I introduced a 3" Red oscar in to a fully cycled 65gal tank last week.. There was a 3" Green Terror, a 3" Jack Dempsey and a 6" Pleco in there... The Green Terror Kept pickin on the oscar, so he would hide in the corner.. He still ate and seemed to be responsive when i went near tank.. BUT now in the last couple of days it seems like he has no use of his tail (his tail fins are almost gone and his scales on his hind seems to be flaking off... I took him out of that tank to relieve some of the stress and put him in a 33gal with some tetras, and a angel(he is afraid of a 1inch tetra...LOL)... I have put some extra Aquarium Salt in and raised the temps to 82F... He doesnt seem to be pulling through... Is there anything else I can do to help him out of this troubled time... I dont want him to die...

Thank you in advance for any advice...

Scaberian

to help on healing your oscar the easiest way is to keep the water in pristine condition(ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates 20 or less). oscars heal fairly quickly in good water but if you want you can add some aquarium salt.

to keep your oscar from receiving more damage and stress from your terror the only thing you can do is to put him in a different tank. to start with a 65 gallon is too small for all the fish you listed. at maturity a terror can reach about 10 inches in length a pleco depending on the sub species can grow to 24 inches and a jack can also grow to 10 inches. so your option as i see them is to rehome the oscar or the terror.


btw welcome to the site

Thanks for the info,

I am currently looking for a 100+ gal tank for when they get bigger... What i
eventually wanted to have was a cichlid tank and an oscar tank... But i thought
the Oscar would hold his own against a smaller cichlid but I guess the green
terror rules the roost... I am still not sure of he is a green terror, pics I
have seen on the web he looks more like a Blue Acara to me.. (good ol Petsmart)
lol...

But I have put 4 teaspoons of Aquarium Salt in and raised the temp to 82F... I
hope it isnt a contagious sickness because I put him in a tank with community
fish (tetras & bettas).. Like i said before he is just hiding in the corner and
runs away from the tetras.. He has a 14 day guarantee but I dont want to see him
die and I hope he didnt bring something into my tanks from the Petsmart tanks..
I will be P'd...

Thanks again and I hope my next posts will be on a more Positive note..

Scarberian

If he dose have any diseases its most likely fin rot, as necromancer has said perfect water is the answer. I think its most likely damage from other fish or your other fish would have the same fin problems. mixing breeds can be a pain sometimes and the likely hood of bullying will often result when you add a new fish to other territorial fish that have setup home already

Water has been 40% changed every 2 weeks and New Media (bout 3 weeks old on both
tanks) i also have been vacuuming the gravel once a week. is there anything I can
buy to maybe help out the situation(ie. medication, supplements etc..)

Right now I feed them Tetra Cichlid Flake (1 pinch per fedding), and Bloodworms
(1 cube per feeding) twice a day.. Is there anything else i need to get for
these guys??

SO finrot can be treated with clean water?? or do I need something else?

I am a newb when it comes to the cichlids and oscars..

thanks again for all of your help...

scarberian

welcome to the site!
i would like to add.... tetra, angel fish, and other agressive
fish would like to picked an already injured fish. (same is true
with gold fish specie). in your case you have to isolate your oscar
with pretine water to expedite healing.

If you want to speed up the healing you could use "melafix". This is a mild anti-bactiria treatment and will treat a few different problems including fin rot,fin damage, eye fungus, wounds,ulcers etc. remove carbon if used. good water conditions will work on fin rot if it in earlier stage as bad water is why it occurred but i would recommend a treatment if fin has blood present as infection is likely. "melafix" is a good all round treatment for fighting damage but I would consider a air stone or get your water moving at surface (point filter input at surface)to aid oxygen in water.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help but unfortunatly i guess the damage was too
severe.. The oscar didnt make it through the night.. I took the fish back to
Petsmart and saw that there was 2 other dead REDs in their tank in close
resemblance to what occured to my fish..

I do have an aerator on both tanks (1-4"stone in each tank)... I went out and
purchased Melafix anyways.. Should I administer a dose in the tanks just to be
sure it wasnt a contagious disease??? Or should I leave the salt bath and temp
to 82 for another day or so to make sure it wasnt something contagious???

Thank again for all your help..

Scarberian

I personally hate to add treatment unless needed. I would wait but keep a very close watch. adding salts will not do any harm and I sometimes add this to my tank (small amount)even when nothing is wrong as in nature there will be some salt present in water. keep your tank stable for its water quality temp and hopefully all will be well. sorry for your loss.

I have read on the net on different sites that a good temp for Cichlids/Oscars
is 72f/82F.. Since you guys have your own Oscars what is a good temp to keep?
At the lower end of the band or at the higher end? Also this is the first time i
have used Crushed Coral substrate.. The water always looks murky(even before
adding fish), is that just the way the coral is or am i doing something wrong?

Scar

i am located in a tropical country thus,
water temperature isnever an issue. i am just
wondering why your water is always look murky.
how is your filtering system. if your system is
fully cycled, there should be no reason why it
wouldn't clear up.

can you give us description of your filtering system.

It is a 65 gal tank with 2 Aquaclear 50's (media is 5-6 weeks old now)..

Tank was cycled for 7days before adding fish..

Substrate is Crushed Coral (2 inches) with 30lbs of Rock(bout 1/4 way up tank)..
Few fake plants and a Bubbler sunken boat also a 4" Stone..
2 - 24" Aqua-Glo Tubes
200 watt Heater

1 - 4" Tiger Oscar
1 - 3" Jack Dempsey
1 - 3" Green Terror
1 - 5" Spotted Pleco

Water is 40% changed once a week and vacuumed once a week also with Easyclean
Vacuum.. When cycled I used that "CYCLE" stuff and a water treatment .. I added
3 teaspoons of Aqaurium salt before adding fish.. I also added some ACCU-CLEAR
to see if it would clear the cloudyness but with no result..

Am I doing something wrong other than needing a bigger tank..

Scar