Oscar help

[Wally]

Hey all- I have a new juvenile tiger oscar i have added to an established tank. He and his partner (another juvenile oscar have been in for four days). The tank has been together months, with multiple fish at various times. I say that because i dont think the answer to my problem is ammonia or nitrites. What has happened is last night after feeding I noted some bloating in his belly. I thought no biggie but continued to check on him. He started drooping his fins and swimming lethargically. Oddly if I went to the tank and he thought he was getting fed he would perk up and come to the top of the tank. However during the night he isolated himself and continues with droopy fins and appearing sluggish. He doesnt appear to be bloated. Any help would be much appreciated, I dont want to lose thew little guy. He has no signs of fungus, or Ick. His scales are fine and there is no change around his gills. Thanks.

[Rex Karr]

[quote:e2789233cd="Wally"]Hey all- I have a new juvenile tiger oscar i have added to an established tank. He and his partner (another juvenile oscar have been in for four days). The tank has been together months, with multiple fish at various times. I say that because i dont think the answer to my problem is ammonia or nitrites. What has happened is last night after feeding I noted some bloating in his belly. I thought no biggie but continued to check on him. He started drooping his fins and swimming lethargically. Oddly if I went to the tank and he thought he was getting fed he would perk up and come to the top of the tank. However during the night he isolated himself and continues with droopy fins and appearing sluggish. He doesnt appear to be bloated. Any help would be much appreciated, I dont want to lose thew little guy. He has no signs of fungus, or Ick. His scales are fine and there is no change around his gills. Thanks.[/quote:e2789233cd]

Hey Wally, Welcome to the forums. Sorry for the late reply. I thought I'd let someone else respond first. But here wer are, a day later an no replies. So I'll try to help.

Is it possible the bloating is rather just a "very full" stomach? If this is the case, it sounds like maybe they just had more than they could stomach. After a pouple days (probably already) they will look slimmer and act normal. This happens to a medium sized male Zonatum of mine all the time. He is a glutton, like most Oscars, and just has to pack himself full. Its probably not good for this to happen, and you might want to try feeding less right now. I should do the same, but the reason i have so much food in the water is to try and get it to some shy fish that aren't always out in the open like the Zonatum.

I hope this is all your problem is. If not we'll try another possibility.

Rex

[Wally]

Thanks Rex- I fed him some flakes last night rather than the small pellets and he is doing much better. It is hysterical though, when I got home yesterday my wife said "your fish is a goner" but when i looked in the tank he was fine. Actually he looked great, good color, holding up his fins. My wife swore up and down the fish was swimming upside down and drifting in the filter wash right before I got home. I was worried enough to call a fish expert last night who said exactly what you did. He said use small pellets and soak them first. He said the upside down swimming was probably gas. Too funny, thanks for the reply, I love this sight keep up the great work.

[Rex Karr]

Cool. Glad you have everything under control now. Tell us a bit about yourself. What size tanks do you have and what are the inhabitants? Not sure if you up on latin names, but I have a bunch of Red Devil species myself. You can see several in my sig. I also have a lot of Viejas, catfish, and characins.

Rex

[Wally]

Well, I've kept tropical fish now for 21 years. I have always been fond of Oscars, and I really dont know why. They are just so interactive you know. My tanks are small I have two twenty longs. I want a 75 gallon tank, there is just the issue of space. Normally what I do is keep the juveniles for a year and then give them to my brother or a friend(not married=bigger fish tanks lol). In one tank I have two juvenile tiger oscars, and in the other tank I have some juvenile african cichlids. I have two gold labs and two peacocks.
The big thing I have found with keeping fish is that they like bigger space. The long tanks i have are not deep, but there is alot of area to swim. That is why i like the 75 gallon better than the 55. Its only 20 bigger but the space difference is phenomenal.
In college my roommate had a Red Devil. We called him Goliath. That fish would eat anything that even hovered above the tank. He was cool.
There is just something about aggressive fish, you know.

[jonah]

[quote:bc62d84080="Wally"] My wife swore up and down the fish was swimming upside down and drifting in the filter wash right before I got home.[/quote:bc62d84080]

Really fairly common behavior for oscars. They're strange fish. :lol:

Sometimes they'll lay on the gravel and breathe extra slow. That would always freak me out when I kept them.

You do know that in a year they'll be close to a foot long right? :?

[DR.J]

oscars are very weird at times i have two of them and let me tell you they always are very droopy. i dont know why your oscars did what they did but i do know alot about oscars so im gonna say they were being lazy or the tank is to small for them.