Hello~
I have a three year old Red Oscar named Dorothy, Dorothy lost her tank buddy about 2 weeks ago, he was a blue gill that lived with Dorothy for about 1 1/2 years. After he passed away, I am not sure of the cause one minute he was fine eating and the next morning he was gone, Dorothy stopped eating but has become bloated, she has been laying at the bottom of the tank. I have taken apart the pump cleaned it, changed over 50% of the tank water, medicated her for parasites, she seemed to get better not eating yet but she seemed to do better. Then within the last two days she has gotten worse. Now she is pointed downwards and it looks like it is difficult for her to swim correctly. Tonight I changed 50% of the water and I had to turn the pump off because her tail would get close and get stuck against the pump, and she had a difficult time swimming away from it. If anyone could help me identify what is wrong with her I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

welcome to this site at your very stressful moment.
you should post this under emergency plus you should
have posted this two weeks ago.

first thing first: when you lost the blue gill, that
is already a sign of problem. what is your water parameter?

when you do the water change, did you clean the filtering
system?

how big is your tank?
what filtration do you have?
what food and feeding habit?
what other fish do you have in the tank?
for how long did you turn off the pump?

sorry for lots of question but this is how
we help people..... tracking the cause of problem.

Hello~
I'm new to the site and didn't know that there was an emergency section. I would have posted it two weeks ago if I knew she had a problem like I said her tank mate died and at first I thought she was depressed. I am not sure of what you mean by water parameter I don't check the PH or anything. Every month I take the pump apart clean it and put new filters in it I also change about 50% of the water. I have a 55 gallon aquarium with just Dorothy in it now. I have a Whisper Pump on it for 55+ gallon aquariums. She eats the Oscar pellets and she usually eats twice a day, once in the morning and at night. I just turned the pump off about two hours ago. I didn't want to stress her out anymore than necessary. Thanks

sorry if i confuse you about the emergency section.
and for hinting that you should post this earlier.
moderator will handle that later on.

did you clean the filtering pump in your tank water
or in tap water? total cleaning of filter in tap is
tantamount to killing all good bacteria in your system.
good bacteria processed the waste of your fishes, breaking
the ammonia and nitrate into less toxic elements in your tank.

when your blue gill died, it is already a signal of problem.
your oscar was still fine at that time maybe because it is healthier
than the other one. water parameters are readings of ammonia, nitrates,
nitrites, pH, temperature, etc, that should be keep under checked for
healthy fish keeping.

is your oscar still taking foods? if so, please feed it
sparingly and remove whatever is unconsumed to lessen bio-loads.
keep your pump running to maintain oxygen supply.
add salt (pure salt) to your tank to enhance oxygenation.
(1 table spoon per 25 gallon of water)

that is all for now... i hope someone will chime in for further
assistance.

As Paul has pointed out you will need a test kit to test you water for ammonia,nitrites,nitrates,ph. this is not a complicated thing and most fish stores sell a full kit with instruction.

from your first post I understand your fish is having trouble swimming,staying upright in water and maintaining balance and is currently nose down in the tank. If what I have just written is correct its very likely your fish has a swim bladder infection. if it is this, it will need treating with a swim bladder infection treatment. most fish stores will sell a treatment for this. it takes time to cure around 1-2wks but can be cured. its important to start treatment straight away as the fish will become stressed and die without treatment. in the uk interpet no 9 works fine. you will also need to raise temp to 27c and add aquarium salt 5mg per litre. the treatment takes several days with more medication to be added on days 1 and 7. if you cant find interpet then another swim bladder treatment should work. remove any carbon from filter. if you think I have miss understood how your fish is acting please give more info.

signs of swim bladder infection are: fish float to surface unable to swim down. fish sink to bottom unable to swim up. unable to maintain balance, rolls from side to side, or cant stay upright.

get those test results asap. if you dont want to buy the whole kit, you could go to just about any fish store and get your water tested for free. the whole kit is expensive in my opinion for what it is, but it is a really good thing to have.

it does sound like your fish is stressing, possibly from bad water conditions. i have that same filter you have, and its defiantly not very good at all. im not sure how big your o is, but it defiantly wouldnt be able to handle him if he was fully grown. i see you had the 2 fish together for a year and 1/2 so he must be getting quite big.

Thank you everyone for the input. Dorothy is starting to swim around a little, but still goes in a corner and points down, she is still not eating though. I bought the medicine and started treating. Dorothy is about 9 inches long and she/he? is beautiful. I am not really sure how to tell the sex on Oscars. My kids named her after Elmo's Goldfish. Does anyone have any input on what kind of pump would be best for her? I only had the bluegill in with her because I "saved" him from being supper I didnt think he would make it after the boys fishing trip but he ended up doing pretty good, then I thought Dorothy would end up killing him as she did with her tank mate, another Oscar I bought with her they were both about the size of a quarter but as they grew she became more aggressive and killed the other Oscar, but she took to the Blue gill really well, he was probably half her size. I had him for probably a year and a half. But thanks again everyone for your help and I hope these treatments work.

i am not good in a swim bladder case since i haven't
experience any of it. but one standard thing during
treatment, make sure there are no carbon (or charcoal)
in your filtering system.

i know someone will chime in for the details of treating
such case.... swim bladder problem.

go for a external canister filter,Eheim and fluval are very good makes. there are other makes out there that are good to but these 2 come to mind first. as your tank is 55g I would look for something to cover 100g+. a bigger filter is far better than just enough and you can't over do it. If you have the money and a larger filter will fit into your cabinet this is what you should look for. a larger filter would also mean you don't have to do as much maintenance on it. great to hear your oscars moving about, lets hope it recovers soon.