About two days ago I bought a baby (2inch) Tiger Oscar, and put him in my main 20 gallon. This is only a temporary aquarium until he grows a bit. I have an Electric blue cichlid and an Opaline Gourami already in that one, and the Electric blue has managed to kill off all the other fish I've put in there over the years, even some Jewel cichlids I had. I put the baby tiger in there because I know Oscars are tough and i thought it would be ok. Today i noticed it was acting sick in a corner, it looks very beat up and almost dead, really. I moved him to my 10 gallon Rosy Red tank (feeders for my turtle) and he has been laying there for a while. What should I do? I already put some Stress Zyme in the water, but it hasn't moved

welcome to the website. Really, you should have waited until you got your new tank before you got an Oscar. However, it could be that he has been picked on and is extremely stressed, he is certainly showing signs of stress is the way it is acting. Have you tested water conditions?

Welcome!

I think that the issue really is that he is stressed out from being picked on. The water conditions are what they always are, the bio filter looks the right color and the other fish are acting like they always do. Is there anything other than Stress Zyme that might be beneficial to it without hurting the other fish? I hate taking any animal back to the store but I have a guarantee on this one that I could use. Maybe I should have gotten a 3 or 4 inch fish, but that might have crowded the aquarium a bit

I really don't think any medication is going to help if he has a little stressed from bullying. I really haven't got any suggestions apart from losing one of the fish if this is going to keep happening. However, there is still the fact that your tank is far too small and you need to upgrade ASAP

Taking your help into account, I think what I'll do is more or less wait it out with this one, while keeping him in the Rosy Red tank. When he is strong/large enough I'll move him to the main tank again. And about the tank size, I've been planning on buying a 100 gal. as soon as possible, I just need a better rig for it

the problem you will most likely run into is that by the time you buy yourself a larger tank for the oscar and properly cycle it the oscar will have outgrown the 20 gallon tank you are planning on putting him back into.

what you should do is buy the larger tank immediately and cycle it to house your oscar in. a larger tank might also eliviate some of the aggression from your johanni.

on a side note if you do keep the oscar and african in the same tank dont be surprised on day to find your african missing........

yea thats what I should probably do. And thanks for the warning

Oscars have a reputation with some fishkeepers for being aggressive, this is rubbish. They get this reputation because they get sold to the wrong people and ger put in a community tank, they then grow bigger and eat everything in the tank. Oscar are not generally aggressive especially small ones. Your oscar has been bullied. Once your oscar is bigger this may not happen but by that time he will be far too big for your small tank. Order your new tank ASAP or return either your oscar or the african