Spooked Oscar fish??

[Agent_Scully]

Ever since I got my oscar Mulder (Got him June 17 of '08) I've witnessed him getting "spooked". By spooked I mean he has a swimming spasm and swims as fast as he can at the bottom of at one of the walls or at the amazon branch I have in his tank. Usually it just gets water everywhere and the sudden commotion freaks me out in the middle of the night. But occasionally he will cut himself on something in the tank. He got spooked last night and I found two gashes on him this morning.

Is Mulder just getting spooked and trying to hide, perhaps from his reflection, or could it be something else? Like I said , he's done this since I've had him.

BTW this gives a new meaning to "Spooky Mulder". LOL! You have to watch the X-Files to get that. If anybody knows what I am talking about please say so.

 

[krytan]

I would remove the bit of wood he has been hurting himself on (i've had to remove quite a few things from my O's tank to stop him hurting himself) also i would get a cover for your tank.

 

[Rbishop]

Many Oscars do that and frequently injure themselves. If your water parameters are in check, about all you can do is minimize decor he can get hurt on.

 

[TMDragon]

Heh, it's funny, mine's going through the exact same thing atm, but it just started last Thursday for me (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162016). I honestly don't know whats going on, maybe something in the water? Or maybe all Oscars go crazy during the summer. I'd like to think it's not my fault. :grinyes:

I also believe mine is getting freaked out by its reflection, unfortunately for me though, mine got so stressed it stopped swimming and eating, just laid on the floor all day. I slid some matte posterboard in front of my background picture to prevent reflection, since the black background picture is very glossy, and my oscar calmed down a bit and started swimming again. However my oscar still occasionally freaks out throughout the day and goes bonkers. It swims in a small tight circle like it's trying to bite its tail and will do this 4-5 times before stopping... I also had to remove all my rocks because it would scrape its body against them while going nuts.

So yeah, remove all large rough decor that your oscar might hurt itself with and try covering up your background to see if it helps. Then you can decide what to do from there. Best of wishes to you and your oscar. Let's hope our fish can get through this as smoothly as possible.

 

[Agent_Scully]

Ok. BTW I do have a cover but i get splashed when he freaks out when I feed him