Hi all,

My oscar jumped out of his tank 2 days ago. He hit the hood of the tank with enough force to actually open it and carry on through. He then landed on the top of the lid and flopped around a bit before falling down the back of the tank and down the back of an off radiator. The fall itself would have been about 3 and a half foot!

My brother found him a few minutes after he had done this and after a 15 minute struggle to get him from behind the radiator amazingly he was still alive and shallow breathing.

We placed him back in the tank when his breathing started to improve but he is in a bad way, all fins split and torn, most of his scales scratched or removed and his left eye has now gone cloudy. Needless to say he is in a bad way. His left flipper if that is the right word for it looks as though its damaged because he is not using it at the moment as much as normal. He is eating and swimming around but you can see that he is in pain / shock still.

I done a 20% water change on the tank and doubled the amount of water safe I used which is full of aloe vera and Ive started him on a course of myaxin but just wondering if there is anything else that I can be doing to speed his recovery / prevent him from dying.

Thanks for any assistance you can give with this!

Steve

well first off seal up the hole he fell through so this dosent ever happen again second keep your water super clean i would be more worried about the fins than scales cause from my short experience fine take longer to grow bak mine is still recovering after a month part of his fin was almost down to nothing and now its half way grown bak as long as the base of the fin is left it will grow back maybe if he is in a really bad condition i would put him in a isolation tank only if you have one oscars are hardy and a fall on the floor dosent stop them lol and when you do meds make sure you take out the carbon in your filter and read the instructions cause some i use kill plants and snails both of which i have and some kill crabs lobsters clams etc MATT OUT--------------------

There wasnt a hole as such. There are 3 heavy plastic flaps that go between the light units and lock into place. The oscar smashed through one of these to get out. Im just going to have to either tape them down or put heavy objects on them to keep them down.

The fins ect still have the thick bits intact and is just the "webbing" if that makes sense thats split. Dont think my filters have any activated carbon in there but will check to make sure.

Holy Crap... He wanted out bad!!!

OK can you post your water readings for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and PH??

Normally when an Oscar Jumps there is a reason. But it does happen quite often...

The best thing you can do is keep your water quality in TIP TOP condition, and watch for any infection...

I would say a few more frequent water changes should help him heal quickly!

I think it was when he was sleeping. There is an aggressive cichlid who has been picking on him and nipping the oscar at times. Think he must have had a bad nip and went straight up! He has been fine in this tank for months and there have been no changes to setup. He is normally very placid, even at feeding times hes never in a rush lol Just completly out of character for him.

Ill be doing a water change in another 4 days when the medicine has ran its course. Im very religious with their water changes and have 2 powerful external canister filters running at full all the time.

Well it is good that you have an idea of what the cause is... But if this is what happens, you may need to consider separating the nipper, or the Oscar...

Well the nipper will go before my oscar does. I have a 5 inch albino oscar ready to be introduced to the new tank who is growing fast. Need my other oscar to recover sothat I can put them together.

Dont even know what type of fish the nipper is, think it might be a firemouth but not sure.

a nipper could create a big gash in the face of an oscar. sleeping oscar
would darted at high speed when spook and could hit hard anything....sometimes
fatal to the fish....good to know you have a plan against the nipper

btw, after that fall, your fish will refuse foods for a few days...
i hope i am wrong...but that is the normal next attitude after an
injury from jumping out of the tank....

This is why i recommend cover glass and a strong wooden lid- the plastic types just are not good enough for oscars. Also if your oscar is getting picked on then it is best to separate the fish, if you dont have a spare tank for one then rehome

Your fish will heal quite quickly if your water is good, please post test results for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so we can check your water is good

I lost an oscar 4 or 5 months ago to this way. I did a water change and forgot to put the lid down...when I came home I found her on the floor, unfortunately. The two O's tended to lip lock and battle a bit...so I'm guessing during one of these incidents she accidentally jumped out.

Ok bit of an update. Oscar seems to be healing quickly but has developed a really aggressive attitude towards the nipper fish. Soon as the fish gets near to the oscar he chases him around the tank. Think the nipper has learned his lesson and to not mess with the oscar!

Will try and post water tests later today when I get the chance to.

steveo1982 wrote:


I had agrression issues in my tank and thought i trained the bully into changing his attitude.
But it turned out he only changed his behaviour when i was around.
At night he still took his chance to spook my o and had my o knock himself out...
I still had to rehome the bully.