Hello,

Ok, so these are my boyfriends oscars and I'm not very familiar with the type of fish so bear with me please!

He is wondering if this is normal for them? They have always had beautiful coloring and towards the bottom of the fish (as in stomach area) it is sort of fading and turning yellow. Is this normal or is it a disease? Anything we can do?

If you need test results of the water, I can do it later if you need them. He doesn't have a test kit but I do at my place.

They are tiger oscars and aren't acting any different. They are probably almost a foot long each and 2 years old.






These pictures are a few weeks old but they give you an idea but they were taken just "to take pictures of them" and not focused on the area. I'm not sure if this is common for them and if you need more info or pictures just let me know! Thanks!

Welcome to our community

Okay, without knowing what your water conditions are, it's a little bit difficult actually advise on what could be wrong, if there is anything wrong.

If your fish are not acting any differently, i.e. not breathing heavily, hanging at the surface, gone off their food, then I don't think there's too much wrong. The tank does look quite Bright, why don't you start off by turning the lights off and leaving them off for most of the day and see if the Oscars get a little bit darker in colour.

However, we will need to see some test results before we can really go any further.

Ok thanks!

I'll get my test kit and do some testing sometime today. I thought I'd ask before I did it in case it was just a characteristic or something common. It is definitely bright in the tank when the lights are on, but they aren't on too much during the day. Probably much less than the average owner.

I'll ask him if he has noticed anything different. The only thing I noticed today was the black oscar's mouth has been open quite a bit but I know its not locked because it has closed. And I don't see anything inside the mouth. Sorry, I'm really uneducated about oscars so it's hard for me to notice what is normal or not!


EDIT: I just put a few of there pellets in the thank and the black one tried to eat one twice but spit them out.

How big is the tank, and what type of filtration have you got?

Oscars are not really the type of fish that do very well in poor water conditions. If there is a water condition problem then I would expect the Oscars to be breathing heavily. This doesn't always happen, sometimes it can be prolonged exposure to poor water conditions that finally takes its toll on the Oscars help.

It isn't uncommon for Oscars to choose their food opt and then just spit it out, sometimes they just get a little bit bored with the food that they are given. In a lot of cases, a few days without food makes them realise that they will eat what they are given.

But really, we need to know what the condition of the water is before we can start advising you properly.

, what size tank do you have. and how many fish are in your tank x

Ok everyone, I need some major help..... It's going to be a discipline thread towards us definitely.

With my fish, I always do water testing because I have had little problems since I got my fish (oranda) 6 months ago and I test it weekly and am sooo careful with him.

My boyfriend on the other hand, has never tested his water but since he has never had a fish die ever, never had problems and me not knowing much, I assumed that it probably wasnt as important since I have a fancy goldfish and they tend to be much more sensitive to water conditions.


Errr.... I just tested his water and its not good... well only the ammonia but its TERRIBLE!!!! When I came over after 5 minutes of waiting to check the results I thought i was going to PUKE, I feel so terrible!

PH- 7.4
Ammonia.... 8 ppm!!!!!! Its about as dark as it can get.
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- Almost 5

What the heck! I know our tap water here as a little ammonia in it, as I just figured out about 2 weeks ago after trying to figure out how I couldnt get the ammonia out of MY tank. He cleans it every maybe 2 weeks? Im not sure how much, but I assume at least 25%. But isnt that high for how often? Its as if he never cleaned it since he got them 2 years ago....


Here is where I think I (he) am going to get yelled at...

He has his 2 oscars, maybe 8-10 inches long each in a 55g tank. This is the tank they started out in and we have been planning on getting them a bigger tank here soon in a few weeks until today, he wanted me to see if that coloring was normal since I have had such good luck catching all my problems with my oranda so quick and treat them as soon as I could. So since I posted this morning, we just always assumed things were ok (stupid us).

I feel so terrible, I hope no one thinks he/we are cruel to animals! I guess just way too unknowledegable about their care. Can someone please help me.

To take care of ammonia, we will obviously do a huge water change today. What else? I have SeaChem Prime at my place I can add to the clean water to be added during the water change. Should I add some SeaChem Stability as well?

Keep in mind that I am pretty knowledgeable when comes to oranda/goldfish but know NOTHING about oscars.

Also, I believe his filter is a TopFin one? The one that has the carbon detector and I assume its the one made for his tank size.

Water temp is 72.

You mentioned you use Prime...so are you saying he doesn't condition the tap water at all when he does water changes? Nothing to eliminate chlorine or ammonia?

If you're ammonia reading is off the scale I would immediately do a 50-75% water change, which are generally not recommended except for extreme circumstances. This seems like one however....and make sure you USE prime to treat the water. I would continue testing the water every day and doing 30-35% water changes until the readings show 0 ammonia. This needs to be done religiously..without fail. The growing discoloration on the belly could be nothing, or it could be ammonia burns, which usually are more prominent..however with readings like that I would err on the side of caution here.

I would also recommend temperature should be raised a bit to around 78 degrees. As for the filter...If its a top fin hang on back there is no way that type of small filter can handle 2 oscars. He is basically using a filter for very small fish that probably works for around 20-30 gallons at the most. Bear in mind companies that make filters are very liberal in their ratings. It's safe to assume most filters actually perform at about 65% of what their claimed 'capacity' is. They ususally also rate water flow without considering waste buildup, and other restrictions to water flow that naturally occur in filters. Anyways, An oscar by itself in a 55 gallon would require filtration at least rated for a 110 gallon tank.


2 oscars in a 55 gallon is waaay overstocked as well as you seem aware (so the sooner the you get the bigger tank the better), and the filter just is not able to keep up with the waste. He would need an additional canister filter rated at at least 405 GPH (gallons per hour) to work with the small hang on back he has. Even that is not a lot for 2 oscars. You can try adding the stability as well to try and aid in bacterial growth, however until he gets a filter that can handle his tank and his fish it's only going to be putting a band aid on a bullet hole, so to speak.

Keep doing the water changes religiously as mentioned. He needs to buy that new filter asap as well to keep this from happening again, because it will..with greater regularity, and I'm sure you don't want to have to come to the rescue every time it does.

You need a bigger tank, at least 75 but 100g would be better, and you need filters to match. You need total filtration for a tank twice as big as your tank. so if you have a 10g tank then you need filters adding up to 200g

I would say your problem is your filter isnt big enough to handle all the waste from the fish. This is why you have ammonia present but no nitrite. Any ammonia the filter can convert to nitrite is then convert to nitrate. You end up with loads of ammonia, no nitrite and some nitrate

If i were you i would do 2 50% water changes today and then daily 25% water changes

check this link out
www.oscarfishlover.com/how-to-cycle-a-tank

Thank you so much for the advise. I appreciate so much. I wish I knew it was this bad sooner. I made sure he knew I was mad at him for it!

He normally conditions the water with something else that doesn't remove ammonia. Sorry I wrote so fast, I forgot to mention that.

Well we did about a 60% water change and let me tell you, I was pretty upset with him with how much crap I vacummed out of the gravel. OMG, it wasnt good at all, and I think he was surprised too but IDK how considering he normally used the gravel vacuum too. I really don't know what he was doing before, but I'm going to get this in control. I'll test again tomorrow then do the water changes until it reads 0. How come Nitrites weren't bad?

I mentioned the water was a little cold to him and he said its usually at 77 so it must have dropped lately with the crazy MN weather change here. So we turned up the heater.

Another question, When adding Prime to the water I know you do a capful for each 50 gallons but how do I do that exactly? Say if I did 5 buckets of water would I add a 1/5 cap to each bucket? Or is it ok to add the 5 buckets and then at the capful?

And for future reference, since I really only know about fancy goldfish... Is it pretty much the same basic stuff? There isn't anything completely different about oscars if I help take care of them that is going to hurt them if I take care of them the way I take care of my goldfish? I assume not, but want to make sure!

Thanks again, I let him know that he needs to make a decision to find them a home soon or be willing to spend the money SOON to take care of them. Until we do get a bigger tank for them, how much and how often should we do water changes?

Sounds like you are well on your way to making things right!

He really does need a MUCH bigger tank, and a MUCH MUCH bigger filter... Check Craigslist.. There are often GREAT deals on there. I am in SD do I check your craigslist too! LOL

There really isn't any major difference between caring for Oscars and caring for Goldfish.. Basics are basics...

As for the Prime, I would add the cap full to the tank, then add the new water... That will work just fine!

The Oscars are going to need about 30% water changes twice a week, until the bigger tank and bigger filters arrive!

Keep testing the water, we really like to keep the Nitrate below 40PPM so if he hits 40ppm within 3 days them he will need to do a water change of 30% every 3 days.

Another thing he can do to help, is only feed EVERY OTHER day. And only what they will eat in 2 minutes. After 2 minutes remove all uneaten food. They are adults now and don't require as much food.. I only feed mine every other day as well.

Stick around and keep us updated..

I am not sure where you are in MN, but this is a GREAT deal... I think I might go get this one!

minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/for/1988974317.html
minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/for/1970407864.html
minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/for/1969055879.html