Oscar fish not eating

[emlk9963]

Hello, I am new to forums and to fish.. I inherited an approximately 6 year old Oscar. He came to me in a 30 gallon tank. I replaced it with a 55 gallon tank to give him more space. I had a fish company set it up and they come monthly to clean it. He has had hole in the head for a long time per the original owner. He has been doing great in his new tank for the past couple of months. Now all of a sudden, he wont eat for 4 days. He loves to eat and always came to the top for feeding time. Now he seems uninterested. He was twitching a lot for the past couple of days. He is moving around more today and the twitching seems to have subsided. Today he seemed somewhat interested in eating but when I fed him, he ate it and it came out in many pieces out of his gills.. He tried over and over to eat it and it kept coming back out. I tried smaller pellets and the same thing happened. He seems like he wants to eat but isn't able to. Any thoughts? I am new to fish in general so anything that you think will help me, help him, please let me know! Pictures attached of his tank and Fred (the fish). Thank you!

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Huh, he does look pretty bad.
What are your water stats? Ammonia, Nitrate, PH?

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

duanes

My $0.02 is that its poor health and initially+currently inadequate tank size (208 liters is not large enough) is catching up to it.

 

[jjohnwm]

That guy looks pretty rough. Six years in a 30-gallon tank is at least five and a half years too long for an Oscar. Aside from simply not allowing enough room for the fish to move comfortably, the water change schedule required to keep that small volume of water acceptable would be pretty extreme.

You mention that you have a service company clean the tank monthly. Are you doing no additional water changes yourself? If not, you likely have issues with your water quality...it's probably better than it was back the 30-gallon but it won't be good.

If you have hard alkaline water in your locality, that may also be contributing to the HITH. An Oscar is much more long-lived than many typical small community fish, so a chronic condition like HITH has a chance to appear and develop if water conditions are not optimal.

Good luck, I hope you can save this poor guy. When you say you inherited this fish, I assume there is some emotional involvement with it, and I wish you the best of luck in overcoming its current problems.

duanes

 

[esoxlucius]

That is one tough oscar to make it through its thus far torturous existence.

It's great that you've rescued it but the awful truth is, due to you being completely new to the hobby, I think it's a sad case of out of the frying pan and straight into the fire for this fish.

A fish that size, although you've increased its tank size, should be in a bigger tank. Not only that, your "fish company", if they knew anything about the needs of that oscar, would be maintaining your tank once a week!! Monthly isn't helping it's cause in any way, shape or form.

To give this fish the best possible life, whatever's left of it, you really need to get to grips with water changes yourself. I don't know how much this company charges you but the money you save would be better spent on an API liquid water tester kit, and a quality diet.

You've come to the right place for help and advice, there's a wealth of knowledge and experience on this site.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

 

[Randles]

Oh the poor thing!
Well done for the rescue but as said previously unless you can provide a larger tank then things may not improve and even then things may have gone too far to improve but I hope I'm wrong. Its quite hard to advise but make sure your water parameters are spot on and maybe try some frozen food or even live just to entice him back eating. Again top job on the rescue and doing the right thing, not many would.

 

[tlindsey]

You mention that you have a service company clean the tank monthly. Are you doing no additional water changes yourself? If not, you likely have issues with your water quality...it's probably better than it was back the 30-gallon but it won't be good.

Agree

To give this fish the best possible life, whatever's left of it, you really need to get to grips with water changes yourself. I don't know how much this company charges you but the money you save would be better spent on an API liquid water tester kit, and a quality diet

Yes agree

 

[emlk9963]

Thank you for all the responses. The person who owned the fish up and moved to another state and didnt want to take him. So I inherited him because they asked me to take care of their fish.. I was expecting a goldfish. I am sure that their plan was not to tell me because once he moved into my office they knew I wouldn't say no. Yes he was in a 30 gallon tank for far too long. I spent what I could to get him a bigger tank. He has been with me since November / December. He has done wonderful since he came here. I don't do water changes. The fish store said I was doing exactly what I needed to. They checked the ph and stuff and said everything was great. I pay $110 per month for the water change / cleaning. I didn't know that I was getting this kind of fish until it showed up here.
I think maybe I should try to find a more suited owner for him who will know alot more and take care of him. I just do not have the financial means to buy another larger tank. I appreciate the advice. I will try to look for an inexpensive larger tank and I will order the water test kit. I will look into how to do water changes myself as well.

 

[Rocksor]

Thank you for all the responses. The person who owned the fish up and moved to another state and didnt want to take him. So I inherited him because they asked me to take care of their fish.. I was expecting a goldfish. I am sure that their plan was not to tell me because once he moved into my office they knew I wouldn't say no. Yes he was in a 30 gallon tank for far too long. I spent what I could to get him a bigger tank. He has been with me since November / December. He has done wonderful since he came here. I don't do water changes. The fish store said I was doing exactly what I needed to. They checked the ph and stuff and said everything was great. I pay $110 per month for the water change / cleaning. I didn't know that I was getting this kind of fish until it showed up here.
I think maybe I should try to find a more suited owner for him who will know alot more and take care of him. I just do not have the financial means to buy another larger tank. I appreciate the advice. I will try to look for an inexpensive larger tank and I will order the water test kit. I will look into how to do water changes myself as well.

If you end up doing the water changes yourself, get a python no spill water changer or you can make one yourself.

 

[Randles]

Thank you for all the responses. The person who owned the fish up and moved to another state and didnt want to take him. So I inherited him because they asked me to take care of their fish.. I was expecting a goldfish. I am sure that their plan was not to tell me because once he moved into my office they knew I wouldn't say no. Yes he was in a 30 gallon tank for far too long. I spent what I could to get him a bigger tank. He has been with me since November / December. He has done wonderful since he came here. I don't do water changes. The fish store said I was doing exactly what I needed to. They checked the ph and stuff and said everything was great. I pay $110 per month for the water change / cleaning. I didn't know that I was getting this kind of fish until it showed up here.
I think maybe I should try to find a more suited owner for him who will know alot more and take care of him. I just do not have the financial means to buy another larger tank. I appreciate the advice. I will try to look for an inexpensive larger tank and I will order the water test kit. I will look into how to do water changes myself as well.

My hat goes off to you for the effort youre putting in, good on you!