I dont know what is going on with him lately. In the middle of the nigh he will jump out of the water and hit himself on the tank lid. I came home from class and found him floating sideways with a hudge gash on the left ide of his head and belly part of his wing(lower fin that) he's acting confused miss judging catching his pellets acting scared of me and spazzing in his tank. hell just be floating then all of a sudden take off. Hes not being him i feel like something is off. Im not sure of my water quality at the moment i'll know in the morning when i get back from the petstore he needs a 25% water change and i ran out of cleaner so i will get that in the morning. Im just worried he hit himself so hard hes going to be retarded from now on. Im more conserned he wont live at this point becuase he hit himself so hard. I did remove the object that he was hurting himself on.

Though the past couple days i noticed this pin sized circle of holes in the middle of his forhead. It litter looks like someone took a sewing pin and pricked his head. i doesnt look like HITH. Hes a tiger oscar.

your description normally is a sign of any fish that is trying to escape bad water condition..... can you post the water parameters:ammonia? nitrite? nitrate? pH?
and temperature? tank size? and how long the tank had been set up.

as to the pinhole? does it look like this?

i just read another article the pin holes would be a sensory area i didnt realize oscars had those. I can post the water conditions in the morning I need to make a run to the petstore tomarrow and grabe a couple supplies I am out of. He was fine this morning when i left for my classes. He is always watching me when i wake up ready to be feed.

As Paul said, post your tank size and a test of your water for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates and PH also.

PAUL wrote:

Paul is right, the fish wants out!
If you say you have to do a 25% waterchange, it sounds like it's not a regular thing.
I change 50% of my water weekly with gravelvacuuming...
What's your watershanges chedule?
How much and how often?
My Red knocked himself out and floated on his side for quite somke time.
But that was because of bullying, he got spooked by another fish at night.
Any tankmates?

PAUL wrote:

Paul is right, the fish wants out!
If you say you have to do a 25% waterchange, it sounds like it's not a regular thing.
I change 50% of my water weekly with gravelvacuuming...
What's your watershanges chedule?
How much and how often?
My Red knocked himself out and floated on his side for quite somke time.
But that was because of bullying, he got spooked by another fish at night.
Any tankmates?

The tank has been set up for around 2 months now. He is 3in. or so. in a 30gal im moving in December and when i move im getting a 50gal where i am now i can only have the 30. Nobby i actually do a 25% change every Wednesday morning. I needed the get supplies so i couldnt test my water till i ran to the petstore i also needed conditioner. My partner was supposed to pick it up last week and didnt so i ran and got some. I did do a 50% change this morning becuase my ammonia was a little high. I also put in a new filter I use the topfin 3Bio With the 2 carbon pouches and the ammonia blocks.

Ammonia- 0.5
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-20
PH- 7.2
alkalinity-80
Hardness-150
Temp-78F

He is back to acting normal now. He is not acting disoriented catching his pellets as usually. He had never bashed himself before. Hes only hit the tank roof twice at 2 am and it was last week and 2 weeks ago. Its not a normal thing which was why i was concerned. The petsore guy kept talking like he did this sort of thing normally and thinks he has an internal parasite. I think hes wrong becuase he wasnt trying to scratch himself. If anything else happens ill be sure to post but hes acting fine now. I just cant figure out what would spook him into running into the rock.

i dont no if its the same but if i dont feed my 14in oscar when he thinks that he should be feed he will hit the top of the tank until i come and feed him he will hit it hard enough to put the top in the tank he has even jump out at my husbend (he freaked out)

When you say you put in a new filter, what exactly do you mean by that? Did you just take the old one out and stick the new one in.
Remember and read the topic at the top of the home page where you will find all the info on setting up your tank and cycling it. Before a tank gets cycled, its the filter that gets cycled first. This is where all your Biological Bacteria (BB's) is that deals with all the toxins in the water. Maybe this is why your ammonia is creeping up if your tank is 3 months old....

kulaqua wrote:

PS. Not many people go with the ammonia blocks and even fewer with the carbon pouches.

When I got my filter I took out the carbon I got with it and replace it with more bio ceramic media......

Keep us all posted..... Jamie

your numbers are not that far off that that would cause him to jump, Imo.
Does he have any tankmates, or is the light in the room turned on and off at night from time to time?
That did spook my fish very much, every time my wife went into the livingroom at night.
I installed nightlights and they stay on all night.
My fish never spook anymore at night, whether i turn on and off the lights.
Maybe i'm grasping at straws, but that's just my personal expierience.

Last night he did it agian and I for the life of me couldnt figure out why this time. He always does it at night when im asleep and the lights are off so really i dont know if hes trying to jump out or what.

Well now i know what hes doing i was sitting in my room and he was acting a little funny next thing i no he shot off chomped at the waterfall comming from the filter and swam back to the bottom. He didnt jump out of he water just splashed the surface during his assault on the filter, which explains the slashing noise ive been hearing at night when hes been doing this and i havent been able to see.

So hes not trying to jump out hes been attacking the filter the entire time!!!! hahaha