Help my oscar wont eat!

Brodeurman69 · 01-20-2007, 02:19 PM

I picked up a tiger oscar two days ago and put him in my 80 gallon and for some reason he wont eat. All he really seems to do is sit at the bottom an not move much at all. Any ideas on what i can do. Im worried that he may be acting this way because he is sick.

jonjon1982 · 01-20-2007, 03:48 PM

Hi! Welcome to the forums!! You have come to the right place. There are many knowlegeable people that can help you.

Most importantly, its difficult to diagnose issues without a set of information:

1. How long have you have that 80g set up? Is it cycled? If not you may want to read the cycling sticky in the forums.

2. What are your water perameters? Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte levels, and water temp.

That should be enough info to shed some light on your situation. Again, Welcome!!

BJP · 01-20-2007, 05:32 PM

What are you feeding? Oscars can be finicky. I did find one brand they loved so much they'd jump from the water to take the flake dry from my hand. After two weeks of wet camera attempts I finally got a decent action shot of the tiger oscar half out the water taking the food from my hand.

I'm guessing you went straight from store to big tank bypassing any period of quarantine for observation and illness diagnosis/treatment. That's never a good idea and if you think there's any chance you may end up treating with medication you should get him out and in a smaller tank.

Brodeurman69 · 01-20-2007, 08:51 PM

My tank is fully cycled my ammonia is at 0 nitrite is at 0 and nitrates is around 25. I did go directly from store to my tank cause unfortunately i dont have a quarantine tank. Is it possible that it may just be the food that he doesnt care for? If so which food would you reccommend. I have had him for only two days which also leads me to believe that he may still just be getting used to the tank. Im kinda lost.

Tommy Gun · 01-20-2007, 10:17 PM

Welcome to the forum Brodeurman69!

Is this the only fish in your tank right now? If not, what else do you have?

How large is it?

How did you acclimate your fish?

I agree with you that this fish may just be having a hard time adjusting to his new surroundings and could be 'shy' or reclusive for that reason. Food could also be an important aspect as well and I suggest asking the store where you bought it what they were feeding him/her. Then you could try that brand/type of food to see if you can get better results.

I would not panic quite yet, your fish can go a lot longer than most people may suspect without eating. If you are feeding and the food is just falling to the substrate, I would get it out of the tank the best you can so that it does not become a strain on your water quality.

Brodeurman69 · 01-20-2007, 11:40 PM

He is in the tank with a convict and a rainbow shark. I honestly am starting to think that its more of a tank adjustment issue. When the lights are dimmed in the tank and i am not up to the glass he comes out an swims around. But then when i get close he goes to his hiding spot. I have been reading more into the problem on an oscar forum and apparently this is common with the species. So i think all is well. He is about 3in long now i acclimated him correctly and right now he is the largest in the tank. The convict doesnt seem to be bullying him at all either which is a good thing.

Tommy Gun · 01-21-2007, 02:11 AM

Well, that sounds good. I would say that a lot of fish go through a period of time where they do not act 'normally' right after being transported to a new tank. It is a stressful experience, no doubt. If you feel it would help, you could leave the lights off on the tank for a few hours in the morning so that your oscar can feel more secure to check out his/her new home and the lights from outside of the tank will allow you to watch him/her more closely. Sometimes just the shock of lights suddenly popping on and off can be harsh for fish. I know on all my tanks, or the ones I have which use two light bulbs, I time the lights so that one will come on before the other so as to avoid making my fish skittish. Just a thought though. If it is just a case of being shy, then it will more than likely pass over the next couple of days. From what I have read about oscars, they are often times referred to as 'man's best aquatic friend' because their personalities are much like a dogs in that they will greet you and can understand a lot more than some other fish. I saw an article in a magazine or a show on TV, cant remember which, that showed a guy who had trained his Oscar to 'smile'!

Keep us updated on how you and your fish are doing and feel free to ask any questions that you might have in the future!!!

BJP · 01-21-2007, 08:13 AM

I was at the point the last couple years I was bringing oscars in that I'd spend the first week or so feeding them food treated with Discomed by Aquatronics. It was the best internal parasite med out at the time containing levamisole and piperazine. Since then they've come up with another version Discoworm that may be as good but I haven't had my hands on to compare. I used to lose a lot of oscars in the first couple weeks that looked perfectly fine on the outside prior to starting that. Of course you have to get them eatting first or you can't get the meds into them. Freshwater fish don't drink water.

BJP · 01-21-2007, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Is it possible that it may just be the food that he doesnt care for? If so which food would you reccommend. I have had him for only two days which also leads me to believe that he may still just be getting used to the tank. Im kinda lost.

The first place to start is to find out what the store was feeding and if he was actually eatting at the store prior to purchase. If he was and you probably should have requested a chance to witness that before buying him then aquire what he is used to for now. If he wasn't eatting there or you don't believe the teenager of the week remembers for certain, I'd try First Flake from Omega if you can locate it. I've had more types of fish including oscars rush to eat that formula after turning down other brands than anything else made. I've been completely convinced they make the freshest and best line of foods out there with only Ocean Nutritions line coming close and it should since Omeaga makes all the ocean Nutrition brands of flake for them with a slightly different vitamin additvie mix. My problem is the line seems to have disappeared from all retailers in my area in the last five years except Petsmart stores and they only carry a few of the formulas and sizes. I'm currently trying a couple of their new pellet formulas. They weren't able to get the pellets on the market prior to me closing since the formulas wouldn't hold together going through the shaker part of the machine without the addition of some grains to bind them together and dillute the protien levels down. Once I can access their pond pellets they'll be the only brand in the house.

http://www.omegasea.net/products.html

BJP · 01-21-2007, 02:02 PM

Testing out this photobucket site to see if it works.