First off, here's my tank, so you know what it looks like and what I'm talking about:


I got a new baby Oscar and a new baby Pleco on Saturday. Since that time, the Oscar has remained hidden inside the ship decoration almost all the time. He came out briefly today so I dropped some pellets in the water, and he sucked them into his mouth and then spit them out As far as I can tell he hasn't eaten since I got him. I'm worried. He's so tiny; only about 1 1/2 inches long at the most! How long can he go without eating before he croaks? And why is he hiding all the time. As far as I can remember, my last Oscar never did that. I think I have a very timid fish on my hands!

Oscars are Shits! There is no other way to explain it. They are like small children. He is pouting and a little stressed because of the move.. Give him a few days and it will get better!

I have to ask, did you cycle your tank before you brought the fish in?

It is cycling as we speak. I'm keeping a good eye on everything. It's going pretty well.

In all honesty it is far better to cycle with a less sensitive fish than an Oscar. You may want to consider taking him back to the store, and getting a dozen or so feeder fish to cycle the tank. Then in 5 or 6 weeks when your tank is cycled, you can got yourself an Oscar.

Cycling with an Oscar is VERY hard on them and can lead to some serious health problems!

He'll be fine, also, what size pellets are you feeding him? sometimes they have difficulty keeping them in. Mine used to spit them out a few times before he got them down. When he gets hungry enough he'll eat, and if he's trying to eat them that's a good sign.

Try keeping the tank lights off to help him adjust to the new setting with as little stressors as possible, it took mine a good while before he was comfortable. It looks like you have enough room light where it will be dim but not totally dark during the day, which is perfect. At first my O would hide all then time, then only when I would come into the room, and a month or two later he was swimming around, uprooting things, being a pain, and begging as per usual.

Welcome jenny. I see you use the API water test kit on ur tank....

Soo do I...

Okay, so I've turned off the light on the tank. Hopefully then he'll be more willing to come out. I just hope he gets over this shyness. I want to look at him!

And yes, I use the API "alchemy kit" as my husband calls it. Too bad I can't turn my aquarium water to gold... That would be the sh!t!

I think I may have to go get smaller pellets. I'm using these Top Fin "medium" pellets that I had from my old oscar, Gus, (he hated them; absolutely refused to eat them... He was hooked on a brand Petsmart quit carrying.) By the way, don't ever use Tetra Cichlid sticks. Those gave me BAD planaria. It was horrible.

I tried the chiclid food that looked like orange tubes, I think they were like the sticks, but larger. Anyways, they were horible......flaked apart and made a HUGE ungodly mess all over the bottom of the tank, AND they were bright orange.

I would definitely go pick up some small size pellets.

Well, I'm in "mourning". I took my oscar back to Petsmart today because he wasn't doing well. Maybe they can keep him alive. In the meantime, I got 4 danios to cycle my tank with, and as of now they seem to be doing pretty well. How long does it take to get the bacteria into your tank. For the life of me I don't remember it taking this long. All I am getting is high PH and ammonia. No nitrates or nitrites. I've been adding Biozyme daily, and just got some Nutrafin Cycle yesterday. I've had to do 2 water changes and add ammonia-clearing products to bring my ammonia down, but it doesn't seem like I'm getting any bacteria.

Cycling a tank takes 5-6 weeks. Now that you don't have an Oscar, you can just leave the tank be. NO WATER CHANGES, AND NO FILTER CLEANING!

I will link you to the section on cycling, read it, if you have any questions just ask!
www.oscarfishlover.com/helpful-articles/cycling-an-aquarium

And I know it is hard but you did the right thing by taking him back... Your Oscar thanks you!

at his size it is best to feed sun-dreid baby shrimp or blood work, mine at his size wouldn't touch the pellets.

Well, my pleco croaked today... I just picked him out of the tank he was floating on top all stiff and his gills weren't moving. Guess he didn't do so well with cycling either.

On a happy note, I noticed that one of my "danios" is actually a female guppy and this morning I saw an itty bitty guppy baby swimming around my tank. LOL I don't know if there are any more, I only saw one, but I thought it was kind of cool.