Oscar won't eat

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Lola2009

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 10, 2018
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I have a red Oscar that is about 7 inches and recently quit eating. I was feeding her cichlid pellet and she will no longer eat that. She will no longer eat dried meal worms or brine shrimp. Sometimes she takes the food and then spits it out but that is rare. I have dried the frozen krill and she will not take it. She is in a 55 gallon with a canister filter that will do a 200 gallon tank. Ammonia is zero, pH 7, nitrite 0, nitrate maybe 40?. I do 25% water changes religiously weekly and monthly canister care. No sores, hole in head etc. I have treated the water as the fish store recommended because she wasn't eating. She swims to the glass when she sees people and still messes up the decorations of the tank as usual. I do not know what else to try except I can get live meal worm bugs to try. Need suggestions.
 
How often are u feeding? Any stringy clear poop? Swollen belly? If not then give a couple of days and then offer the food again.
 
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No poop at all and I have never seen stringy white poop. She does not have a swollen body. I have tried waiting a couple of days and trying it again. She just does not take food. How many days should I wait? When she does not take the food, I scoop it out of the water.
 
Lola2009 said:
I have a red Oscar that is about 7 inches and recently quit eating. I was feeding her cichlid pellet and she will no longer eat that. She will no longer eat dried meal worms or brine shrimp. Sometimes she takes the food and then spits it out but that is rare. I have dried the frozen krill and she will not take it. She is in a 55 gallon with a canister filter that will do a 200 gallon tank. Ammonia is zero, pH 7, nitrite 0, nitrate maybe 40?. I do 25% water changes religiously weekly and monthly canister care. No sores, hole in head etc. I have treated the water as the fish store recommended because she wasn't eating. She swims to the glass when she sees people and still messes up the decorations of the tank as usual. I do not know what else to try except I can get live meal worm bugs to try. Need suggestions.
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Try putting a pellet inside a small chunk of whitefish or salmon...she may just be tired of the pellets. One of my parrots stopped eating pellets for two days then started again!
 
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Lola2009 said:
I have a red Oscar that is about 7 inches and recently quit eating. I was feeding her cichlid pellet and she will no longer eat that. She will no longer eat dried meal worms or brine shrimp. Sometimes she takes the food and then spits it out but that is rare. I have dried the frozen krill and she will not take it. She is in a 55 gallon with a canister filter that will do a 200 gallon tank. Ammonia is zero, pH 7, nitrite 0, nitrate maybe 40?. I do 25% water changes religiously weekly and monthly canister care. No sores, hole in head etc. I have treated the water as the fish store recommended because she wasn't eating. She swims to the glass when she sees people and still messes up the decorations of the tank as usual. I do not know what else to try except I can get live meal worm bugs to try. Need suggestions.
Click to expand...
Lola2009 said:
I have a red Oscar that is about 7 inches and recently quit eating. I was feeding her cichlid pellet and she will no longer eat that. She will no longer eat dried meal worms or brine shrimp. Sometimes she takes the food and then spits it out but that is rare. I have dried the frozen krill and she will not take it. She is in a 55 gallon with a canister filter that will do a 200 gallon tank. Ammonia is zero, pH 7, nitrite 0, nitrate maybe 40?. I do 25% water changes religiously weekly and monthly canister care. No sores, hole in head etc. I have treated the water as the fish store recommended because she wasn't eating. She swims to the glass when she sees people and still messes up the decorations of the tank as usual. I do not know what else to try except I can get live meal worm bugs to try. Need suggestions.
Click to expand...

What about live earth worms? It is odd for an oscar not to eat, they usually eat anything given to them. In my experience the earth worm is something it cant resist, its moves a lot which I found teased my old oscars and in some ways invaded their territory. They would not tolerate being teased by a meal IN THEIR TANK. Great fun. Bigger the better!
 
I believe a 55 is too small a tank for an oscar that size, I also believe (especially in such a small tank), a 25% water change once per week, is "not" adequate.
I would be doing a 25% water change daily or every other day to remove nitrate and oscar urine buildup, and a weekly canister clean out.
Canisters when left for a month become nitrate production factories.
Your oscar probably doesn't eat because it is living in oscar urine soup, with such a tiny water change schedule.
 
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duanes said:
I believe a 55 is too small a tank for an oscar that size, I also believe (especially in such a small tank), a 25% water change once per week, is "not" adequate.
I would be doing a 25% water change daily or every other day to remove nitrate and oscar urine buildup, and a weekly canister clean out.
Canisters when left for a month become nitrate production factories.
Your oscar probably doesn't eat because it is living in oscar urine soup, with such a tiny water change schedule.
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Also I think a 55 isn't a stimulating environment for Oscars since a tank that size would have to be pretty bare and limited, especially at adult size...your O could even be bored, its entirely possible. I think of a 55 for an Oscar like being confined to a 12 foot bedroom 24/7.
 
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