My daughters gerbil had babies & one was dead so she fed it to the oscar. He is about 7 inches long and maybe a year old, we normally feed him garden worms, raw bits of river trout, plus the normal stuff, but now hes lying on his side, I know its supposed to be normal, but he has only just started doing it. Now i'm worried its the gerbil. I haven't seen him poo since!! Is there anything that I can do? Is there fish laxatives? any advice would be great

I should refrain from feeding dead rodents (is a gerbil a rodent?) to your fish and stick to suitable food.

Okay, whether it's constipated it is really difficult to say. Is there any swelling in the abdomen. Sometimes when Oscars have trouble in the toilet apartment, they get a slight swelling around the anus. If the whole abdomen is swollen, then the Oscar has got a few problems because a blockage in the intestine can be extremely serious. Have you tested your water? If not, do so, Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

Yes, Oscars do lay on their side on occasions. They don't do it very often though. From my experience, they do it sometimes when they are sulking. They could also do if our feeling under the weather, a constipated fish could certainly feel unwell.

So how long has your Oscar been doing it? Is it feeding okay? Also, have a look at its breathing, is it opening and closing its mouth rapidly?

As for relieving constipation in an Oscar Fish, peas straight from the freezer can help. Problem is, if the fish won't eat, these aren't much good. Oscars will also not always eat this type of food.

It has been about a week now, one other thing that I have noticed is that only on side of his gills are 'working' when he's on the floor, I initially thought he had a fishy stroke?! He is feeding ok, and doesnt seem to be swollen, hes rather fat anyway! when I was at a pet shop recently they had oscars in and they all looked very skinny! Don't worry I won't be feeding any rodents again! lesson for us all there!

Are you absolutely sure that your ammonia and nitrite Zero? Both these toxins can affect the gills. I suppose it's a bit like smoking. If you are unfortunate enough to get cancer, it can affect your lungs quite badly. The same goes for a fishes gills, there are various ailments that can affect the use. To be perfectly honest with you I don't want to start guessing why one of your Oscars gills doesn't seem to be working because I simply don't know. You would need somebody to inspect the gills and have a look at them to see if there's anything that could be causing this to happen.

You could however try and inspect the one that doesn't seem to be working properly, have a good look at the filaments inside. Are they discoloured, swollen in any way? Have a look at the one that is working and trying to compare, see if there is any difference at all. If there's nothing really obvious, then I think you should do is keep an eye on the Oscar. There's nothing wrong with feeding fish peas so why not try them and see what happens

The Peas worked!! (green poo!)Thanks!

He seems to still be using only one set of gills while sleeping, but other than that he's healthy. Thanks for the advice

cat wrote:


Try not to eat so many next time then

What a thought, I am glad I have just had my dinner

Seriously, you are lucky that your Oscar will eat them, a lot of them just spit them out in disgust.

I have only recently started feeding peas to my oscars (they get them on sunday which was a no feed day). The smaller ones eat them, the bigger older one spit them out

cat wrote:


Do both gills work when he isnt on the floor??? If they both work when he isnt on the floor i wouldnt worry bout it

Dont take any notice if your fish is fatter than the fish in a shop, the fish in there might be skinny because of lack of food. Fish shops feed their fish the absolute minimum- hungry fish are active and come to the front of the tank when you go near them, you are more likely to buy active fish. I bought some small tin foil barbs once. By the time they had doubled in size, the ones they still had left in the shop had hardly changed in size.

I know this sounds drastic but i have used castor oil to clear a constipated fish. You can either soak its food in it and hope it eats it or be really brave and remove the fish and spoon some down its mouth. This method is only for the brave or foolhardy

spooning castor oil into an oscars mouth- sounds like it would be messy to me. Make sure is castor and not castrol oil

Come on you brave little Oscar, let daddy give you your medicine. That I would love to see:lol: if you are going to the extent of removing the fish from the water, why not just stick a suppository up its backside? That'll save you getting Castor oil everywhere

I better add that the suppository comment was just my warped sense of humour, please don't try it anyone

I know this sounds brutal but its not as bad as it seems. Removing the fish is the hardest part once it is removed you can wrap it in a damp towel. Once the eyes are covered the fish will not move. All you have to do is to have an opening in the towel where the mouth is lift it up and gently open the mouth and spoon the castor oil in. It does work honestly!!!!!!