Hey everyone. I have found this web site vary helpful in getting my new tank ready! But now I have an issue one of my two Oscars is not doing so well. I have had him for about a week now. He is really lethargic and rerly uses his back fin to swim. He will use his side fins some but he likes to kind of curl up and sit on the bottom… my other Oscar in which I bought from a different store seems to be doing really well J. I’ve put conditioner and solution to help with spiking. I’m thinking about calling the place where I got it and asking if this is how he has always behaved (I got him from a small fish store). Am I getting ahead of my self…. I’m still learning so please help me

welcome to the site, I suppose the first question we need to ask is did you cycle the tank before putting the Oscars in?

it sounds as if you are putting something like prime, or cycle in at the moment. This stuff does work to a certain extent, but I want to make it quite clear that it does not instantly cycle a tank, it's not an instant miracle treatment. Some of these fish shops lead people to believe that you can just use this and just pile the fish in, wrong!

next question, have you got some water test kits? It is vitally important you get some when setting up a fish tank, or failing that, take some water to the shop to be tested. I would actually advise you to get some water test kits, they are very easy to use and you can have them to hand at any time. In fact, I would go as far as to say there are an absolute must even for people been keeping tank for a long time. it's all very well taking water to a fish shop, what happens over the holidays when he isn't open?

We need to know what your water conditions are doing? That is ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and PH. the water readings will tell us exactly what is going on in your tank.

Can you also tell us how big a tank is, and what sorts of filtration you are using? Can you please also limit the amount of food you are putting in the tank until we know what your water is like? Feed very sparingly. Please don't worry, the fish will be okay

i have a 30 u.s gallon tank... i let it cycle a week with the clorine stuff in it before i put fish in it.... and for a fillter i have a wisper 30-60 gallon filter that rest on the top of the tank (i forget what type that filter is) ill have to get a watter test kit and let you know what the levels are

okay, I'm going to be blatantly honest with you, I don't mean to sound harsh in any way, your tank is nowhere near big enough for even one Oscar. However, it's not up to me to tell you to re-home your Oscar. if you do you keep your Oscar, you're going to have to keep a very very close check on the water, you'll probably have to carry out more than one water change once the Oscars start getting big. Keep a very close eye on the filtration, it will probably get quite dirty very quickly. I would also advise you to feed your fish just once a day, the more you feed it, the more it will produce waste, a waste means poor water quality.

Get your self some water test kit as soon as possible, in the meantime, do a small water change every day, around 20%.

You realy do need a much bigger tank,you are just gonna have problem after problem with such big fish in such a little tank.Get a 4x2x2 tank minimum bigger if you can,this will save you money in the long run and if you can go bigger than this please do it!!Filters...get a stupidly over sised filter they will need it trust me!!Ino you might think im over reacting maybe,but most who have kept these fish for any amount of time will just nodd and agree with me.Believe it or not the smaller the tank the harder it will be to keep water paramiters in perfect condition.Please im just giving you my personal views and experience im not in any way having ago..!!! good luck and i hope we have helped a little.Anything at all please just ask we will help anyway we can..

regards

tim

if your going to use hob filters on your tank you should aim for at least ten time the tank volume in gallons per hour flow from your filter. for example if you have a 55 gallons tank you should look for a filter that flows 550 gallons per hour. the best hob filter are made by aqua clear and are very reasonably priced. they offer the option to vary the amount of biological and mechanical fitration to suit your needs.

good luck with your o's