Ursula the Oscar: a diary

[BIG-G]

Thanks so much! How much is the right amount to feed a young oscar? It's so hard to tell! Right now I'm on a 30-50% water change per week schedule depending on nitrates.

Oscars will take large food so it depends on what you’re feeding.
Young fish need to eat more often then adults.
I would feed twice a day, smaller feedings more often, then as the fish ages you can cut that to one feeding a day.
Once they are adult size you can feed less like every other day.
I know some keepers, once the fish is an adult only feed a couple times a week.

 

[redmare]

Oscars will take large food so it depends on what you’re feeding.
Young fish need to eat more often then adults.
I would feed twice a day, smaller feedings more often, then as the fish ages you can cut that to one feeding a day.
Once they are adult size you can feed less like every other day.
I know some keepers, once the fish is an adult only feed a couple times a week.

Since she's so fun to feed and I like being able to answer her begs, I tend to feed very small meals 3-4 times per day. 1-2 mealworms, 3-4 2mm pellets, a partial cube of bloodworms or the like make up her small meals.
Also, I gave her a chunk of repashy and she really loved tearing it apart, but I think she just passed most of it through her gills and just made a big mess rather than eat it. But she had so much fun doing it, I'd gladly do it again with my vacuum ready lol

 

[Rocksor]

Thanks so much! How much is the right amount to feed a young oscar? It's so hard to tell! Right now I'm on a 30-50% water change per week schedule depending on nitrates.

Keep nitrates below 20ppm everyday.

As far as feeding, what you are doing now is fine for the first year. Your oscar has trained you already. After 1 year, one feeding portion everyday. By year 2, every other day. By year 3, every 3rd day. Water changes will increase during this time frame.

At your oscar's size, you can go on a 1 week vacation without feeding it.

 

[redmare]

Keep nitrates below 20ppm everyday.

As far as feeding, what you are doing now is fine for the first year. Your oscar has trained you already. After 1 year, one feeding portion everyday. By year 2, every other day. By year 3, every 3rd day. Water changes will increase during this time frame.

At your oscar's size, you can go on a 1 week vacation without feeding it.

Thanks! She certainly does have me well trained. She's just so dang cute! I'm glad she seems to be letting the stems grow to help with the nitrates a bit. I'd love to upgrade her to a 120 (or bigger) long term as well. I like to keep my water changes to weekly at most! Right now nitrates fluctuate between 5ppm and 10ppm in between changes.

 

[Rocksor]

Thanks! She certainly does have me well trained. She's just so dang cute! I'm glad she seems to be letting the stems grow to help with the nitrates a bit. I'd love to upgrade her to a 120 (or bigger) long term as well. I like to keep my water changes to weekly at most! Right now nitrates fluctuate between 5ppm and 10ppm in between changes.

Being solo in a 120g (sooner than later) will help keep your water changes to once a week. It will get larger in volume though, up to fin level (1" above the dorsal fin while sitting on the substrate), eventually.

 

[redmare]

Being solo in a 120g (sooner than later) will help keep your water changes to once a week. It will get larger in volume though, up to fin level (1" above the dorsal fin while sitting on the substrate), eventually.

ooooof, that's a lotta water! I'm so glad I have a python. Come spring I think I'm going to try and get it to syphon outside so I can water the garden with all that water.

 

[FINWIN]

Hikari cichlid gold and northfin cichlid are her staple pellets. Freeze dried krill, dried mealworms, frozen bloodworms, and frozen krill are her treats.

She'll do well on that diet!

 

[FINWIN]

Thanks so much! How much is the right amount to feed a young oscar? It's so hard to tell! Right now I'm on a 30-50% water change per week schedule depending on nitrates.

My answer is a bit controversial but I fed my Oscar based on size. The idea was continuous nutrition to satisfy growth and energy level. My O would burn off food as fast as it was eaten!

2-4 inches 6 small meals a day spaced out
4-7 inches 4 small meals a day spaced out
7-9 inches 3 meals
10-12 inches 2 meals
12 to ~14 inches (current size) once a day or once every two days

My O is two years old. Like the others said, clean warm water and aggressive schedule. I keep temps 79-81.

 

[Jacob92677]

Love the name!!
Just keep a routine good cleaning, feed a good quality Food and Ursula will be happy
Many different opinions on feeding and I respect each of them me personally I like to
Feed once a day and clean my tank every 3-4 weeks
If you feed more just clean more and your good but for me this route works best for cost of food and water usage, etc
Welcome to the forum don’t forget to
Check the marketplace it’s a good place to sometimes buy local fish or goods

I’ve raise my albino Oscar since 1 inch he loves omega one pellets and happily gets along in my Aggressive community tank he’s maybe 8 inch now

 

[redmare]

It's been a few weeks, here's an Ursula update!
She's doing fantastic. I redid her tank since the dragon stone wasn't working out so well, and switched it for two large terra cotta pots covered in moss. There's a ton of stem plants growing in the tank too- I keep waiting for her to start destroying them, but so far they're thriving! I just had to do a big trim of the plants since they were taller than the tank and covering the whole top. I got to witness my first oscar temper tantrum after redoing her tank! She was lying on her side pouting at me for a few minutes and then sat in the corner all afternoon. She's better now though and I think really enjoying the new setup.
She's grown so much, she's already pushing 6 inches nose to tail! Today we tried a new fun game... baby guppies. One of my female guppies who was supposed to be in lady isolation since she's got a bad spine had a whole batch of fry, so I got to test out my cull machine, and she had a wonderful time! It was really quite awesome watching her use her brain and hunt like she was built to do.