I have an Oscar that you guys helped me with when I rescued him back in December. I have been doing the water changes and all that is suggested, and he has been fine until now. I have been a at loss at what to but into the tank to make it a little better looking and decorated. He has flipped over anytinhg I have put in there, so now there is nothing in the tank except the rocks. Now, he seems to be REALLY aggresive- ramming the sides of the tank, digging in the rocks, real scary violent looking stuff. Now he has sores and injuries. I am treating the injuries with Melafix, and before I started the melafix, I did a LRAGE water change and stress coat. What should I do????? As far as the water test, it looks really funky- I guess because of the meds I just put in.
Nitrates 40
Nitrites 1.0 this is a funky green, not the pink that it should be????
Hardness 150
Alkalinity 60
Ph6.2 possibly lower the
I have NEVER seen a reading like this. Please tell me what to do!!!
I tried to take an updated pic of him to show his sores, but they dont show up. There are two dime sized sores on the left of him with little black spots coming on them that weren't there yesterday at all.

If the injuries aren't too bad, they will normally heat up quite well if the water is in good condition. It's extremely rare for me to put any medication in the tank if I see any injuries, good water condition is enough in most circumstances.

However, your water isn't so good unfortunately. A nitrite of 1.0 is fairly high. It's certainly not life threatening in the short term, but it mustn't be left like that as this could have an effect on the fishes health, & it certainly would help with the healing process of the Oscars injuries.

Can you remind us of tank size, filtration. Obviously when you get circumstances when you get ammonia, or nitrite spikes, this could be down to various factors. These include overfeeding, an overstocked tank. Have you been cleaning your filtration system until lately? Also, have you used the water condition I went in the water changes?

Anyway, enough of the questions, I don't want to bombard you with too much information

im not the one to talk to about the sores. but my guy just has rocks too. he will rip anything else out. doesnt like anything in his tank. hope he makes a full recovery

He's quite the meanie, so he is alone in the tank. I did his monthly filter change 2 weekends ago. The water treatment Ive been using is the stress coat you told me about- I also have some aquarium salt if need be. As far as the water changes, I have been doing 25%-30% weekly, as he is in a 30 gallon tank, and I know that is borderline small for a 1 pound Oscar, right? I am on Freecycle.org for a larger one, as we cannot buy one right now. To tell you the truth, i think he has gotten ill from some goldfish my hubby gave him against my advice, but how to explain the charging the sides and fighting of the rocks is a mystery to me... Is there ANYTHING he wont tear up in there???

chefgirlaudrey wrote:
this might be the cause of your nitrite spike. how did you change the filter???? change the media or the whole assembly?????

yap... 30 gal tank is way to small for a pounder size....
by any chance... what is the capacity of your filter pump???


moving anything inside the tank is not sickness.... it is natural
behavioral changes for maturing oscar. later, you will see a lump
at the lower lip due to constant biting and pushing things inside
the tank. i suggest a more frequent water change to cope up with
tank size.

just my 2 cents opinion.

The nitrite spike can make him act out? How do I fix that- the tank has never been that way before. I have a double pump, the one that is for 50 gallon tanks. When I changed the filter, I took the entire thing off and washed everything out before I put it back b/c it was REALLY gross for just 30 days. I saw the lump you are speaking of- it was quite red and irritated- looking. I have had him since Dec. and ive never seen him with a spot like that, nor has he behaved this way before, either. I dont know his age because he is a rescue fish, from a real douche bag who didnt care for him at all, let alone PROPERLY, so I never thought it would be him maturing. Thanks for the help- how do I fix the nitrite level? Do I work on that now, or before I finish giving him the Melafix????? He has 3 more days on it. I have done it 3 days already. Any other advice is quite welcome, as I want him to be a happy animal. Do you think he needs a toy or something??? I know that seems silly.....

when you washed the filter media, is it on tap water or
tank water in a bucket???? did you do it with two pumps?
washing filter media in tap water could kill good bacteria.
cleaning filter pump simultaneously could compromise the
same good bacteria. that is why we usually clean the
pump one at a time to allow good bacteria fully recover from
the cleaning while the other is still running....

maturity start from the age of 10 months or size more than
10 inches whichever comes first.

i can not give you good advise about medication since i haven't
use any melafix in my tank. hope somebody could chime in.

like you already know your tnak is too small for an oscar. i think your problem stems from this fact. now to reduce your nitrites you need to do water changes. i would suggest a 30% change every 2 days until your nitrites read 0. this will eventually get rid of your nitrite problem. as for him ramming things and redecorating that what oscars do.

i would stop the melafix and concentrate on the water for now and hopefully you will have the bigger tank he needs soon.