Hi, I'm new to oscars, just got one yesterday. He was swimming in the pet store, and then we had a 2hour ride home. We let the pet store peeps know, and we got an extra big bag and yada yada. So he made it home ok and we put the bag in the tank to acclimate and then let him out of the bag he swam around in his tank for like 10 minutes, and hasn't really swam since. He just chills out in a corner sorta half on his side. He occasionally switches which corner he is in. He will swim after food, but that seems to be it. Is something wrong with him? I have the temp at 72 right now, and I have a filter.....help.

New fish generally take some time to acclimate. Give him a day or two. A hiding spot would be nessassary if you don't have one already. If he continues to stay on his side after a day, you may have a problem. What are the water parameters in your tank? I.E. ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph?

I have no idea, I tried researching setting up a tank before I got him, but I didn't find this website til the morning. I don't know ph and stuff, how do I find out? By the way the fish 'Lucky' is a Albino Tiger.

I don't hink you have a big problem since he's fairly new, and is probably just getting used to his enviroment. If you want to find out you water quality take a sample of your water to an lfs and they will gladly test it(in most cases). You want ammonia, nitrate and nitrite to be low, but ph should be between 6.5 and 8.0.

what is an lfs? I live in the US in a rather small town. That's why I had a 2 hr ride to get the fish home. There's a small pet store here, but that's it.

Local Fish Shop. A pet shop should test your water too.

You guys are gonna laugh at me, but I figured out what it was. My mom had gotten a brightly colored cave for Lucky. And in all the reading I'd done I saw that Oscars like caves, but Lucky hadn't gone anywhere near this one. So I took it out of the tank and now he is happily swimming.

I think he was scared of it or something. Are oscars afraid of certain colors?

Oscars like wood and other naturel stuff.a new oscar will act weird for a while.what size tank do u have??

Glad you fish is ok. If you still want to use the cave leave it a couple weeks for him to get used to his new home and put the cave back in and see what the reaction is

I would up your temperature a bit, an oscar can live at 72 but most people keep their fish at a higher temp. I keep mine at about 79