Worried about my Oscar! :(

[sa}{en]

Hi there! For the last two days my Oscar has been laying at his side at the bottom of the tank. I'm worried. He is one year old and has never been like this before. His "friend" thats lived together with him the whole time seems just normal. There is no sign at alll to tell that anything should be wrong with him. Only that he is lazy and laying on his side. When I come with food he swim normal and eat. ...all a little slower than usual though.

Anyone know what to do? How to help him? Please help!

 

[Allivymar]

First thing to do is check your water parameters (ammonia/nitrites/nitrates/pH). He may be more sensitive to nitrogenous waste then his tankmate.

 

[ferret]

This is a behaviorial pattern with Oscars. Read a few articles on them. Perfectly healthy oscars sometimes 'sulk' .. Or just 'rest' .. Has anything in the tank been changed? Sometimes they do it when uncomfortable. Some just do it for the hell of it.

Sometimes after eating, mine will go to the back of the tank behind the ornament and just rest against it.

 

[Electrobes]

mine is doing that as we speak... I had to seperate her from another oscar, I rearranged the tank a bit with fake plants, vacuumed the substrate, and did a 50% water change. At first it didn;t seem like she was going to sulk.. but then she went way into the back corner of the tank.. lied on her side and sulked.. she refuses to eat etc...

 

[Terry]

I agree with Alli and ferret on this one,

check your water parameters (ammonia/nitrites/nitrates/pH).

oscars sometimes 'sulk'

I have a Tiger Oscar in my store that is fine when there are other fish in the tank with him. But if i sell them and he is left on his own he just sulks, until he gets another companion.

 

[William]

Oscars sound so kyooot.

 

[oscarbreeder]

They are.
Oscars rule....LOL

 

[Electrobes]

Its funny there are similar to puffers in a lot of respects, they're cute, messy hogs, aggressive as nuts, and their personalities are well known through out all

 

[ferret]

They're actually one of the less aggressive South American cichlids, oddly enough. That's not saying much though

 

[oscarbreeder]

My oscars are not aggressive at all.

 

[Electrobes]

I wish mine were a bit more aggressive when I had them. I had to seperate them because my tnak was too small, and now I have one that is still being healed from the scars of HITH (actually its just one hole on the side of the face). The cute thing is that I want to change his name to "Scarface" instead of Gringo . But now he is way back to normal, of course food brought the guy back from sulking!

 

[ferret]

Oscars have been known to 'adopt' dither fish put in to break up aggression between various south american tanks. For example, some stray feeder that survived. Even if you feed the oscar more feeders he won't eat that one cause its his buddy. Or they'll protect those adopted fish from other tank mates.

They're definately got a lot more personality than most fish.

 

[William]

kyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!!!!!!!!!!


I'm gonnna HAVE to get me an oscar now ^_^;

 

[notmuffy]

You don't know the half of it, William!
Oscars are very smart, in fact I read a book about how some people train them! One person got them to sorta jump through a hoop that was half out of the water, one person has an oscar that lets itself be pet.

THe sulking thing is their way of playing dead. Don't be surprised if when you bring one home from the fish store and then for the next day or two, every time you look at it it's on it's side, looking dead. If you keep staring from far away, where the oscar can't see you, he'll get up and swim normally until you come around again

Oscars grow fast are are *always* hungry! They will eat anything, including flies & spiders we used to find around the house, LOL.

As far as being aggressive and messy eaters, "Stitch", from the movie "Lilo and Stitch" reminds me a lot of oscars.

 

[molotov256]

My oscar isn't aggressive, either. He actually gets bullied by fish half his size. I guess he's just happy to know that one day he'll be big enough to eat everybody that ever nipped his fins >

Speaking of sulking oscars, mine seems to be in one of those moods right now too. I was a little more worried, though, because he also has a little hole at the base of his eye, and I've been told that oscars are very prone to 'hole in the head' disease. Your oscar dosen't have any pits in his head, does he?

 

[aqua_guy]

oscars are aggressive but i like the patterns on the skin. though they sulk sometimes i agree. and they grow really fast

 

[Thaiboxer]

I have a depressed Oscar... had two albino tigers, and the big one died of an internal parasite about 3 weeks ago. The remaining one has been sulking ever since! He still eats fine, but lays around a lot. He's healthy, just needs therapy to get over the loss of his friend :-(