oscar gravel sifting, is it bad for him?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
H

honda237

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 28, 2009
2,322
4
68
34
kalamazoo, Michigan
Ok this might be a dumb question but I have my 14"oscar, and I feed him 3mm sinking NLS pellets. But after he eats the ones falling he goes and sifts through my gravel and the actual gravel falls through his gills, could this be bad for him?
I want to get bigger pellets but I need to use more of my 5lbs
 
Nope, all my cichlids sift. I do have sand tho...
If hes doing this while eating you may want to get some softer pellets or try soaking them for a couple minutes in some tank water befor feeding to him.
 
FishingOut;4344075; said:
Nope, all my cichlids sift. I do have sand tho...
If hes doing this while eating you may want to get some softer pellets or try soaking them for a couple minutes in some tank water befor feeding to him.
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand what I mean, I know all fish sift, trust got plenty of them. My question is, is it bad for the Sharp gravel to fall through his gills? He is trying to get the food off the bottom.
 
im not sure if it will actually harm him but i cant see if being good or ok, they usually do this with sand and it goes easily through their gills but with the big rocks it may cause some damage to his gills but i dont know i havent had cichlids with gravel large enough for it to go out their gills, i have all my cichlids on sand now
 
That's my thoughts exactly. I'm going to try some NLS floating in a month or so, I would like to switch over sand but its a lot of work that I don't have right now. I would like to get rid of all my gravel in all my pure bred tanks. I am just really careful with this Oscar he is almost 3 years old and is what really got me started in cichlids.
 
Both my O's and my Jag all gravel sift and they have done it since i have had them for about 2 years. doubt it will harm them.
 
GrGoyL;4347042; said:
Both my O's and my Jag all gravel sift and they have done it since i have had them for about 2 years. doubt it will harm them.
Click to expand...
I have soft edged gravel just to make sure, but thats also because i have catfish, thet can hurt their barbels on the sharp edged gravel.
 
Yes sifting can be bad for any fish is the object is sharp enough to cut into it's skin............
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom