Oscar Care

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pippenstoy

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Jun 7, 2014
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I am a new oscar owner. I clean his tank. I do not over feed him I clean his filters. I test his water. I have two 100 gallon filters on a 75 gallon tank. He is 5 inches long. My problem is his water is cloudy. I have a water softener would that be doing it. I also have 4 bubblers in his tank..
Also I read Oscars hate light is this true and my fish is blind in his Left eye, what can I feed him that he can smell as a steady diet and what Temp should I keep him. There are so many contradictions out there.
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pippenstoy said:
I am a new oscar owner. I clean his tank. I do not over feed him I clean his filters. I test his water. I have two 100 gallon filters on a 75 gallon tank. He is 5 inches long. My problem is his water is cloudy. I have a water softener would that be doing it. I also have 4 bubblers in his tank..
Also I read Oscars hate light is this true and my fish is blind in his Left eye, what can I feed him that he can smell as a steady diet and what Temp should I keep him. There are so many contradictions out there.
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How long had the tank been setup before you added your Oscar?
What do you mean by "clean"?
What kind of filters, canisters or hang on back?
What do you feed him?
Being a little more specific will better help us help you.
Oscars are tropical so temp around 75-80 degrees F will be fine.
Average aquarium lighting is fine but hiding places are appreciated.
Food can be confusing but considering you have an Oscar, feeding shouldn't be a problem. Stay away from feeder fish for health reasons. Pellets and cichlid sticks are a better choice for a staple diet. Frozen and freeze dried foods like shrimp and bloodworms may be offered as treats. Your Oscar should have no problem finding these foods. A fish's sense of smell is very good.
Lastly, my guess to your problem is your tank hasn't completely cycled. Answers to the above questions will tell the tale; and I don't believe water softener is a contributing factor.
By the way, a 75g is good for 1 Oscar, adding tank mates, even a Pleco could be asking for trouble in the future.


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Yep, like Jason says, do you have a water parameter test kit? It's of utmost importance to be able to monitor for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, especially on a new/newer setup, or when a change is made to the bio load in a tank.

Nice looking 75 by the way! Problem is, when Mr.O gets larger and feels like it, he'll probably bulldoze and tear-up most of that stuff.

I too have a 75g tank that that's home to a tiger oscar and a green severum. I purchased and introduced them as juveniles and again like Jason said, this will be a crowed tank that will require fin level water changes once they grow to adult. A 75 is the minimum recommended for a single O. It's also said that Oscar thrive best with very low nitrates (need your test kit for this), which means big water changes. On a busy O forum I participate on, they flip out at ~10ppm nitrates. I keep mine at 75degF and never mess with my tap water's pH, which is a 7.6.

My O is about 5" as well. The green sev is not far behind.
 
What forum is it? I have oscars now and could certainly use some more specific info than I can find here. Thanks.
 
I have had the tank for two months. By clean I mean that I do a 15% water change and vacuum the bottom. I also use quick start when I add new water. I have two filters for a 100 gallon tank(external) Tetra cascade power filters. One has a suction tube that goes to the bottom of the tank.I feed him Pellets and cichlid sticks .He also gets a vedg pellet and Chichlids flakes. I feed him dried river shrimp as a treat. Now he only wants shrimp and he is not eating the other. he spits it out. He hides behind a rock with fake plants.When I rescued him he ate all his tank mates. He is also blind in one eye I think. It has a whate patch over it and its been there since I got him.He often floats on his side is this normal ? All the water test test fine except the hardness. Do they like hard water or soft?
OMG all this for a fish LOL. By the way Pinkey. he has rearranged his tank allready and I watched what he was doing to I made a Little hiding place behind the plants and he has not touched anything yet.I didn't put a lot in his tank because he is blind in one eye. bad enough he get stuck in plants.
 
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pippenstoy said:
I have had the tank for two months. By clean I mean that I do a 15% water change and vacuum the bottom. I also use quick start when I add new water. I have two filters for a 100 gallon tank(external) Tetra cascade power filters. One has a suction tube that goes to the bottom of the tank.I feed him Pellets and cichlid sticks .He also gets a vedg pellet and Chichlids flakes. I feed him dried river shrimp as a treat. Now he only wants shrimp and he is not eating the other. he spits it out. He hides behind a rock with fake plants.When I rescued him he ate all his tank mates. He is also blind in one eye I think. It has a whate patch over it and its been there since I got him.He often floats on his side is this normal ? All the water test test fine except the hardness. Do they like hard water or soft?
OMG all this for a fish LOL. By the way Pinkey. he has rearranged his tank allready and I watched what he was doing to I made a Little hiding place behind the plants and he has not touched anything yet.I didn't put a lot in his tank because he is blind in one eye. bad enough he get stuck in plants.
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15% is fine but greater volume won't hurt
Not familiar with this filter but I assume it has cartridges. If so, don't replace all at once. Rinse and reuse as much as possible.
Don't feed for a day or two, no treats. If he eats staple food, then offer a treat.
Is it a patch, which could be fungus; or is the eye cloudy?
Floating on its side isn't normal. Something could be going on internally.
Oscars are South American cichlids and don't require hard water but can be acclimated. Neutral - 8. Softer water is best.



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The filter does have cartridges . and I don't replace all at once. I rinse and reuse as much as possible. RE: his eye. as I stated I rescued him. he was in a 55 gal tank with 20 gold fish. I do believe it is an ammonia burn. it is a white dot directly in the middle of his eye. I would say patch. He floats on his side every once in a while but he is often hiding except when I come to his tank.Good on the soft water because I have A water softener.
 
:cool: oscarfish.com is very informative. when I kept 'O's (& other lg cichlids) I changed 50% weekly on my 125g. "T"
 
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