Hi all great site! ok my question 2 day ago purchased my first osar a red juvenile almost 3 in.when i was floating him in his new tank i noticed he began to lean over on his side which i thought was normal but when i released him he sort of floated to the bottom and promptly hid in a hollom stump.he stayed there for the rest of the day just laying on his side.at about 11 pm i checked on him and thought he had passed on! but when i flipped over the stump and netted his lifeless body he came back to life! since then he has been swimming around normally and has even eaten some pellets but he is still very skittish and hides when ever i come near the tank. so anyway is he alright does anyone know why this happened.

how long did u have him floating cuz if it was a few minutes he was probably shocked from the temperature change. This happened to my fish when i was little and i thought it was dead, then i went to flush it and it started moving and swimming.

welcome to the site. Firstly, your Oscar is probably extremely stressed which is why he is behaving like this. Did you cycle your tank before putting the fish in?I would suggest that you test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

assuming that your tank is properly cycled oscar are renowned for their sulking abilities. since you have only had him for a short time i would give it some time for him to adjust to his new surrounding. he should be behaving normally in no time

I have heard this one many times, lively fish in the shop that come to the front of the tank when you go near it, then you get them home and they hide all the time and dont come to the front of the tank. Oscars often hide and act funny when first put in a tank. It takes up to a week before they are settled in. To help your fish settle in leave the light off for a couple of days