hiya all i am new to the site and i am new to keeping oscars i am quite worried about him though he seems really shy and wont eat i have heard about hole in the head and dont know what to do i have tried him on lots of different foods such as live bait cichilid pellets bloodworms meal worms and i have been breaking them up what can i do he just seems to want to hide all the time any advise would be greatly aprichated

welcome to the site

first off how long have you had your new oscar? is your tank cycled? hwo big is your tank and what are your water parameters(ammonia nitrite and nitrates as well as ph and temp)?
by giving us the answers to these quwstins we can better help you with your oscar troubles.

well i have had the tank set up for a year now used to have mollys and guppies but i have now moved them to new tank and ph is fine nitrate fine and all the tank is well cycled i donno what to do im quite worried

necromancer4 wrote:


if your oscars is new to the tank it can take a day or so for him to become accustomed to his new surroundings. oscars are known for their ability to sulk when things are changed or they are moved to a new home.

Can you please give us the actul readings? Some people think that 0.2 ammo is ok, it's not. Both ammo & nitrite must be 0.

ok readings are
.ammonia-0
.n02-0
.n03-0
ph high-8.0
ph-7.6

and the tank is 180 litre i have him a plec and a cat fish in the tank

unfortunetly your tank is only about 40 imperial gallons and this is a little small for an oscar. as for your tank mates since your tank is too small for an oscar then it is definetly too small fro 2 oscars and 2 plecos.
imho i beleive you should either rehome an oscar and both plecos or get a bigger tank.

sorry to be bearer of bad new for ya

no only one oscar and the cat fish is still tiny the plec is only 3 months old

sorry i got a couple of threads confused. your tank is still on the small side and can only support one oscar and no mates.


btw it is impossible to have a nitrate reading of zero. i would suggest a retest to see wht it really is

I wOULD advice you to rehome the plec & catfish. I can't see you maintaining good water quality when they start getting much bigger. Especially if you've got something like a common plec. What catfish is it?

hello and welcome.................the boss and the number one got you covered