It is a smallish Oscar as well.. Myself, I have never had much luck with the
little guys.. Seem so prone to getting ill and fatally.. I would probably
stick with flake food until the Oscar doubles his size, I would add in some
brine shrimp and krill and stay away from the feeders for a time yet.. Most
feeders come stressed likely are going to carry something that might cause
the Oscar to get ill.. At the size you mentioned, I really think they are
very fragile fish at that stage. You might want to research some of the
Oscar sites online as well, as Oscar's also seem to easily end up with HTH
or hole in the head. There has been much debate about the cause, but the
three most substancial things that come to my mind is water quality (
meaning frequant water changes ), food quality ( I tend to doubt this one
through my own expieriances with my Oscars ), and Carbon within the
filtration system. Someone here in the past posted a very useful link for
Oscar's and I thought it was very informative.. Ask and someone might
remember particulair web sites etc... Here is another informitive site as
well www.thekrib.com , which is a very comprehensive site of a lot of
information..

Happy Fish Keeping and welcome to the hobby...

Tim
"Cookie" wrote in message
m...
(Natalie) wrote in message
. com...
I just got this new Oscar and he swims very strange head pointed up to
the top of the tank all the time, and tail end down. he has been in
there 2 days and is only about 1.5 inches long. Could anyone tell me
why it is doing this or is it normal? How are they with eating ghost
shrimp also?? or maybe rose reds. ~Natalie


Natalie:

Is your oscar eating at all? I know that my oscar will be in a almost
vertical position when eating floating food, but only then. I am no
expert, but if he looks like it is taking alot of work to swim, he
might have a swim bladder problem, IMO. In that case, I would exchange
it (if you still can.) Was he swimming like that when you got him?

As for feeding, oscars will eat anything that literally fits in their
mouth. I feed mine a variety of foods: rosey reds, pellets, cichlid
flakes, freeze dried krill, freeze dried bloodworms, and tubifex worm
cubes. Not all at once though! I will switch between them each day.
Don't overfeed though. Oscars always seem to be hungry, but don't give
into that. Two meals a day is just fine. I always make sure to have my
oscar eat either pellets or flakes with one meal a day. I am not sure
about ghost shrimp. You could give it a try, but oscars aren't really
bottom feeders, (their mouth is upturned.)

Before you go dumping food into the tank, make sure that your fish is
healthy and doesn't have a swim bladder disorder or something.

Good luck!

-Cookie