CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

OK, so I have had my Oscar about 1 1/2 weeks.  He is such a cool fish, very fiesty though!!! I am now thinking that I should have bought a smaller one, but I am sticking with this till the end!!!

The guy at the fish store said that he "hand fed" this fish, well I got him home and tried to hand feed him and he about took my hand off!! I do not want to give up on this so I try every day. 

As long as I feed him the LONG frozen fish he will grab the fish, but anything else that is smaller he goes right for my hand instead and has drawn blood on many occasion!! Its like he doesnt see it. . .HOW CAN I GET HIM TO GO FOR THE FOOD?? It seems he wants to be fed by hand because if I just let it float on the top he just watches me like "well grab it and feed it to me"!!!

PLEASE HELP ME TAME HIM!! THANKS
Lindsay

Hi, Lindsay:  What size g is your Oscar?  You know, they get pretty big pretty fast, so you might want to think about that tank upgrade sooner than you had planned.  The hand feeding can be fun, but some animals are more considerate of fingers than others.  Try to stay calm, and hold the pellet (or whatever) so that it's very easy for him to grab that without grabbing your fingers as well, and be prepared to release it when he does.  Remember, your fish is learning about you, too.  Work on seeing exactly what he's doing through the whole exercise.  That way you can see what adjustments you need to make.  Once the two of you get to know one another's "moves", I'm sure you'll get it worked out.  Good luck!

He is about 3.5-4" and I have him in a 29 gallon.  yes I know I should have gotten a bigger tank, we plan to get a 55 gallon by christmas for him, hopefully that will help. 

Thanks for the advise.  I try to stay calm but when he comes at me so fast i just react and quickly jump back but then he chases my hand so I figure I dont want him to think he won so I kindof chase him back util he calms down, do you think that is good?? It seems he is just being aggressive becuase he just doesnt like me yet, he doesnt seem to go for the food even when I am pretty sure he sees it.  Well I will just keep trying, thanks again
Lindsay

I wouldn't worry about the "who won" part.  I think your goal is to get him to trust you.  Right now he's defending his territory from "the giant".  Believe it or not, it helps to sit by the tank and talk to them.  Let him see your hands when you're not intending to invade his space.  Try not to get to excited when he comes at you -- he isn't big enough to do you any real harm.  Try to relax and get that flight reflex under your control.  You'll both be happier.

that is normal my Oscar does the same thing he loves to be hand fed but sometimes he gets so excited he nearly jumps out the tank during feeding sometimes so some times I hand feed and other times I just drop in pellets as much as they can eat in about 3 mins. the only time I hand feed now is shrimp days or lettuce