Am I poisoning my fish?

[Ulu]

Is it possible that if my Oscar eats the roots from a pothos plant that he will get ill? Or perhaps he has just filled himself up with roots, because this morning he did not want to eat. There's an awful lot of roots and I know that he tears at them a little bit just like he tears it the plastic plants but I don't know if he is actually eating them.

Felix the Oscar:


I have never got this Oscar to eat vegetables or fruits unless they were part of some factory processed kibble.

He has been raised on kibble: Hikari gold cichlid food, Wardley's shrimp wafers and sinking shrimp pellets, freeze dried krill and live earthworms, with occasional live shrimp, crickets or other insects.

I know a lot of people use pothos in their tanks and I happen to have it in 7 of 8 tanks now. But I was told it is poisonous to house cats and I thought perhaps it might be dangerous for my Oscar.

 

[Rocksor]

My severums have eaten and are continually eating pothos roots and very young leaves to no ill effect. Having kept pothos and lucky bamboo roots in a tank in oscars, I haven't seen them eat any.

 

[ryansmith83]

I've had SA cichlids prune my pothos roots down to nubs and I've never seen any of them get ill. I've been using pothos for about a decade.

 

[RD.]

Ditto to the above......

 

[Tobiassorensen]

My group of large walking cats ate a pothos 3m pothos vine overnight and never got ill. Have had cichlids eat pothos without problems. My RTGG ate a whole peacelily some months ago.

 

[Ulu]

Thanks for all the replies folks.
I switched from Hikari to Omega One pellets and he's eating fine.
I think I will avoid Hikari. He's had it too many times.
In a side by side test he will spit out the Hikari and Eat Omega One.

The hikari will be Worm food. ;(

 

[Ulu]

My severums have eaten and are continually eating pothos roots and very young leaves to no ill effect. Having kept pothos and lucky bamboo roots in a tank in oscars, I haven't seen them eat any.

He is eating them a little, but not as much. My plecos are noshing on the roots all the time.

 

[Ulu]

As a follow-up:

I finally took all of the pothos out of my oscar tank because he was biting the roots down to stubble. I'm going to arrange something where he can't eat it.

I found some of the roots dead in his tank where he had just ripped them off and spit them out.

All the other tanks with pothos are doing okay, but the cichlids and plecos are definitely eating on it.

I have a tank with a small crack that I will not bring indoors so I started a small planted outdoor tank where I could raise some things without them being chewed-up.

 

[LBDave]

As a follow-up:

I finally took all of the pothos out of my oscar tank because he was biting the roots down to stubble. I'm going to arrange something where he can't eat it.

I found some of the roots dead in his tank where he had just ripped them off and spit them out.

All the other tanks with pothos are doing okay, but the cichlids and plecos are definitely eating on it.

I have a tank with a small crack that I will not bring indoors so I started a small planted outdoor tank where I could raise some things without them being chewed-up.

Too bad he can't mow the lawn!

 

[Ulu]

He's mowed down everything in his tank. Dwarf hairgrass and jungle vals are but a distant memory . . .