Oscar not feeling well?

SinaiTSi

SinaiTSi

4G63 DSM Power
Feb 28, 2006
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I've been very busy lately and hadn't had time to change the water in the tank for my oscar, but it started looked a little cloudy so I went ahead and changed it after like a month of not doing so. I know, I know, that's not good. I probably did about a 40% change or so and ever since my oscar has just been very un-active. He won't really eat anything or swim around and just stays at the bottom of the tank for most of the day. He's been "moody" before, but not like this and not this long, it's starting to worry me. Any ideas?
 
First thing you need to do is post water parameters - Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. Folks on here won't be able to tell you much of anything until you have those numbers. If you don't have a test kit yourself you can take a water sample to your local fish store, but you really should have your own kit.
 
Sorry, I totally forget to check the water. As of right now, I only have a way to test my ammonia, which is about .5 right now. Which I guess it isn't really deadly, but certainly not ideal conditions. I'm guessing the best thing I can do right now is change the water to get the ammonia down?
 
Absolutely. When was the last time you changed the water and how long has the tank been up and running? A healthy, cycled tank shouldn't have any ammonia. It would really be helpful to know nitrites and nitrates, I have a funny feeling those levels are off as well.
 
joylynn said:
Absolutely. When was the last time you changed the water and how long has the tank been up and running? A healthy, cycled tank shouldn't have any ammonia. It would really be helpful to know nitrites and nitrates, I have a funny feeling those levels are off as well.
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I was doing weekly water changes but then things got kinda hectic and I kept on putting it off more and more (I know I shouldn't have but, oh well). So basically I went from weekly changes to doing one about after a month. The Oscar wasn't acting strange during the period in which I hadn't changed the water. Only after I changed the water, which seems strange to me. I actually remember reading somewhere about a lady that had a large community tank doing the same thing, waited to change the water for a month or so, and all the fish stayed at the bottom and didn't move a lot. I forget where I read it, and the explanation for what happened, but I think the same thing happened to me.

Oscar is by himself in a 55.
 
Did you do any thing to the filter when you changed the water? If you did you may have killed off some of the good bacteria ad started a new cycle.

And any ammonia is bad, plus there is a good chance other chemicals have built up over time.
 
I did change the elements on both filters but I've heard if you actually clean both HOB filters at the same time, you could kill bacteria that is needed. Meaning I guess you're only supposed to clean on at a time. I didn't clean either one, so I'm still not sure what the problem is.
 
Oh yeah. Like I said before, my main problem is that the Oscar shows signs of stress AFTER I changed the water. Meaning after there was less ammonia in ther water. BTW, thanks a lot for all the help so far. I appreciate it.
 
Fish adapt to bad water conditions, it is called Old Tank Syndrome. If you have gone longish periods of time without changing water you really should change small amounts of water at a time. The water gets "thick" with dissolved compounds (DOCs) and the fish adjusts to the "thick" water. When you do a large water change you thin the water out quickly and they have a difficult time adjusting even though they are going from bad water to good. Now that you have already done what I am guessing is a pretty good sized water changed I am not sure what to do to help the fish recover except wait and see. Hopefully others on here will have more advice. I would probably wait a few days before changing the water again, then change 5% a day until the water params get back to normal.
 
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