I have a 5 inch Tiger oscar in a 30 gal tank awaiting cycling of a 55 gal. He has been eating well and very active until this past weekend. He is staying in a cave in the aquarium and occasionally comes out goes to the feeding station but when he tries to eat he Opens his mouth wide shakes his head and his entire body. Yesterday he expelled 1/2 of a meal worm after this behaviour. He still is active will eat small pellets. When in the cave he tend to lie on his side. All this started after he was activly rearranging the gravel in the tank and I suspect he may have gotten some gravel logged in his gut. Is there any treatment?

I would be surprised if it ate any gravel. fish do tend to mouth small stones and gravel but even the ones you don't see come from the mouth do slip out from the gills. have you checked the water conditions just in case.? If it is the gravel that's upset it, I would think it will soon over come this without any treatment. are the meal worm live that you feed? these can upset the stomach but again it will overcome it. you can kill live meal worm before feeding if you suspect them as its the meal worm head biting inside the fish that upset them.

Thank you for the quick response. I have been feeding him live worms but I will cease this activity and go back to dry pellets for a while. I have not feed any worms for the last 48 hours so I would suspect if this was the cause he should digest the last feeding by Tuesday. Today he seems more active and I hope it has all passed ( no pun intended.
As for the water parameters they are all with in normal limits and no ammonia present. Water is clear and filter through a 70 gal external pump. Hopefully he will be transferred to his permenent tank (100 gal) with in the next month.

Walt447 wrote:


that's what i thought one day, but it was too late, he was spoiled by the live food and has never eaten pellets since then...

I think 2 things are happening here.

The first is he is sulking after you changed the tank around. He will get used to the new arrangement and he will eventually get used to you putting your hand in the tank etc

The second things could be your fish is bored with the same food. Try him on some different types, the problem is he might not like dried food like pellets after being given fresh foods

I see what you mean He will now eat the very small pellets but does not like the next size up. He tend to mouth them then spit it out. He does not have any trouble eating any food with blood in it. He loves sirloin cubes but my wife really gets upset when I cut up sirloin for fish food She has no sence of humor when it come to the fish. He is doing much better today so your advice was right on.. Thanks again

Dont feed mammals to your oscar. They cant process the fats in meat properly and you might end up with an ill oscar, sometimes death. Check the home page for the section on what to feed oscars

That is good advice. He now is back to his active self and eating pelleted food with gusto. I realize he will need a good source of protein in the future and plan to rasie my own feeded guppies to keep the introduction of disease to a minimum. When I get some time this weekend I will try and post a picture of my Oscar (Rosco)
Hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
Walt