I was using a scruuber pad to de-scum the inside of the 55g I'm growing Chowder (the Oscar) out in and I noticed that sometimes he seemed really wary of my hand & sometimes he got real close - almost touching me.

So when I was done scrubbing, I got out the freeze dried mini-krill he loves. I took one piece at a time and stuck my arm elbow deep in the tank with the krill between my thumb & index finger. At first he didn't even notice the food, but soon he saw it and started coming toward it. When he got really close, I'd let the krill go. As it floated up, he'd swallow it.

I probably did it ten times...then he got brave and took one from my fingers. How cool! I've read of these guys eating from their keepers hands, but I didn't think he'd do it the first night I tried. He only did it once tonight, but I figure if I keep it up on a regular basis, he'll learn to be hand fed. Might be a fun party trick.

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Very COOL! Way to go Gary!
mike

Congrats!! It's a very cool feeling ins't it??

A friend claims to have seen an oscar that could spit water at you from across the room, as well as pop a ping pong ball up in the air. I guess they are highly trainable.

Not sure what other tricks you could do... go through a hoop? Roll over?

I've read about the ping-pong ball thing several places. Appears to be pretty do-able.

Tonight he took the krill from me right away. I'll keep at it and think I might do some Googling to see what else I might try to teach him.

Oh...the other thing that's neat is I think he may be recognizing me already. I like to go to the sides of the tank and peer in...he swims over to me and goes pretty much nose to nose with me. I had my wife try it last night and my son try tonight & he didn't do it for them - but when I stepped in, he swam over. Coincidence? Is it possible they're that smart? I've only had him three weeks, could he have figured out who feeds him that quickly? Seems unlikely - yet he's doing it.

Regarding the ping pong ball trick, yup they do i used to have some a long time ago, in a differant galaxy far far away Whoops wrong board But tis true they will play with a ping pong ball, to be honest there are a lot of things that you can get oscars to do, mine were happy to follow my finger arond when i moved it around inside and out side the tank, mind you the first time one of them mouthed my finger it, did'nt half make me jump gary just enjoy the "character" and finding out what you can see this fish do !