I got a call at my workplace this morning from my husband, frantic, saying that my oscars were dead on the bottom of a dry tank. I told him to put them in some water and I would be home as fast as I could. Fifteen minutes later I returned home to find my oscars looking very dead in a bucket of water and I started tearing up. I started swishing them back and forth through the water hoping to get them circulating, and soon I saw my black tiger's fins start to move. In a few minutes he was swimming back and forth in the bucket. His companion, the "dyed blue" oscar I posted about some time ago, was motionless and I started working on it the same way. Within minutes both my oscars were alive and well, swimming circles around the bucket.

I was overjoyed to say the least and ran outside to tell my husband who was digging our 75 gal. tank out of the garage! He swears that the fish had probably been laying on the bottom in NO water for at least a half hour before he went into the room and found the floor flooded. When I got home the rocks on the bottom of the tank were dry, so there hadn't been any water in it for quite some time! Looks like the seal along the bottom of the tank went out and caused a strong leak.

Now, I don't know how this is possible!! I know that the oscar is a hardy breed of fish, but to be without water for a half hour, that's outrageous! I am just shocked still at this moment! Unfortunately my husband's fish, a Yo-Yo loach was very dead by the time I got home and he is a little upset, there was nothing I could do for it, it was very far gone. On the brighter side, the oscars are doing well tonight in the other tank and back to themselves already, begging for food and being as social as can be!

First off, has anyone else had a close call like this? How did this happen (them surviving), they really should have been dead??.. What type of fish should we look into getting as a bottom feeder to clean up after the oscar's in the new tank? Yo-yo's are not real common in our fish stores around here. What make good oscar companions as well as cleaners?

closest ive had to yours is mine jumped out for a couplkeof minutes while i was gettin a bucket for the water change he was still breathing and still wet so he survived with ease

as for the tanbkmate none will eat everything ie waste but plecs are good janiters keeping glass clean and rocks but they too produce waste also be evry very carefull when buying them as they can grow to monsters certain breeds anyway
here is a very great site with alot of freindly people and loads of info www.plecofanatics.com/forum/index.php
im currently asking on there about a tankmate for my two oscars

Congrats, can you post a photo of your blue oscar?

You can see a picture of it from a while back on my first thread in the new members section. She/he hasn't changed much since then, except for getting slightly bigger. The color is still the same as of now. I've been meaning to get more pictures of it to post, but this fish is as friendly as can be, but hates when I start taking pictures! It completely avoids the camera and will hide anywhere it can to get away from it. The black tiger on the other hand takes awesome pictures and is always up for some attention, even if it is a camera.

I had a pleco once before many years ago when I first got oscars. It grew much too large for my tank, and I ended up putting in in my 300 gallon stock tank for horses. It was well over a foot long and would get so wild sometimes that it would splash water everywhere, so I had to get it out of my tank. As of recently when we've tried pleco's in our tanks, they have died shortly after getting them home, and from several different fish stores as well. It's really quite odd. Thanks for the suggestion though, I appreciate it and may have to try again one of these days.

i once kept one which died also as i was young and didnt know much about them.
alot of people dont know what to feed them and think they eat solely algae.
alot eat veg and algae wafer of some sort.

you can get alot of small plecs which you may have to order in at your lfs the l200 i was advised on as they dont grow huuuuge thees alot to choose from which grow to say 7 inch max ect. i wouldnt use snails as my sister put two from my comunity tank and the oscars went straight for them one getting totaly eaten and other was slightly too big so was spat back out

I'm so glad you were able to ressurect them

When disasters like this occur what happens to cycling when you have to throw them in a new tank?

it just sorts itself out but you use the old filter from the tank which will have the good bacteria in and will flush abit through the tank. fish get stessed with new tanks but are fine within a few days when i changed mine i didnt have the chance to cycle th new tank as they where bith in a 30 gallon tank which was very small for 8 inch oscars so i transfered them without cycling and there fine now

my bigger albino tiger o jumped out of his tank yesterday.... so so sad... i had to get my partner to flush him... i wish i had of tried revining him

Wow that is pretty amazing.

As long as a fishes gills are wet it will be able to breath oxygen from it. It seems you were just in time to save your oscars. Well done!!!

I was buying a fish once and it jumped out the back of the tank. Me and the guy in the shop couldnt find it anywhere. Took us 5 minutes to find that it had landed on a ledge between tanks. We put it back in the tank and it was fine, showed no signs of a problem. I still wanted it as it was bigger than the others(which would of been eaten by my fish) so the shop gave it to me for nothing. It was a synsphilius and it grew real quick. I eventually returned it too the shop (not enough room in my tank) and they commented on how beautiful it was. So fish can survive quite a long time out of tanks