Hi,

My Oscar was sick a couple of months ago with what I think was a parasitic infection. I used the treatment as advised by my local shop and kept the aquarium light off as he did not like the light on. The treatment seemed to work and he is back to his lively self until I put the light on when he goes mad! He jerks about, swims in circles, goes white almost and opens his mouth really wide. I have left the light off for several weeks, (the tank does receive natural light during that day), and put it on last night. Instantly he went from fine to crazy again, and swam right into a rock and scraped his side. I am now too worried to put the light on as I do not want him to hurt himself again. Any advice would be very much appreciated!

hi what lights do you have, maybe you could try blue lights xx

Thanks for the quick reply!

I have two lights and I have always only turned one of them on. One is just a normal light and the other has a slight pink colour to it. It is this one that I use but have tried the other one with the same results.

I will try a blue light then but my worry is that he is still sick as he never repsonded to light like this before he got ill.

I cannot believe how attached I have become!

i think he just got use to the light off, i would leave the light off until you feed him, maybe he will be distracted from it with the food, oscars dont need light as they do prefer it off, so it doesnt really matter unless you have plants,oscars allways get what they wont lol xxxx

Ha ha thanks will try that! xxx

There is only one real way to get your oscar used to light and that is to switch it on. You ahev 2 choices

1. Put your light on and leave it on as normal and wait for you oscar to get used to it

or
2. Put the light on for 30 mins and slowly increase this time each subsequent day until the light duration is back to normal

either way your oscar is just going to have to get used to the light

I think your are using very bright lights, oscars do not like very bright lights.

Thanks for the advice.

Will try a different light and also putting the light gradually back on I think. He used to be fine with the light so i guess he has just got used to it being off.

I just do not want him to hurt himself again!

yu say he gets natural light so turn on 30 mins befor sun goes down and leeve it on for 30 mins after it turns dark
so no stress to him as he still thinks its sunny still =P
and increase per day =]

kazzy wrote:


that could work well.
My fish instantly think it's feedingtime once the light turn on.
and they will hang on to that thought all day until they actually get fed.

I have 2 lights on my larger tank. One is a brighter light and one is a dim light. I leave the dim light on all the time. I only turn the brighter light on in the evenings when i get home from work until i got to bed. it seems to work for me, my oscars have no problem with light.

I recommend getting a dimmer light, atleast til your O's get used to the light again..