Hi I brought home a new Oscar last night , he has his own 55 gallon tank, he is laying on the bottom and looks mad, is this normal?

hi there, iv owned my oscar for a year now and can tell you he/she is probably sulking.they sulk when you change the tank decor around as well or do a big water change. the greedy buggers soon come round when you go to feed them though.

Hi thanks for the reply, I tried something else, I put one of my danios in with him and turned off the light and he started swimming around, soon as the light comes on he is hiding again.Maybe it will just take a few days, he was so friendly in he pet shop...

is it your first oscar? i didnt realise how much trouble they could be.iv gone from having a small tank in the corner to one which dominates the whole lounge.how big is it ( your oscar )?sounds like you have started off right with a big tank.my one is on his own because he eats everything we try with him.

yes he is my first ive been watching them now for about 6 weeks while my tank cycled and its a little disapointing not to be able to see him at all, just a empty tank..

my oscar is proball about 2 inches or so..

thats how big my one was december last year.its now about 9".again it sounds like you have done the right thing by cycling your tank first.there are plenty of people on this site that can give you advice but all i can say is keep your eye on your water conditions, dont over feed him and you should be ok.as well as this site i got myself a book off amazon.com for £5 which i found very useful.its called ' aquarium care of oscars' by neal pronek and brian m scott.

thanks I will check out the book, Im hoping what food he doesnt eat , my silver danio will sure clean it up if he doesnt get eaten! He swims pretty fast so maybe the oscar wont catch him. I check my water twice weekly for nitrates, amoniam etc.. everything is great, ph runs a little high due to my city water which it is very hard, I tried a water softener pillow , it didnt do much, I think its better just to leave it be and use chemicals to bring it down because it doesnt stay..Do you think high ph affects these fish?

where you living? im in birmingham and have the same problem so use a ph 6.5 buffer.i was told once that if for some reason you do have amonia in your tank a ph reading under 7 would help slightly while you sort out the water so always keep mine at 6.5.gonna post a picture of my oscar and set up soon so you can see how big they grow in 12 months.

Like what has already been said, Oscars can be a little timid when you first put them in your tank, they could possibly hide away until they become more confident. I have just bought a leporinus and he is very timid at the moment, hiding away. Mind you, I think he is rather stressed, he jumped out of the tank at the fish store when they were trying to bag him. He actually fell behind all the tanks and everybody had to get on their hands on knees, it's quite worrying actually.

Regarding your pH, and exactly what is it? Oscars are pretty much okay between 6.0 & 8.0. I shouldn't mess around with it unless it is absolutely necessary. It is quite true that a low pH can help to protect against dangerous toxins if they do rise in the tank.

Thanks for the info, how can I keep my ph stable , right now its at about 7.8, not really where I want it, my son came home from school today he didnt know I had put the fish in , he said it scared him , it was banging on the glass trying to get his attention so I guess he is feeling better..

I live in Ky , its really bad here smells really strong of chlorine, Ive tried cutting with distilled water but that is way expensive..