop it to two. At around ten inches drop it to one.
The biggest key to growth though as I mentioned earlier is the water changes. Good clean water will help with growth more so than the food. I did 80% water changes every three days. And got an inch a month growth.
This is what I started with.
Here is when I started the freeze dried krill supplements
Then we got the explosion of color
She was raised with some Roseline sharks. They would all gather under her and snatched up the food from her gills before it hit bottom. More shocking they would eat her poo as well.
You just have to pull them before the Oscar out grows them and turns them into lunch.
I found this out the hard way...there goes a 20 dollar snack...
She started in a 55gal tank till about 8in. Then she moved to a 6ft 125gal. Her cleaner changed to an Ornatus cat.
And this is her at the 12in mark. She got one feeding a day. It was 3 Carnisticks and 2 pieces of krill. Sundays was a fasting day with no feeding.
Do the water changes, feed a quality pellet and in no time you will have a giant wet puppy that's a tad on the emo side
I moved her rocks and she laid there for days pouting...
And lastly remember the key to good steady growth is water changes, water changes, water changes! Get yourself a Python water changer or some other method of moving lots of water. Because I'll tell you what the bucket method sucks, I learned quickly that Pythons are a god send.
As a fry if you think about it they stomach is only about the size of a single piece of corn at best, maybe even smaller. So don't over feed. I wouldn't worry so much about the exotic frozen food so much (prawns and mussels). A good pellet will have all the nutrients a growing fish needs. And that opens another war that's been raging for years, Northfin vs Hikari vs New Life Spectrum. Northfin and NLS are better ingredient wise, they don't have as much terrestrial fillers as Hikari. And most if not all of thier ingredients actually come from water based animals and plants vs terrestrial sources like in Hikari.
I had my Oscar before I learned of such things and she was raised on Hikari cichlid gold till around six inches then went to Hikari carnisticks. At about four inches in size I started to give her a piece of freeze dried krill with each meal. This caused an explosion of color. Feed it three times a day till around six inches. Then drop it to two. At around ten inches drop it to one.
The biggest key to growth though as I mentioned earlier is the water changes. Good clean water will help with growth more so than the food. I did 80% water changes every three days. And got an inch a month growth.
This is what I started with.
Here is when I started the freeze dried krill supplements
Then we got the explosion of color
She was raised with some Roseline sharks. They would all gather under her and snatched up the food from her gills before it hit bottom. More shocking they would eat her poo as well.
You just have to pull them before the Oscar out grows them and turns them into lunch.
I found this out the hard way...there goes a 20 dollar snack...
She started in a 55gal tank till about 8in. Then she moved to a 6ft 125gal. Her cleaner changed to an Ornatus cat.
And this is her at the 12in mark. She got one feeding a day. It was 3 Carnisticks and 2 pieces of krill. Sundays was a fasting day with no feeding.
Do the water changes, feed a quality pellet and in no time you will have a giant wet puppy that's a tad on the emo side
I moved her rocks and she laid there for days pouting...
And lastly remember the key to good steady growth is water changes, water changes, water changes! Get yourself a Python water changer or some other method of moving lots of water. Because I'll tell you what the bucket method sucks, I learned quickly that Pythons are a god send.
