Need Ideas/Oscar

[greenpuffer]

I just raised my oscar Meatwad to about 7 inches in a 20 gallon tank. A week and a half ago I transplanted him into a 55 gallon. In the old tank he did the typical begging for food and was healthy. Now in his new tank he refuses to eat. The tank is cycled well( I think!) as I used the old gravel from the 20 gallon and Stress Zyme(live bacteria) to help kickstart it. At any rate it has not clouded up yet at least. He appears to have a slight case of ich(only 2 or three spots on pec fin) which I will treat this week when I get paid(55 gallon broke me$$). I have never known him to stop eating with ich when he had it worse once before. Also I switched brands of pellets but he appeared not to eat his old brand too after the transplant. Is he just adjusting still? Should I try some freeze dried krill? Or is the ich to blame? He seems content just is not eating well. Sorry about the long post I just wanted to tell the whole story, please help.

[Nippy]

More than likely, he is just sulking. Oscars do that. :rolleyes: Silly fish, they are. When I transplanted my midas to his new tank a long time ago, he didn't eat for TWO weeks. So, don't feel too bad.

[dave76]

How long has he been in the new tank? Oscars are notorious for pouting after being put in a new suroundings. I wouldnt worry about it too much unless he doesnt perk up after 3 or 4 days. If you are concerned about ich the easiest, cheapest, and most effective is to turn your heaters up and treat with aquarium salt. I have even heard of people using table salt. Just dont use marine salt. Gravel vac the tank frequently and replace the salt and you remove water. If nothing else the higher temperatures should wake your oscar up.

Oh and BTW congrats on doing the right thing in getting your oscar a tank that is suitable for him. What do you plan to do with your 20 now? If you are not sure if your tank is cycled dont use stress zyme. It doesnt work in my experience. I would try Bio-Spira if you can buy it. I have used this in the past and I know that it works if properly handled.

[greenpuffer]

He has been in the tank since the 15th of July. I think he may be eating a lttle actually but has lost his voracious appetite. Mainly he just spits the pellets back out. As far as the ich I am going to order some meds on wednsday or thursday. The local store doesn't stock what I want. Unfortunately I have to get rid of the 20, I just don't have room. My friend is going to take it for a hospital tank he has a 75 gal. community tank. Otherwise I would set it up as a community tank or maybe get some firemouths. Ireally want some puffers someday. I just got attached to the oscar the day I saw him in the store. I had an albino oscar once but lost him in a transfer to a larger tank at my old house.

[greenpuffer]

One more thing I neglected to mention. To keep costs down I used pea gravel from Lowes meant for the garden. I really rinsed this stuff good and mixed it with my old gravel from the 20gal. Did I save money on 50lb bag or will it cause me headaches in the long run? I only found one webpage before I did it and the author didn't really say it was ok just that it was cheaper. Being an unemployed CNC machinist is causing me to cut alot of corners. I am still waiting on a local aerospace manufacturer get back to me with results from the job interview(fingers crossed).

[PumaWard]

Stress Zyme(live bacteria)

I might note that this is "snake oil" and will not have live bacteria. I'd be willing to bet your tank is cycling the normal way and I suggest you do a 50% water change and test for ammonia and nitrite yourself or, if you don't have a test kit, take a water sample to your LFS. This is probably why your oscar is sulking. If you have any ammonia/nitrite readings, plan on doing 50% water changes every day until both read zero, then do weekly (or more) water changes as needed to keep nitrate below 20ppm.

The only live bacteria you can buy is Bio-Spira; it's the only stuff that actually works.


Oh and BTW congrats on doing the right thing in getting your oscar a tank that is suitable for him

I hate to be a downer, but 55g do not work for oscars long term. They are not wide enough, at only 12'' wide... oscars get 13'' long (no turn around space). He will need at least an 18'' wide tank in probably less than a year, the most common being 75g standard tanks.


greenpuffer, the gravel will be fine. I doubt it's been treated with anything if it's just garden gravel :).


Also, please use the salt/heat method for treating ich, it works much better, is cheaper, and is easier on the fish :). I'll get the link in a second to daveedka's article on ich :).

[PumaWard]

Article on Ich:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759

[Ascalon]

I aggree with the heat/salt method. One of my Oscars had ich and i raised the temp to about 86 and put 1 tablespoon for each 10 gallons of water.
The medications that stores sell really only works if you use it consecutively for a couple weeks. The directions they have on the label are deceiving and tell you you only need to treat for a couple days. That is completely wrong :mad2: since the life cycle of ich is about a week or more and you can only kill it in one stage during that life cycle.

As for the cycling. My guess is that it is not cycled. Placing gravel from an established aquarium in your new tank is a good idea, but its only one step in the right direction. The amount of bacteria on gravel is minimal at best. Almost all of the bacteria in your tank is living in the filters. Since cycling a tank with a fish in it is really hard on them, the best rout you could go now is the Bio-Spira everyone was talking about. Normally i would say the fishless cycle is best, but you have a fish so that wont work now.

Also, as far as feeding pellets goes. You really will need to spice up his diet. Oscars are omnivors and need a varied diet. Pellets are good, but lots of them contain fillers like corn. Oscars that dont get proper nutrition can end up with problems like HITH.
I would get him several different food items. Then mix them up during the week.
Beefheart :D , brine shrimp, krill, crickets,
Shelled peas are really good for digestion and will help with blockages (only feed once or twice a week though)
along with your pellets

[FishFreak101]

i agree oscars actually need live food to survive get some feeders since he's only 7" get some small feeders first then get some larger 1s.

[PumaWard]

Always quarentine live feeder fish for at least 3 weeks. They more often than not carry disease.

They are also not very nutritious, a better option would be blood worms. Ascalon's suggestions are also great, and would provide a healthy diet.

You can raise your own feeder guppies yourself, that way you know their safe and they are more nutritious.

[FishFreak101]

i shood strat raising my own feeders.

[greenpuffer]

He is eating now albeit he seems finicky. I wholeheartedly agree with with alot of your suggestions and thank everyone for their replys. I still however have a few remaining questions. First, is there any diseases to worry about with feeding live crickets? Second, if live crickets are OK , how do I best store them? ( as in keeping them healthy and keeping them from disturbing the household at night.) Third, I have heard about the method with peas before, but can you use canned peas and how do you shell them? I will for now get him some freeze dried krill and some algae pellets this week. again thanks to everyone for their replies.

[PumaWard]

No, crickets shouldn't have any diseases. Get something like a 10g tank and put some paper towels and paper towel roles in it. Mist everything down with a mister bottle and place a few slices of cucumber, apple, other fruit or veggies. You can catch your own crickets or get them from the pet shop.

The tank will need to be misted down daily and the crickets will need to be fed the apple and other foods as needed. Their fairly easy to keep alive and well.

To shell peas you just peel the skin off; I think that canned peas are fine.

HTH