he is about 5 inches long...he was just moved from a 55 gal to a 75 gal and was doing fine for about 2 weeks...i recently got a 2 inch firemouth and put in with him...and his tiger barb buddies that are slowly disappearing...he was fine with the firemouth for a few days and all of a sudden all he does is lay on his side with labored breathing...any clue as to whats wrong and what can be done? all the water parameters are fine...ive done 2 40% changes earlier in the week when he was fine...i just did a 50% earlier today and hes still not doing well

Can you please post your EXACT water readings.. "Fine" tells us nothing...

Is it possible that the firemouth is picking on him???

i dont have the exact readings yet because i dont have the liquid test kit yet...ive done several tests with the jungle brand dip tests (i know they arent near as accurate) but everything always comes up perfect...ph around 7...nitrites 0...very slight nitrate reading...ammonia either 0 or a very minute amount...i did notice the water seems a bit hard

i dont think the firemouth is picking on him...i was iffy about putting him in in the first place because i was afraid he would end up as food (hes pretty small) the oscar would chase him a bit at first but they calmed down and seemed to be getting along fine...are there any types of diseases or parasites or anything that would cause this? I dont think hes sulking cause i havent done anything that would cause him to...ive also kept the light off the past few days thinking maybe he all of a sudden decides he doesnt like the light...but hes still just laying there like hes about to die

ps...o yea its a 75g with an eheim 2236 and an aquaclear 70

if waterparameters are fine, your oscar is most likely sulking.
this can be triggered by the strangest things.
that's pretty common behaviour in oscars.

Do you use waterconditioner when doing waterchanges?
Did you refill the tank with water that had the same temperature as the water in the tank?
Too big of a difference in temp can cause the oscar to behave differently and stress him out.
I allways keep less than 2o difference in temp, just to keep the stress as low as possible.

make sure you sufficient flow to get as much oxygen into the water as possible. an air stone or set your filter flow to disrupt the surface.

recheck those water readings.

is it swimming around at all? maybe when the lights out or other fish go near/feed time?
also as noddy asked?

can you brief us on how did you do the transferring....
from the 55 to 75 gal tank???? have you transfer all existing
water and the filtering system??? or did you use a new water and
clean the filter????

yea just rechecked...everything still looks good...when i changed tanks i used about 30 gallons of the old water and brought the seasoned aquaclear 70 from the other tank...i put in the substrate and and all decorations and ran it for 4 or 5 days then i got a few tiger barbs and black skirts and put them in...ran that for a few days and then put the oscar in...hes been in there about a week and a half...i really dont think its the water because all the other fish in there are doing great and just as happy as can be

the aquaclear disrupts the water an ok amount but ive got the nozzle from the eheim pointed up so it disrupts a large portion of the top of the tank...he doesnt swim much at all...hell lay on his side completely looking sad as can be for a while then get upright again and prop himself up on the glass between the glass and a plant...i came home from work just now and hes in a different part of the tank but still just laying on his side

o yea the one thing that sticks out is i didnt check the temp of the water during the change...but i never have in the 3 months that ive had him...hes never acted strange at all after a water change...just comes bouncing back to the top begging for food...hes never really been much of a sulker since i got him...im hesitant to think hes sulking too because he lays completely on his side on the bottem...ive never seen that

Is his breathing laboured?
What's the watertemperature of your tank.
High temps can result in low oxigen, and Oscars can respond to that by remaining still.

and here's my Red O sulking and my O may lie sideways, but in an 45o angle or so, but never flat on his side;


Or this way, totally sad and even resting sideways against a rock.
She had it real bad, that time :




but if your fish is actually laying on his side, there is more cause for concern...

tank temp is 80o F and his breathing is sometimes labored but not too horribly bad...most of the time its at about a 30o angle or slightly above but ive seen is as bad as 15o angle

ill try to get a pic next time

kered wrote:

A pic could help us out.
You could try lower the temp a bit and add (another) airstone...

any update???? any improvement? is he taking any foods?

you mentioned your oscar has been eating the tiger barbs. They are a little odd shaped, maybe your Oscar had a complication while eating one of the barbs.?

My Red Oscar does exactly like Noddy's pictures sometimes. Often times after he eats too many pellets.