Hi everyone!

Just looking for some advice or help on my Tiger Oscar. Yesterday we found him sinking head first into the gravel in the tank, and that's all he can do?

So instead of being horizontal in the tank swimming around, he just stays vertical with his tail towards to the top of the tank and his face towards the bottom. He will swim around as soon as we lightly touch him (to get away from us) but then goes straight back into the same position?

Is he dying?

nicrowkz wrote:


Can you post a pic? Is the fish trying to 'swim' down but floats back up?

Also, can you give some tank specs:
size of tank, type/amount of fish, last water readings, temperature?

sounds very much like swim bladder infection. if it is treat asap with interpet swim bladder treatment or other good swim bladder treatment. swim bladder infection isn't always easy to treat the sooner you treat the more likely you are to keeping the fish alive.

have you tested your water? what was the results?
can you give us some more info on your set up
how long has the fish been this way?

if you can post a video right away please do so, or take a chance and go ahead and treat cos if it is a swim bladder infection the longer you leave it the less chance of fish survival.

i am with marcus on this one? i also suspect swim bladder problem...
marcus got you covered.

marcus wrote:


Thank you for that info Marcus.

I'm still waiting on my boyfriend to test the water - We had taken the Oscar out of his normal tank which is a 4ft tank and put him into a smaller one while we emptied and changed the water and moved the tank back inside the house (it was in the garage for a little while) so the photo is from when he was in the smaller tank.

I'm not sure what you mean about set up of the tank, i'm still pretty new at this whole fish thing (the Oscar is my boyfriends) but he is in the 4ft tank by himself and it has 2 heaters and 2 filters in there

He has been like this for a couple of days now He is still eating though.

This fish looks very serious, i hope it will be fine soon

That is a swim bladder problem. Treat it ASAP. Be warned that swim bladder problems are difficult to treat and its not often successful. Good luck

Can you test your water and post the results please

How many liters is that tank? and just to reiterate we need test results and temperature asap.

i am not an expert but aside from the swim bladder problem,
your fish may had been infected with parasite lately...
have you notice the sunken belly????

PAUL wrote:


Paul, hate to break it to you but um...you kinda are.

johnnyphoenix wrote:

thanks JP... it is only an observation ... not conclusive yet..
thus my reservation...

Have you treated it yet? if so what have you used? most swim bladder treatment work better if you use aquarium salts with them. good luck