Hi guys, recently I have notice some strange behavior from my Oscar. Well I haven't seen it but I noticed it the next day. When I go to bed or somewhere in the night while my fish is sleeping something spooks him, and sometimes so badly that he swims into stuff hurting himself and yesterday when I woke up he got a nasty gash on his head from swimming into either the heater or the canister filter inlet or outlet. During the day he is fine and does not display any jumpy behavior, it has gotten so bad that I removed my drift wood out of the tank in fear that he might just hurt himself more than he already has. Has any of you experienced this? And maybe know what is causing this?

First off check if your waterparameters are in check, as usual.
If they are, there can be various reasons why O's get spooked.
i had a Vieja, that bullied my oscar, and even made my oscar knock himself out, by bashing into the glass coverlids.
Lately a Silver Dollar accidentally touched my tiger oscar at night, only the slightest bit.
But my tiger spooked so bad, that he bounced against the lid, so hard , he bounced back onto the gravel, and back again!
I'm not kidding you.

as i understood, at night the visual cortex of an oscar is shut down completely.
at night when they sleep they really cannot see at all, so if they get spooked, they will dart off like crazy, bashing and bumping into things, and getting damaged accordingly.
taking any sharp objects and decoration out of your tank may help in damage control.
plus i found that having nightlights on my tank has lessened the times my oscars do spook.

Noddy wrote:


Thanks Noddy I checked the water parameters and they are 100% fine and stable, did a biggish water change to see if that will help. He does not have any tank mates since he is alone in the tank (55 gallon tank).

How does your night light work?

Thanks.

i had the same problem no tank mates in a 55gal i removed drift wood
and rocks he has not hurt him self since noddy is talking about blue leds
=] =] mybe lights flicking on and off any other pets in your house hold ?

BENNO wrote:


Nothing nadda I am single and living in a apartment so there is no other pets or lights going on or off, at end of day I switch off everything and go to bed so it happens somewhere during the night.

hmmm trains going past would cause vibration threw tank?
just trying to rule out some stuff

BENNO wrote:


Yeah I have noticed he is sensitive to vibrations, but nearest train station is 40 miles away and the tank stand is solid so it will take a small earth quake to actually pass on the vibrations into the tank.

Its rather weird just afraid he might hurt himself so badly that he wont be able to recover...

sometimes when I sit a watch TV in the dark my fish have a mad few seconds. I hear a crash and a lot of splashing and wonder if I am going to be missing one.(if one got eaten) they have a few scraps but nothing bad. my guess is they spook each other, while ones a slept it gets nipped or something? you will sooner or later get a few cuts or scraps but they don't usually do to much damage.

mmmmmm well i have a bare tank heater inlet outlet and a bunch of weed
black sand and nothing else that might solve it untill he settles down
or get sum blue leds off ebay then intoduce the ornamants or wood =]

BENNO wrote:


i got a string of blue Xmas LEDs , bundled those with ducttape and put those on top of the tank.
very cheap, and looking sharp.
at least the lights do, the top of my tank looks like a mess, but that's all covered up, so i don't mind.

well thats a way beter idea =]

While eating breakfast this morning it happened it looked like he gets a single twitch almost like when you get shocked by some static, then he goes absolutely nuts and flies around the tank hitting the glass sliders and the tank sides. This is now the 2nd time this has happened and the injuries are getting worse each and everyday.... I have checked my nitrates, ph and ammonia and they are as perfect as can be.

I need some serious help here I dont want to wake up one morning and find him crippled to the point that I need to put him down...