Oscar becoming picky. Normal or cause for worry?

[redmare]

I got my oscar as a 2" baby back in February, she's close to 10" now. She was a voracious eater for the first few months, but has been becoming more and more picky. She really only likes dried mealworms and live foods. I originally went looking for a good vitamin supplement to put on live foods to keep her diet balanced, but came across a few forums mentioning similar symptoms could be hex parasites. No other complaints with her... She's very active and engaged with the people in the house, she did squash my dreams of a planted oscar tank and now mostly has plastic plants but other than that she's basically perfect. So... how do I know if she's just picky or has parasites? I do have an unopened tube of Metroplex. Would it make sense to give her a course of it, to be safe, and since oscars often just have hex parasites? Thanks all!

 

[tlindsey]

I got my oscar as a 2" baby back in February, she's close to 10" now. She was a voracious eater for the first few months, but has been becoming more and more picky. She really only likes dried mealworms and live foods. I originally went looking for a good vitamin supplement to put on live foods to keep her diet balanced, but came across a few forums mentioning similar symptoms could be hex parasites. No other complaints with her... She's very active and engaged with the people in the house, she did squash my dreams of a planted oscar tank and now mostly has plastic plants but other than that she's basically perfect. So... how do I know if she's just picky or has parasites? I do have an unopened tube of Metroplex. Would it make sense to give her a course of it, to be safe, and since oscars often just have hex parasites? Thanks all!

Do you quarantine the live feeders before feeding them to the Oscar. Also as some fish mature they may not be as ravenous when they were young. Skipping a day or two is healthier for them.

 

[redmare]

Do you quarantine the live feeders before feeding them to the Oscar. Also as some fish mature they may not be as ravenous when they were young. Skipping a day or two is healthier for them.

I’m only feeding live insects- mealworms and crickets from reptile feeder store, and earthworms from my garden. No feeder fish. Thanks!

 

[Rocksor]

Well being picky is easy, won't touch other foods, but the most prized food after 1 week of no eating. It's also very engaged with you.

If it's parasites, there's a combination of things to look for like lack of appetite after 1 week of no feeding, transparent stringy poo, sunken belly despite gorging on food, generally sitting on the substrate most of the day, no longer paying attention to you, etc.

So, don't feed for a week, and if it rejects its prized food, start cycling through the other food it used to eat. It should pick one of those.

 

[jjohnwm]

My dog is ravenous when fed homemade food based on cooked venison and veggies. He no longer cares for the canned stuff he once enjoyed. In other words...he has trained me.

Sound familiar?

 

[FINWIN]

I got my oscar as a 2" baby back in February, she's close to 10" now. She was a voracious eater for the first few months, but has been becoming more and more picky. She really only likes dried mealworms and live foods. I originally went looking for a good vitamin supplement to put on live foods to keep her diet balanced, but came across a few forums mentioning similar symptoms could be hex parasites. No other complaints with her... She's very active and engaged with the people in the house, she did squash my dreams of a planted oscar tank and now mostly has plastic plants but other than that she's basically perfect. So... how do I know if she's just picky or has parasites? I do have an unopened tube of Metroplex. Would it make sense to give her a course of it, to be safe, and since oscars often just have hex parasites? Thanks all!

Sounds like Brick 2.0...my Oscar did the same thing. Nothing, and I mean nothing stopped his picky ness except one thing...being surrounded by tankmates who are greedy eaters. His favorite foods kept changing but he goes nuts over shrimp mixed with mealworms (freeze dried). I dusted the whole bag with reptile vitamin supplement and serve. He also eats crickets but will scoff pellets when I'm not right there. He doesn't want me to see him eat pellets. He went through a nightcrawler phase too. The pellets are garlic soaked Hikari.

He also likes blackworm cubes, especially the ones with spinach. I haven't had a fish refuse blackworms.

This is the supplement I put on dried insects. I put one teaspoon in a 2lb bag and shook until everything was coated.

 

[LBDave]

What are the tankmates? I ask because I have found that it can be part of the equation with oscars (although younger than yours).
Also, I have found that Vitachem can increase appetite immensely. I put in in FD blackworms or beefheart cubes.

 

[FINWIN]

What are the tankmates? I ask because I have found that it can be part of the equation with oscars (although younger than yours).
Also, I have found that Vitachem can increase appetite immensely. I put in in FD blackworms or beefheart cubes.

Brick ate everything in sight until he hit 12". That's when the picky stuff started. Starving, rotation of foods, nothing worked for more than a week at a time. He prefers 'stinky' foods. The acaras are crazy aggressive eaters, they race back and forth across the tank to grab stuff. BP Boss will now come near the top to grab a few (he's not a surface eater). The rainbows dart around the Oscar and get theirs. The severum Corn is also a greedy eater...them swarming around got Brick back to eating pellets as part of his diet. Soaking everything in Vitachem got a bit pricey.

Primarily he eats insects now with some pellets (when I'm away from the tank). He's also back to wanting two meals a day, but sometimes I skip that.

 

[Rocksor]

Brick ate everything in sight until he hit 12". That's when the picky stuff started. Starving, rotation of foods, nothing worked for more than a week at a time. He prefers 'stinky' foods. The acaras are crazy aggressive eaters, they race back and forth across the tank to grab stuff. BP Boss will now come near the top to grab a few (he's not a surface eater). The rainbows dart around the Oscar and get theirs. The severum Corn is also a greedy eater...them swarming around got Brick back to eating pellets as part of his diet. Soaking everything in Vitachem got a bit pricey.

Primarily he eats insects now with some pellets (when I'm away from the tank). He's also back to wanting two meals a day, but sometimes I skip that.

So Brick is fed every day?

 

[FINWIN]

So Brick is fed every day?

Yes, usually between 6 and 8 pm along with everyone else. Once he's had enough he stops, so I give him specific portions. However there are days he isn't pressed about eating, so that's a skip day. He's got a bit of new growth on his fins recently.