I habe gotten this fish from my friend because I didnt want him to die, but I do not want to kill him myself! See my introduction post for more details on that.....
I have changed and treated the water, bought a nice filter, put in a little heating stick thingy and a six pack of goldfish... What now? He is actually swimming around now, but is he out of the woods? What should I do??? He is not eating the goldies like the Oscars at the store, and he is still swimming a little funny. He doesnt have any furriness or weird patches that I can see, but every once in a while he does this little shivering thing, and is trying to swim backwards or something. Help??? Do I need to give him some of salt??? What should his gills look like???

You have started things off right getting the fressh water. not an expert but from reading the post on here keeping fresh water is the first thing to good health. as far as salt i use it some dont.go to the local fish store and get some oscar felts and feed that much healther then gold fish. If you plan on keeping him you will want to get a bigger tank 55gal min for one oscar. You will get a lot of help on here.

as stated in my welcome note, water change 80% is a must.
run a filtering pump to cycle the water... and feed sparingly.

i would suggest getting a water testing kit and some hikari gold pellets. also in a tank that small i would remove the goldfish to help in reducing the bio load. also i would pick up some ammo lock to help with the water problems you will eventually have since your cycling a tank with the oscar in it.

firstly with the test kit test your water for ammonia nitrites and nitrates. ultimatly your goal is to have an ammonia and nitrite reading of zero but this will take a while. test your water every 2 days and do a water change(30%) after each test. when you get a reading for ammonia use the ammo lock to help detoxify it.(ammonia is poisonous to fish). eventually the ammonia will drop and you will get a nitrite reading(this is also poisonous to fish but not as bad as ammonia). continue with the same regiment until you no longer get a reading for both ammonia and nitrites. by this time your tank will be cycled and your water changes will be reduced to one a week.

i know it sounds a little overwhelming but its not as bad as it seems. feed sparingly, only what he will eat in 2 minutes and remove any uneaten food to help reduce the waste in the tank. keep us posted on your progress and if you have any questions ask(thats why were here). good luck to you and i hope to see your progress reported regularly.


btw if you can post a pic of your new oscar so we can have a look and see if we notice anything else about him.

Ok so you have a 11" rescued oscar in a 30g tank. he was kept with no filter but you have supplied one now. Hope thats all correct. can you tell use what filter you have.

We could do with a little more info. most important is what your water conditions are. the only way to know this is from a test kit. you need to test for ammonia,nitrates,nitrites,PH. a full test kit from a good pet store is whats needed. Cost £20-$35

personally I wouldn't use feeder fish. reasons are most are diseased and are poor in nutrition value. pellets are better along with earthworm,meal worm,woodlice,crickets,bloodworm,muscles,prawns. the feeders will also add crap to your already small tank, and you dont need more poo at this time.))

without knowing what your water conditions are I would say do a 20% water change every 2 days until we have this info. you will need to treat any new water with a chlorine remover to make it safe for fish.

a 30g tank isnt a good size for a oscar and 55g is recommended for 1 fish. this is a cost you will need to think about as setting up isnt cheap but once you have a good setup the cost becomes easier. also filters need to be fairly good and large enough for a tank twice the size you have. ie 55g tank need 100g+ filter to cope with all that poo.

lastly i dont think you need to worry about the shivering if your temp is around 28c, this is something oscars do and it can mean a few things, I recommend you spend some time reading through this site to gain some more info to you new friend. There are a lot of good people here that are willing to help so please ask if you are not sure. Try to get your test kit ASAP. good luck.

Thanks for all the help so far... He is still alive.....Is stress coat the same as chlorine remover?
The filter system is the large one with two sides for 30 to 50 gal tanks.
Also, I will move the goldies today to reduce the poop load, and as far as the tank upgrade, how much time do I have to get that done? Times are a little ....... snug, so I will have to save for it. I will begin reading the site as of today to learn more about him. Thanks again.

the fact that hes eating is a good sign. try to keep up on your water changes and in time you will have things under control. as for upgrading you should do it as soon as possible. realistically he should have been in a larger tank from the start so as soon as you can you should upgrade to a MINIMUM of 55 gallons or preferably a 75 gallon tank.
there is literaly tons of info on the pages of this website to help you in understanding how to keep an oscar healthy and happy for its life. if you have any questions just ask and someone will anwser for you.

yes API stress coat is ok to remove chlorine.

Please look in the filter for a label with specifications, try to find the liters per hour (LPH) or gallons per hour (GPH) rated value, that will tell us if you are covered or not as far as filtration goes.

Since you are housing the Oscar in a 30gal tank, it might be very difficult to establish enough beneficial bacteria to keep up with the huge bio-load an 11" Oscar has. Any other fish must go out of that tank.

If you are aiming at upgrading to a 55gal and your actual filter is less than 550GPH or 2000LPH, then consider adding another one to reach that minimum safe range (10 times your tank volume per hour). I have made using multiple filters a rule of thumb for most of my tanks (exceptions: my 2.5, and 3.5 gal male Betta tanks). There's a bit more energy cost but the flexibility for maintenance and emergency handling has been very helpful.

I once had to keep two young Tiger Oscars (5 and 3.5 inches) in a 29gal tank that was cycled. It entered into a hard to deal with cycle disruption that forced me to do twice a day 50% water changes for a few days, then once a day, and finally every other day as I was setting their actual home tank. It was hard work, but it paid off once it was over. They displayed odd behavior as the ones you mention. I remember them swimming somehow tilted, going backwards, staying at bottom level for the first few days. I had other fish in that tank at the time and nowhere to place them, I lost three young Convicts due to aggression that I am certain was induced by the restraining space they were living at the time.

Pepe
Santo Domingo