Help new oscar sulking,not eaten in 3 days!

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DeBree420

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Feb 9, 2007
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help, my new red tiger oscar is just sitting on the bottom of the tank,sulking.
he hasnt eaten in 3 days...the first day i got him he ate a pellet(simple protien pellet)but since then he hasnt touched any of his food, he just sits there at the bottom of the tank he seems to be breathing lightly and moves around the bit of wood he has to hide behind, but spends alot of time just sitting at almost a 45degree angle. his belly is starting to look a bit empty
what can i do?
 

severum mama

is a big bowl of wrong.
Dec 30, 2006
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If you tell us a little about your tank, then maybe we can be of more help. What size is the tank? How long has it been set up? How big is the oscar? Does he have any tank mates? Do you have a test kit, and if so, can you test your water and post the results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH? Some fish just take a long time to settle in and start eating, but if there are water quality issues, then that can really affect a fish's behavior. Then again, some fish are just weird. I recently got a couple of new discus, for example, and one ate the first night, while the other turned up his nose at food for about 8 days!
 

DeBree420

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Feb 9, 2007
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well...i have no ammonia/nitrite/nitrate tester...as bad as that is...i have 8 tanks and ive never really needed one cos ive always established the tanks then slowly added fish and ive never had a problem...no excuse for not having a test kit still i know :p .the ph is just to the acid side of neutral and he is in the oldest set up tank i have (my fist one) so it is well established...
he is in a tank with a divider in it,on the other side is australian rainbows he semed to enjoy looking at the rainbows but he kinda frieked them out..the rainbows are still happy, just not as happy as usual. the oscar is approx 2 inches long
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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arn't they quite the personality fish though ? possibly he's just having a bit of a sulk, being new into the tank. If so you can expect him to eat when his hunger gets the better of him.

you could really set your mind at ease by having a test kit though, just to exclude any possibility of a failure in your bacterial filtration etc.
 

Weezer

Plastic Plant's Live Longer
Mar 2, 2007
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"Minnesota - It Gets Chilly Here"
You realy should have a liquid test kit,,IMO....:hang:
 

severum mama

is a big bowl of wrong.
Dec 30, 2006
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What size is the tank?
Have you tried feeding frozen foods? That may tempt your O enough to start eating.
 

DeBree420

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Feb 9, 2007
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yeah all my lfs stock ph kits but they never seem to have amonia/nitrite kits. i tried frozen food but he still seems to sulky...then i tried a small mealworm, and he looked at it cos it wiggled but seemed determined to sit in his spot.
went back to the lfs i got him from, asked what they fed him....GOLDFISH FLAKE >< ! still...he is sulking and would not accept that either, the one thing he ate was 2 small protein pellets, but hasnt seemed interested in them since :(
 

DeBree420

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Feb 9, 2007
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also.. could trying to give him many different foods(to see what he will eat) just be confusing him?...i have tried protein pellets,shrimp pellets, cichlid crumble (the neolamprologus brichardi loves this),cichlid dinner(frozen concoction),meal worms and tropical flake *phew* should i try to mix it all together?,like blend it and add gellotine?or should i just stick with the one (prolly the protein pellet cos he ate that once at least :p )then try and vary his diet cos im not sure if the protein pellets will be good for him in the long term especially if he has been fed goldfish flake cos he might now be viatamin/mineral defficient..and the protein pellets are the cheepest food i got which leads me to believe its made of low quality ingredients (i had it only to feed my apple snails)
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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thing is without the test kit you're guessing as regards the water quality. i don't like what you say about him breathing heavily and sitting at a 45 degree angle; is this resting on the substrate ?

how did you cycle the tank ?

If he's just being tempermental in not eating I wouldn't feed him at all for a few days. He'll get hungry and he's more likely to take what's on offer after a fast.
 
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