I have two Oscars that I received with a 55 gallon tank. They seem to be very attached to each other but the orange one does not seem to be able to see very well. I have not ever owned Oscars before. Is this a common problem?

welcome to OFL.

What makes you think that your Oscar has poor eyesight? I'm assuming that your Oscar is an albino/Lutino. It is true that albino creatures are more sensitive to light. have you tried reducing your lighting and see what happens then?

Take a good look at the eye, you may need to shine a torch at it. Dose the eye look clear (glass) is is there a white film or clouding that makes the eye unclear.

My Oscar is orange and white, "her" eyes are not cloudy nor do they appear to be abnormal but she does not see food when it is floating in the water, I have to almost tap her on the nose with it and she runs into the under water filter tubes on a regular basis. She stays very close to the grey and orange one, "he" is bigger than she is but she usually is right up next to him when they are swimming.

I suppose you would have to carry out extensive tests to see whether she is actually partially blind. We could do is get some feeder fish and see if she sees them swimming around.

Hi mom6: I believe that what Marcus is saying is that to consider a fish to be blind, you ought to check its pupils. Blind fish's pupils will not contract in the presence of a strong beam of light.

On the other hand, it might take some time for an Oscar(at least one of mine did) to accept food from you or even eat in your presence. I remember being worried because my young Tiger Oscar "not eating". Well when I left the room and came back, food was gone. Two weeks after that we became "close" and remain that way.

Behavioral observation is another way of exploring/ruling out fish blindness. Make some changes in the aquascaping, grab a chair and sit next to the tank, in a while they should "go on their own business" without paying attention to you. A blind fish will likely behave differently than one with good eyesight as they explore the new arrangements in the tank.

How long have you been keeping yours? If just recently, I would not worry, "she" will likely end up eating from your hand even if her vision is compromised. Blind fish can have a good life if we care for them (e.g. let them "map" the tank and not changing things too much).

What worries me is the tank size; you received two Oscars and a 55gal tank (great gift!)... is this the tank you are keeping them? If so, water conditions will deteriorate quickly as they grow, and they grow impressively fast. There may not be many real "facts" or "rigid rules" in fishkeeping, but one Oscar only in a 55gal seems to be one of them.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

They will both come to the side of the tank where I feed them when I approach the tank if they are hungry. She jumps halfway out of the water and scares me to death and gets my finger half of the time, but unless I can get it right in her mouth is seems as if she doesn't even know its there. There isn't anything in the tank other than a bunch of rocks on the bottom that they love to rearrange and she still bumps into the undergravel filter tube everytime she turns around. Yes, I agree that the tank is too small for them but I was unaware that the fish came with the tank until we went to pick it up and yes, the water is yuk!! I have an underground filter and a top filter but it still stays yuk. I have tried to find someone with a bigger tank but they want to split them up and they seem to be very attached to each other. As a single mom with 6 kids and a grandchild I cant' afford a bigger tank at this point. I have never owned oscars just guppies and such, had breeding angel fish at one point but nothing this big. Any suggestions as what to do with the water and such are greatly appreciated. There is a huge sucker fish that came with the tank also. The orange one is about 10 inches and the grey one is a bit bigger than that.

There is not many much more we can suggest regarding your Oscar seeing food since there is no sign of a problem. if you can successfully feed the fish, just keep doing what you are doing.

What I would urge you to do is test the water on a regular basis, you have got a lot of fish and I think you're going to have to carry out more than one water change a week.

I would say that I can understand you not wanting to upset your fish. However, as far as I know, Oscars don't pair for life so spitting them up is not going to end up in the same situation as swans for instance.

Best advice I would give is to remove all but 1 Oscar. you are trying to do something that's hard even for someone with yrs in fish keeping and that's keeping too many fish a the wrong size tank. your size tank will cope with 1 Oscar and you will cope with the maintenance.

Even though your Oscar isnt eating much or jumps and eats sounds like its fine though and nothing too much there as I can tell from what you're saying about the fish.I agree with everyone else but,also maybe try doing some water clarifiers which will help I am using TLC which does just about everything with the right stuff for the acceptable water temps,and chemicals for your fish and also buy Stress Zyme+ that will help out as well with the water solutions and your water will be up to being really clear and easy for your fish because sometimes cloudy water can hinder a fish to see if they rely on their sight more than there senses. Plus use Tetra Black water which will help create that Amazon water feel for your Oscars too I think that may help as well if not then I don't know but agree with just about everyone on here on your Oscars