Oscar Help Needed & Asap

[JohnRossDele]

I agree totally, you seriously need to think about your stocking. A 240l tank with minimal filtration can support a basic community of smallish fish.

Your Oscar and Black Ghost alone need about double that space and 4 or 5 times (minimum) the filtration.

Your Clown Loach (these need to be keep in groups too), Plec and Tire Track Eel will also rapidly outgrow this tank.

With current stock/filtration you need daily 20% waterchanges to maintain ammonia and nitrite at 0.

just found out that the eel is a banded eel which grows 2 6'' so i need 2 update my sig again

 

[minxfishy]

Your tank is seriously overstocked, you need to rehome alot of those fish are they are not suitable for your tank. Im assuming the tank isnt cycled and therefore the fish are undergoing ammonia and nitrIte poisoning, which if it doesnt kill them, will shorten their lifespan considerably.

The Oscar is an aggressive species, surely you should have known that prior to purchase, although from what I can see he is still a juvi and would unlikely be the culprit for any deaths yet, unless it was of small fish he could fit in his mouth. However, having said that, all fish will turn aggressive when housed in inappropriate conditions and undergoing poisoning, strange huh.

You cannot keep the poor fish in a bag, stress alone will kill him. I dont believe there is no fish store that will take it from you, sure they may not give you any money for him, but lets face it, most people would say the money wasnt important, the welfare of the fish was.

IMO you need to re-home 2 of the acaras, the oscar and the black ghost knife fish (who for lifelong health needs a 5ft tank). If you keep the current fish, the oscar will no doubt kill pretty much everything else in the tank as he grows, maybe cept the bala's and clown loach, who again need larger tanks, those he cant eat, he will maime.

In the meantime, do daily water change of a minimum of 50%, sometimes 2x daily, until you can get ammonia and nitrIte under control. Do you even have a test kit?

Reposted for the hard of hearing!!!!!

 

[england]

MATE, Not for nothing but i have told you all about your fish and the compatability week's and week's ago, Why did you not rehome the oscar before hand, Bagging the fish is not a good idea, The only thing you can do is hope he won't die, preform a small 20% waterchange and leave the light's off

 

[indigoj]

Let's be honest what type of eel you have is the least of your problems right now!

 

[shelaghfishface]

I agree totally, you seriously need to think about your stocking. A 240l tank with minimal filtration can support a basic community of smallish fish.

Your Oscar and Black Ghost alone need about double that space and 4 or 5 times (minimum) the filtration.

Your Clown Loach (these need to be keep in groups too), Plec and Tire Track Eel will also rapidly outgrow this tank.

With current stock/filtration you need daily 20% waterchanges to maintain ammonia and nitrite at 0.

just found out that the eel is a banded eel which grows 2 6'' so i need 2 update my sig again

the sig is the least of your worries

 

[JohnRossDele]

hmmm... what to do with the oscar when he gets better... i know ill try to sell him on this site!!

 

[england]

yes but where do you plan to keep him so he won't eat your halfband

 

[Spishkey]

hmmm... what to do with the oscar when he gets better... i know ill try to sell him on this site!!

normally i would never say this, but dont wait till he gets better, rehome him asap into the care of someone who knows what they are doing. shoving such a beautiful fish into a plastic bag just because he's acting how an oscar would act normally is not the actions of someone who cares about, or knows how to treat fish.



and the other fish that need rehoming? what about those?
may i ask have you performed those really needed water changes yet?
you dont really seem to be listening to any advice given here? we are here to help if you want us too, many of the people here answering your question are oscar enthusiasts, having either kept oscars in the past or currently keeping them now, and yes they are passionate about their oscars past and present.

please please dont wait around to long to rehome it (and the other fish)
to me it seems some people see fish as a disposable pet,too easily replaced if it all goes wrong.
do those water changes, get the fish needing to be rehomed, rehomed asap. maybe getting some ammolock would be a good idea to. this helps stop the ammonia damaging the fish (temporarily, this is not to replace water changes)

and for goodness sake man get yourself a water testing kit...Makes life so much easier to see when things go wrong, what the cause is! it is a basic but essential part of a (beginners and for experienced) fish keepers tools

another quick question.....what are you feeding the oscar?

 

[JohnRossDele]

about a week has past & hes getting on fine but he looks more slender and also he looks like hes got brain damage coz he swims backwards and stuff??!

 

[indigoj]

You know the answer - you need to rehome him and some of your others that are too big for the tank. Then do some research into fish that are suitable.

 

[Tolak]

Before any of your other fish get eaten why not try a divider? This is the best answer for now until you find this fish a suitable home.

 

[england]

Iam not sure about you mate, do you care for the welfare of your fish or do you just like to wind people up
Everyone here have tried to help and given you the best advise possible but seem's like you either don't listen, don't understand or just simply don't care?

There's one of two thing's simply sort out the stocking asap or rehome the oscar now!!!!

Neil

 

[JohnRossDele]

Iam not sure about you mate, do you care for the welfare of your fish or do you just like to wind people up
Everyone here have tried to help and given you the best advise possible but seem's like you either don't listen, don't understand or just simply don't care?

There's one of two thing's simply sort out the stocking asap or rehome the oscar now!!!!

Neil

im deffo being serious about it i do listen to advice and i take it in, ill get a water testing kit, a water change & ill do what it takes 2 keep him living
im not a lazy geet who dosnt care for the fish they have i with all my heart take pride in all my fish!! also i feed him pellets, tetra crisp flakes & normal flakes!!

under hes belly it looks a velvet for some reason

i put him in the bag at the start since he was ripping the acaras to shreads so 3 fish to 1 is a big deal!!

 

[indigoj]

Right first things first get the test kit and make sure you are on top of your water quality.

Second take a good look at your stocking. 240l is not room for all those fish and as you have found out it is also not a good combination.

The acaras, especially if you get a pair, could take over the whole tank, they can reach 8" and are likely to eat any smaller fish. I doubt they will tolerate any other cichlids in the tank.

The Balas and clown loach just grow too big. Clown loach need a group too.

What plec do you have? if it is a bristlenose it will be fine, if it is a common or sailfin they grow to over 12" quickly and need about double the space you have.

The BGK and eels may be ok short term, do you have 1 or 2 eels? If it is 1 and that is the half banded then it will be ok dependant on the other fish. The BGK will need more space and may be intimidated by the more aggressive fish.

Then you need to think about what you are going to do - options - get another, bigger tank for the Oscar, clown loach, balas and plec? Or rehome the fish that are unsuitable for your current tank.

I'm sure you set out with good intentions and maybe were badly advised by your LFS. Many of us have been - I was sold 2 sailfin (gibbiceps) plecs for a 3ft (100l) tank when I started!

 

[JohnRossDele]

Right first things first get the test kit and make sure you are on top of your water quality.

Second take a good look at your stocking. 240l is not room for all those fish and as you have found out it is also not a good combination.

The acaras, especially if you get a pair, could take over the whole tank, they can reach 8" and are likely to eat any smaller fish. I doubt they will tolerate any other cichlids in the tank.

The Balas and clown loach just grow too big. Clown loach need a group too.

What plec do you have? if it is a bristlenose it will be fine, if it is a common or sailfin they grow to over 12" quickly and need about double the space you have.

The BGK and eels may be ok short term, do you have 1 or 2 eels? If it is 1 and that is the half banded then it will be ok dependant on the other fish. The BGK will need more space and may be intimidated by the more aggressive fish.

Then you need to think about what you are going to do - options - get another, bigger tank for the Oscar, clown loach, balas and plec? Or rehome the fish that are unsuitable for your current tank.

I'm sure you set out with good intentions and maybe were badly advised by your LFS. Many of us have been - I was sold 2 sailfin (gibbiceps) plecs for a 3ft (100l) tank when I started!

Thankx ill get the test kit and when i do ill do another water change

iv always plan ahead so im going to rehome a fish when it grows to big!