Oscar going crazy spinning and banging glass. HELP!

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R

riv187

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 16, 2019
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My Oscar about 2 years old,,,10" long is taking fits thrashing,spinning and crazy mad. His water is clean,,just did 50% and vacuumed. No spots or red gills,,no holes in his head,,no tail rot,,,,,just some scrapes from his banging and hitting a sunken ship. The water I use is well water/no chlorine,,and 78-80* I treat it with some 'good bacteria' after the change. He hasn't eaten in 5 days. He isn't floating strange either,,doesn't appear bloated or any other. But he throws nasty fits,,,sometimes quivers a little.
Help!
 
50 gallon tank. only 1 other fish in there,,small 3-4" convict. PH is neutral.

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He was fine,,,just started after I cleaned and vacuumed his tank.4 months ago he was in a 24 gallon,,,,I thought he really moved up with the 50...he can actually do laps
 
Size of tank maybe small but that's not what's causing the strange behavior. Me guess is it's related to the water change. You may have thrown the parameters out of wack! Please test params and report back. Did you happen to clean your filter media with tap?
 
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Welcome to mfk.


If you can get your hands on a tds meter and find out the total dissolved solids. Sometimes well water can all of a sudden get a spike of high tds. For instance with a spring run off it can knock some crud into the well or something.

This happened with a friend of mine and all his fish started dying. We measured tds and it was through the roof. Solution was to use activated carbon. Stocked a bunch in his fx5’s and also ran his water through a home made carbon filter made from pvc before adding it to the tank.

Yes a 50g is small for an Oscar, but you may have a more urgent matter on your hands. Oscars grow extremely fast until about 10 inch or so then hey slow down a bit. In that time it will all of a sudden need a much bigger tank at least double that size (as everyone has already mentioned, sorry to beat a dead horse). Until you can upgrade, you can lighten the waste load by doing frequent water changes. Might need to do it either daily or every other day.

Hth
 
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I would say first and foremost do some heavy water changes. Thats a big fish for a 50. While you may have been doing water changes regularly, its possible you werent changing enough and your nitrates have crept up towards toxic levels over time. I would say 50% changes are not enough, but rather 75-80% twice a week, especially if you are feeding heavily.

Which brings me to my next suggestion: cut back on feeding until you get the fish a larger tank. 50 gallons is not a dire situation, but ime an adult oscar should have at least a 75 gallon, preferably larger, all to itself.

As for the fishes ailment, i can only really guess without you testing the water and posting parameters. One guess is that the con is giving the oscar fits. At 4" convicts can become nasty little buggers...sneaky too. You may never even see him harassing the oscar when youre around. In that small tank i can easily see territorial squabbling breaking out between the 2.

Jexnell Jexnell
 
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When I clean the Fluval filter,,I rinse the ceramics,,rinse/squeeze the heavy foam,,change the carbon in sock, and new floss. I add some Tetra aqua safe and or /aqua start . The water,at least in appearance stays nicer looking longer. My last fish for years where a bunch of various goldfish and they where DIRTY..."jaws" the Oscar and the convict's water stays nice looking far longer. I'm use to Jaws being shy for a couple days after I deep clean his tank vacuuming and wiping inside walls off with a paper towel...but he's different now.
I'm sorry if I don't know more about parameters,,,unless I take water to petsmart for testing. The PH is nuetral, water is clear and no yellowing.
 
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