-Water parameters
Ph - 7
Ammonia (NH3 + NH4) = 0
Nitrate (NO2) = 0.25ppm
Nitrate (NO3) = +140ppm

-Oscar behavior
He's normally chill, but he keeps freaking out now, swimming violently into the walls, rocks and roof, as i'm typing he just took a chunk out of his side doing this.

-Tank-mates

A red chiclid who kinda picks on him, but they never fight, just kinda posture at each other then swim away

-Tank size

55 gallons

-Equipment

Are you running a bio-wheel? no

Are you using any medications? no

Chemicals, too. (i.e. algaefix) put some algae remover in their today after i siphoned the bottom a bit and did a partial water change. He's living in fresh water and I've never seen him act remotely like this before. he seems to be a little more yellow/orange in spots that were not so light before.


perhaps something has just spooked him, i realize my NO3 levels are off the charts, and plan on heading to the store in the morning to get something for that, i just dont want to wake up in the morning to a dead oscar, or he jumps out of the water so violently he kicks the top open and falls to the ground ...
any ideas people???

here he is, chillin on the bottom after his first freak out

here is the gash he managed to pull off during one of the freak outs ...

Hi, there!
Your nirtates will be the cause of your o trying to bail the tank.
Imagine you bathing in a toxic bath, you will jump out.
Those nitates got to go down by waterchanges.
Mind you, doing an excessive wc at once can kill your oscar.
I say go for a 30% now, and keep that up every day, until your nitrates get below 40.
Algecide is i bad thing to0 and that won't do any good .
That's another reason your o is acting strange.
How often do you change water and how much?

are you by any chance overfeeding him, that would cause your nitrates to spike as well.

Yes your Nitrate levels are WAY too high!!! You need to be doing water changes daily to get those levels down! Those levels are harmful and could be contributing to this behavior!

I'll admit i don't keep up on the tank as much as i should, its been since before christmas where i did my last water change ...
tonight i did probably 30-35% change
the cichlid is pretty calm, much calmer than normal after the change, and it took oscar maybe 2 hours after the change to start freakin out. he seems calmer now, his colors have gone back to normal, but yea, first thing in the morning i was planning on getting some nitrate treatment. is that gonna help or is it just a waste of time.

as far as the feeding goes, we got some feeders in there and he pretty much eats them at will ... think we stuck 24 in there yesterday about 3:30 pm and its down to 8 right now. he's seemingly a machine when it comes to feeders, but with pellets which i can control i maybe feed him twice a day if he's lucky.

Yes, that will be part of the problem too.
The endless suplly of feeders, will make the nitrates rise fast.
Feed less for now and start changing water.
What is your maintenance schedule?
Do you add Prime or declor to the new water?
What kind of fish do you feed and are the quaratined before feeding?

yea, tetra aquasafe when i'm adding new water. i tapped that out tonight actually, but it was still close to enough for the amount of fresh water being added to the tank.
there is no real maintenance schedule, i just kinda been adding water when needed and occasionally siphoning the rocks, but really not that often. after tonights episode i'm thinking once a week i'll be cleaning this thing out ...

Yeah that would be a good idea. You need to get on a regular weekly water change schedule (or more if needed). Nitrates should go no higher than 40ppm with about 20 being preferred. As for feeding Noddy has you covered.

Also just curious, what type of water test kit do you use?

Aggreed, an Oscar in a relatively small tank like a 55Gl will need religious waterchanges to keep nitrates below 40 at all times.
I got a 180Gl and still do a gravelvac with 50% wc weekly...
Your maintenance has to go up!
I think that's your biggest problem.

feeders not quarantined, its really my girlfriends tank and fish and she's never done that and been keeping oscars for years (though seemingly never cleaning the tank or any of the little tips i've been reading here). we have a 10 gallon tank we could use for quarantining the feeders but a blue cichlid with bloodlust lives in there now, he does NOT get along with oscar.

Also if you are feeding goldfish as feeders this isn't a good idea. Goldfish aren't healthy for Oscars to eat all the time. Think there is a link on here about the concerns over goldfish as feeders...I'll try and find it for you.

dry-tab master test kit it says, came with the tank when i bought it off craigslist ...