Oscar suicide?

[Jason_S]

My oscar is actually a pretty good food disperser for my other fish. He takes in big mouthfuls of food, crushes it and blows it out his gills. All the other fish have figured this out and hover under him and catch the food

yeah this is common with most larger cichlids. Mine do the same thing so I don't worry too much.

Lujor, do you have multiple sizes of foods? I would feed the oscar larger pellets so that he will get himself a mouthful and then not be able to get any more. Then feed some smaller foods to the other fish. But keep in mind that what andyjs said will happen....the oscar will begin to chew up the larger pellets but he'll only eat about probably 1/2 to 2/3 of what he took into his mouth. The rest will come out in small crunched up pieces through his gills and the other fish will catch on to this and begin eating this way.

However if all you feed are much smaller foods then the odds are more likely that the oscar will be able to chew them much less and then practically swallow them whole so you won't get the same results this way.

 

[gravel_digger]

oscars and cat are infamous for this type of action if its there they will try to eat it. as others have already noted there next course of action is to just lay around on the bottom of the tank as if they are freakin constipated or something. i have two tiger oscars in with a fire mouth who normally misses out on the fresh food but he has caught on to catching up with everything they blow out of their gills though.

 

[lujor]

yeah this is common with most larger cichlids. Mine do the same thing so I don't worry too much.

Lujor, do you have multiple sizes of foods? I would feed the oscar larger pellets so that he will get himself a mouthful and then not be able to get any more. Then feed some smaller foods to the other fish. But keep in mind that what andyjs said will happen....the oscar will begin to chew up the larger pellets but he'll only eat about probably 1/2 to 2/3 of what he took into his mouth. The rest will come out in small crunched up pieces through his gills and the other fish will catch on to this and begin eating this way.

However if all you feed are much smaller foods then the odds are more likely that the oscar will be able to chew them much less and then practically swallow them whole so you won't get the same results this way.

Yeah, I already tried that. I feed all sizes, sinking and floating, and scattered all across width of tank. The O works hard to get to everything.

 

[scalesandfins]

yea my o will eat till pellets and flakes and shrimp till they start bouncing off the food that is in his mouth. but i dont mind bc i need him to grow!