Oscar Not Eating

[Raveston]

This is Frank, my Oscar. When he was very small I had him in a 26 gal tank but that only lasted for a few weeks. He was active and generally funny, doing normal oscar things. About a month ago I moved him to a 55 gal tank for obvious reasons. He is a spoiled fish and gets the tank to himself.

I don't know if you can see in the picture but the water has started getting murky. I am going to do a water change sometime tomorrow.

The real problem is that ever since he was moved into his new tank, he refuses to eat the pellets (cichlid gold) which I have been feeding him ever since I got him. In fact, he is refusing to eat anything. I don't think its moving stress because he only lay on the bottom of the tank for the first day or so. Since a couple days after being put in the new tank up to current, he has been very active around the tank, moving gravel and swimming around.

Any ideas what may be wrong with him?

**edit** woops... wrong picture at first.

 

[england]

ok oscars are very grumpy and a move like that can sometimes generate a fast which can last month or more, However maybe its just the picture but the water looks exstreamly cloudy, how long has the tank been set up proir to the move and what filteration/tank mates do you have?
whats your waterchange routine like? looks to me like you have a bacterial bloom

 

[Raveston]

The tank has been there for about a month, it already went through the cloudly water period and cleared up before I put him in. He doesn't have any tank mates now and the only ones he will ever get will become food. I have pretty much a standard filter with the three layers (I don't know much about what everything is, just when I'm supposed to change everything x_x) of filtration, and it is designed for a 60 gal tank. Perhaps I should put another filter on the tank or get a more "powerful" one...

As you can tell I'm relatively new at this..

Is a bacterial bloom something to worry about? I've never had the water cloud up like that after the initial cloudy stage that I've seen tanks go though.

 

[Ren&Stumpy]

Filtration is nowhere near capable of keeping water conditions adequately. You need an external canister filter that will filter 10x the Tanks volume minimum.

 

[Tolak]

Messy cichlids such as oscars require about triple the filtration of a regularly stocked community tank. A 55 gallon is a bit undersized for a fish that will get anywhere from 8" to 12", perhaps more.

You mentioned knowing when to cxhange everything. Please provide a make & model of the filter you are running, and the procedure followed for changing everything. Providing water change frequency & quantity will help as well.

 

[Raveston]

That is the filter I have on the tank right now. I was previously mistaken in my post as to the exact filter. The boxes that the three different parts of the filter have the changeout cycle on them and I keep a noteboard with the next changeout dates. As for the water itself it has finally started clearing up, but he still isn't eating. I've been doing regular water changes (every couple days, 3 days at most) now doing around 25-50% of the water depending on how much time I have to do it.

I am still worried about him. He still refuses to eat. Anything. I tried feeding him peas because he has been swimming upsidedown. I mean, not a lot, he seems to flip himself for a few seconds and then rights back up. I don't know if this is just him being weird, or if he has something wrong with his swim bladder.

My last resort food will be feeder fish, only because that is the last thing he ate weeks ago right after he was transferred to the tank he currently resides in.

I am taking a sample of my water in to the pet store after work today again to see if they can find anything wrong with it.

He still has the solid black and beautiful orange coloration, so I thought maybe he was eating food pellets when I wasn't looking but that isn't the case because I have been counting the food pellets I drop in, in the morning time, and when I come home the same amount are floating at the top waiting for me to scoop them out.

I am near the end of things I can think of to get him to eat.

 

[Raveston]

Ok I would take a picture but I just did a water change and took out the big rock that was in the tank, vacuumed the gravel and put new (treated) water in the tank, so it still has yet to settle.

I coaxed him into the bucket I had dipped into the tank so as not to stress him out and pulled him out of the tank so I could get a good look at him, which was easy to do on both sides because he turns up to look at me while I am looking at him. All I had to do was get on the other side of the bucket and look down and he would turn the other way to look up at me.

Nothing looks out of the ordinary on him. A few little marks from possibly crashing into the large rock that was in there but as far as I know these "wounds" are superficial and don't do any real damage as they heal up really quickly. All the same the rock is now out of the tank.

Gills look fine, fins look fine, eyes are clear. He doesn't have HITH, and even now as I sit here he is landscaping his tank.
Possibly just the worried parent syndrome but everything looks normal.

I'm hoping taking the large rock out will get him to stop swimming upside down, which was the only place he would do it, between the glass and the side of the rock that was closest to it. It more looked like he was doing it on purpose for some ungodly reason.

How long can an Oscar go without eating? Or will he (hopefully) finally get hungry to start munching again?

 

[Raveston]

Update: I tested the water. I have found my problem. I have some ammonia and my PH is, much to my surprise, much too low. Nitrate and nitrite levels are perfect, which is slightly odd in my opinion. I bought an ammonia remover to put in the filter. Just added a small portion of some hard water PH increaser, raised it .1 today, going to be increasing it by .1 every day until it is at the correct level.

Currently I can not afford a canister filter and am opting into buying another hang on filter for the tank. It's the best I can do right now

 

[Cichlid_Crazy]

Don't bother with ammonia removers they are a rip off...just do lots of large water changes.

 

[Raveston]

I got the ammonia reducer to help out a bit but I have been doing big water changes quite often for a while now.

The PH was a concern to me because my water usually tests on the high end but still ok for an Oscar, I freaked out because it was -too-low-.

Is it strange to have stable nitrate and nitrite levels when there is ammonia in the tank? I've actually never had this problem before... ever..

 

[minxfishy]

If you have just moved a large rock, then the chances are you released a pocket of gas/ammonia that was underneath, hence the raised ammonia level, I agree that using chemicals to sort out ammonia is useless, you are starving the bscteria of their food source, and in the long term could cause higher readings of ammonia and also nitrIte. The nitrAte level is less of a concern and should with regular partial water changes stay relatively stable.

If your ph is low (what is it?) then large water changes could cause more of a ph shock to the fish than smaller more frequent changes and as the Oscar has been in the water has acclimatised to the ph as its dropped, suddenley adding a higher level with obviously increase the tank water ph suddenly and would cause more problems.

So, basically, what I would say you need to do is do a 10-20% water change daily, along with a good gravel vac, to get the ammonia level down (without the use of chemical additives) and also increase the ph slowly. Remember to keep the water you are adding into the tank the same temperature (roughly) as that of the water already in the tank, again to avoid shock temperature changes. Oscars do not like low temperatures, so try to keep is above 23c, ideally around 25/26c, they become lethargic quickly in low temperatures.

For now, I would say dont worry about the feeding issue, Oscars will sulk for long periods of time due to any change in their surroundings, food etc, providing he is fairly active, not gasping for air or lying motionless (more than sulking) then he will eat when he is ready. Try not adding any food for a day or so, then try something he loves and slowly increase his appetite from there.

 

[Forestpisces]

I would like to ask what do you mean by change out period?

Do you know about cycleing a tank? You never need to change the sponge in your filter unless it is completely falling apart (This takes YEARS) the mostit needs is an occesional rinse in TANK WATER never rinse it under the tap, and as you know you need both a bigger filter and tank.

 

[Raveston]

First I would like to thank everyone for the great advice.

Secondly...

HE HAS STARTED EATING!

I'm so happy. Just thought I'd share it.