I bought an 2 oscar fish 2 weeks ago, and they stay in the corner alot and don't eat much, why?

Question

my tank is about 10 gallons gut they're small. They come out if no one around, but for the most part they are not very active. i did about a 50% water change 1 week ago. I also use AquaSafe. I feed them jumbo Ciclid sticks. I think I may need to cycle my tank but I'm not quite sure how, or how often. I tried feeding them Rose Red feeders and they seem to like those okay and eat them.

Answer 1

Hi there. I have three Oscars at home, two in one tank (120 gallon) and one in my 55 gallon. One Oscar needs at least 55 gallons. So if you have two, you need to go with a big tank. Also while they are small, the Jumbo Cichlid Sticks are probably too big. They make a food specifically for juvinal Oscars. You can get it at Petco. Also dont listen to the guy telling you to only feed them live foods. That is totally inaccurate. You have to mix up what they eat. I feed mine, Oscar pellets, Cichlid pellets, bood worms, brine shrimp, plankton, mill worms, guppys and other small fish, ghost shrimp, etc. Make sure you do give them a variety of healthy, nutritious foods, because Oscars can get hole in the head disease, when not given a proper diet. Good luck and enjoy your Oscars, they are great fish! Oh yeah, also they are known to pout. So if something is different, or if they are moved to another tank, dont be alarmed if they lay on their side on the bottom of the tank. They snap out of it in a bit.

Answer 2

1) Oscar needs 75 gallons all to itself. With heating and 1.5x filtration. Not a lamp and airstone. 2) I assume you didn't cycle the tank before getting the fish. Cycling is a long process of building up bacterial colonies by feeding them pure ammonia. Those bacterial colonies later deal with fish waste which is mostly ammonia making the tank safe for fish. The ammonia that the fish are giving off as metabolic waste is toxic, it poisoned and killed both the algae fish (which I assume were common plecos, which also need 75 gal, pleco and oscar would need like over 100 gal). Fish at stores are usually kept in smaller tanks than they usually need b/c its only temporary (1-2 weeks) and they have industrial grade filtration systems. Water conditioner is not enough. It makes the water safe for the time being by removing chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals however it does nothing against biological waste (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate).

Answer 3

Very normal behaviour. My friend had an oscar and it didnt move around much except to eat. A ten gallon tank?! That is very inhumane for an oscar as they need alot of space to actively swim. I suggest something at least 2-5 times bigger. Reminds me of people getting Beta's (japanese fighting fish) in little glass and plastic objects. Its disgusting..

Answer 4

Do you have a heater in there? Maybe they are cold. They are also very dirty fish and you can actually get away with cleaning their tank more than once a week or the amonia levels will get too high. Get a water testing kit, the one I have is very good, its called Freshwater Master Test Kit and you can get it at Wal Mart.

Answer 5

DESHELL SOME PROCESSED PEAS THEY LOVE EM BLOOD WORMS TOO.THEY REALLY SHOULDNT BE IN A COMMUNIAL TANK AS THEY GROW THEY WILL EAT ALL YOUR OTHER FISH.ALSO THEY ARE GREAT JUMPERS SOME HAVE BEEN RECORDED TO JUMP 10FT OUT OF THE TANK SO ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOUR LID IS ON AND THE LIGHT CANNOT BE ACCESSED

Answer 6

ok the first prob dommey way too small for two tiny oscars stop feeding them anything but live food

Answer 7

They're anti-social and they don't like the food you've been feeding them.
I know this because they told me.

Answer 8

u might need to make like little caves and rock formations like obsticals same thing happened with me and as soon as i made them caves they were so much more active

Answer 9

they are boring introverts. you should cook them and eat