Elmo my oscar

Question

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Followup To

Question -
HELP!  My oscar is only about 2 in. in size so he is still really little.  I have been feeding him guppies and recently he has gotten big enough to eat rosies. He was fine 2 days ago but all of a sudden he is looking kinda pale like his black is fading and he is not eating.  He isn't breathing well either and he just kinda sits at the bottom.  I don't know what is wrong with him.  I changed his water yesterday but that hasn't seem to help.  HELP PLEASE!!!

Answer -
Hi Kim,
  Personally, I don't feed my fish with live feeder fish. Too often feeder fish have various diseases which then infect the larger fish, such as your oscar.  This could be what happened.  Give him time, and hopefully he will recover.  If I were you, I would switch to feeding him pellets or food sticks. They are much safer.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>

Is there any way to make sure that the feeder fish that I feed my oscar are disease free?


Answer
Hi Kim,
 The only way to do that is to raise the feeders yourself.  The problem with feeders is that they are meant to be fed to something so they are raised as cheaply as possible.  That means, they are raised at very high density.  A friend of mine who distributes these things says that he might distribute 30,000 in a week.  So, that tells you something about how carefully each one is cared for.  When fish are raised in high densities, diseases often spread quickly and are very difficult to get rid of.  

 Of course the trouble with raising your own is that it will cost you more than the fish you are feeding!   That is why I feed cichlid sticks.

If you are asking whether you can tell if a feeder fish is carrying a disease just by looking at the fish, the answer is a definite "NO".

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>