new oscar-help

Easydoesit

AC Members
Mar 17, 2008
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sry for the long post in advance, looking for some much needed advice.

okay, got a tiger oscar today, about 4 inches. hes in a 20 gallon(i know i know, temp home.. getting either a 55 or 75 gallon next week)
I didnt cycle the tank and am fully prepared to do the every other day/every day water changes. I am using filter media and some gravel from an established tank, and also added stress zyme(dno if it works?). I have an ammonia monitor in the tank. This isnt the problem right now though, since the water is completely ammonia+nitrite free, chlorine/chloramine free/stress coated(temp also matches pretty perfectly, maybe 1 or 2 degrees off, ddnt test pH of the LFS water, but mine was either 7 or 7.2)..

When I got the lil guy, the lady at the petstore kind of mangled my fish in the process of taking him out and bagging him up. She was pretty much wrestling the fish like it was a WWE finally, only a lot less choreographed, not to mention she almost lost.
Anyways, it looked REALLY stressful for the fish.
So, I got my poor fish, and headed home. He stopped swimming gradually on the ride home in her screwed up bagging.
I put him in a 2'ishx2'ish&4"ish high container, and started adding the tank water little by little, mixing it with the LFS water. He wasnt moving around much, most of the time just laid there.
When I got him, he was the big fish of the tank and his color other than the orange/red was a very deep dark gray/black. After about half an hour of the slowly adding water, i put him in the tank. He swam a little, but now he pretty much just sits at the bottom and sometimes like.. leans over, barely moving at all. He was doing this right when I got him out of his bag too, so i dont think its my water.
I also noticed that his color is much lighter now, more of a sandy bronzy color, kind of the tannish greyish color that some ppl get mustangs in, instead of his dark grey/borderline black

Sometimes he will swim around normally, but not for long. I dont know if hes gonna make it, but I dont know what happened either. Im going to bed now, hoping that hes okay in the morning. will check back when im babysitting early tomorrow morning.

Help me out please, i really like this fish and want him to live. I dont kno what happened.
 
okay, he got his deeper color back and hes swimming around fine. noticed that he only goes to the bottom when i turn the light on. everytime i turn it back off, hes swimming around.

hes not eating his cichlid pellets or FDdbloodworms though
 
sounds like a stressed (from the bagging and travel) and sulky Oscar.

keep ammonia, nitrite at 0 (test at least daily) and keep an eye on him.
 
just got home and checked on him and hes lying down on the bottom again. he changes positions easily when he wants to and isnt breathing rapidly or gasping at all. he still isnt eating.
i dno. does he just need time or does it sound bad?
is there anybody out there?
 
sounds like a stressed (from the bagging and travel) and sulky Oscar.

keep ammonia, nitrite at 0 (test at least daily) and keep an eye on him.
:iagree: A 55g tank will still be to small for him, a 75g tank will be ok if he is the only fish in it. Don't take to long setting up a new tank for him as oscars grow very fast.
 
just got home and checked on him and hes lying down on the bottom again. he changes positions easily when he wants to and isnt breathing rapidly or gasping at all. he still isnt eating.
i dno. does he just need time or does it sound bad?
is there anybody out there?
Oscars do behave like that sometimes, i would keep a close eye on him though.

He probably dosen't like the tank he is in at the moment and is having a sulk.
 
okay, good. well, not good but better than what i was thinking. i wonder why he doesnt like the tank. probably the size, but its about 2 times bigger than the little cubicle he was in with another oscar who he was beatin up whenever he felt like it at the LFS. oh well, i hope he cheers up when i get the bigger tank in.
 
Yeah oscars can be serious drama queens. You'd think they're dying if you do something to tick them off a little bit. I don't know how accurate those in-tank ammonia monitors are, but if they're anything like the dip strips, its probably trash. I wouldn't trust anything but a decent liquid test kit. Keep doing water changes and get that new tank ASAP. I got my oscar at about 2" and it grew almost an inch a month for the first 5-6 months. Its slowed down considerably but still growing at 2 years.
 
wow, didnt know they grow that quick!
but yeah i have the API liquid dropper+tube ammonia checker too, getting a nitrite and nitrate one when i get the bigger tank next week. i have the test strips- no2, no3, GH, KH, pH, and chlorine.. but i found them not to be very accurate, like you said.
of the 2 fish i got this week, i have a pink(pink male fighter fish. i thought it was funny) betta who isnt afraid of anything that i can hand feed already, and a drama queen oscar.. who is beautiful by the way, but keeps me nervous!
thanks though for letting me know. if u didnt tell me i would probably be doing more water changes and stressing him out more.
 
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