# Chicken hearts and gizzards for Oscars



## milkmaid (Sep 16, 2009)

Back in the day, it was common practice in my fish circle to boil and chop up chicken hearts and gizzards and feed them to Oscars. But in a thread on this forum I read where it is not a good practice to feed meat from a warm-blooded animal. I never had a problem in the past and my Oscars and other cichlids did fine.


----------



## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

beef heart recipe is also a very common food option within the hobby, but maintaining water quality is the added risk when implementing these types of food. uneaten portions can foul water as fast as any undetected dead fish, digestible values can only be assumed, and fish waste may also need to be considered potentially more toxic to the environment. IMO, and HTH.


----------



## milkmaid (Sep 16, 2009)

I do remember the Oscar tank requiring many water changes but I also fed tons of feeder goldfish. About 100 a week to 2 oscars, 1 Demsey and 1 Yexas Cichlid all in a 55G. It was my only tank at that particular time and i was able to keep it clean. I worked at the largest fish store in Houston and got feeders at cost.

Thanks for the response. I am fairly new to the forum and have not had fish in over twenty years so i have some basic questions as things seem different now.


----------



## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

we seem willing to pay more attention to water quality these days. comets fit into the same pollutant troubles as all other raw feeds. not that your doing anything wrong to offer such feeds, IMHO, but always assure you counter raw/live feeds with extra maintenance. i have the same issue with my collection of stingrays. they love live/raw feeds, but without 50% water changes every 2-3 days, filtration would never keep up. HTH.


----------

