A battle of the wills

My oscar and I are locked in a battle of the wills ever since I cleaned the aquarium last weekend. I decided that his messy eating habits were deliberate and spiteful. Chief Brody doesn't really eat his food. He gobbles up a big food pellet whole, then spits it back up as hundreds of tiny pieces (see the picture above that I took today. That's just one food pellet! What a mess). He'll then eat a few of the pieces, letting the rest fall to the bottom to decay.

This annoys me greatly because it's a waste of food and makes the aquarium dirty again just days after it was thoroughly cleaned. Thus the recent battle of the wills.

I have only been giving Chief Brody one food pellet at a time. I thought that perhaps if food was scarce, he would be less likely to be so messy and wasteful. So far he hasn't learned his lesson. The truth is that a healthy oscar can go weeks between feedings. I would hate to suspend his food privileges more than I already have, but that may be necessary.

I read all the time about how smart Oscars are, and I believe that is true, but in this case Chief Brody is being very dumb and I intend to win this battle of the wills. I refuse to be outwitted by a creature with gills! Wish me luck.