Oscar was betten up last night...Suspects are:

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Racersk

Racersk

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 22, 2010
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Covington
Our hero, my Tiger Oscar, still a 'kid' at only ~4" long, was betten up last night pretty badly, although he eats fine and gets around OK, but looks like he had a rough time of it last night...

I would like to hear some feedback to see who iit might have been.

Stats=90 gallon with silica sand base and several 4"PVC hiding spots, with driftwood and plastic plants.

List of tankmates biggest to smallest:
-Common Pleco (12.5")
-Golden Clown Knife (11"?)
-Asian knife (10" but way tinner and in height than the GCK)
-Bala Shark (5.5")
-x4 Tin Foil Barbs (5" to 4.5")
-Blue spot Gourami


My prime suspect is the asian knife as it has the hobbiest reputation to be aggressive and smart, Kinda like an assassin Oscar. Hiding mostly during the day but active at night. The polar opposite of the Oscar

My second guess would be the Barbs, they are active, but I really haven't seen any nipping etc.

The GCK I really don't see it going after the Oscar in hate, as the Oscar is way to big to fit in the Knifes mouth, so it is not considered as food. Also my knifes seem very shy during the day, with the asian knife coming out more at night.



The damage to my Oscar consists of shreaded tail fin, a little fin lost on the front fins, and a couple of cuts on top of the head.

The only other scenario I can think of is this little curious fish got stuck somewhere (plastic plants looking for food?)and then was nipped at because of the commotion (barbs and asian knife).

Thoughts?

(As I'll never really know what happened...:irked:)


...Salt and heat on the way with the weekly water change...;)
 
yeah i would think it was definitely one of the knives, those guys seem harmless during the day but can turn quite active and aggressive at night, i dont see any of your other fish doing that kind of damage to a fish that can swim away from them
 
I think it was the blue spot gourami. Since they can get up to 6in, if we are talking about the same fish here. I have seen some at Wal-Mart. Obviously people at Wal-Mart don't know how to take care of fish, so there were blue gouramis and tiger oscars together and the gouramis were beating up the oscars. The gouramis were smaller than the oscars too. It might have been retaliation from former bullying, since oscars are know to be bullies.
 
As overstocked as that tank is, Youd be better served putting him in a hospital tank to heal.

1 weekly water change wont keep the nitrates/ammonia low enough for his wound/fins to heal properly & in good time. Thats WAY too much waste in a 90 for anything to heal correctly no matter what how warm you make the tank or how much salt you add.

HITH & fin rot will more than likely set in and being in the SAME tank with whoever beat him up will only stress the oscar and cause it to progress at an extremely fast rate.
 
VRWC;4659945; said:
As overstocked as that tank is, Youd be better served putting him in a hospital tank to heal.

1 weekly water change wont keep the nitrates/ammonia low enough for his wound/fins to heal properly & in good time. Thats WAY too much waste in a 90 for anything to heal correctly no matter what how warm you make the tank or how much salt you add.

HITH & fin rot will more than likely set in and being in the SAME tank with whoever beat him up will only stress the oscar and cause it to progress at an extremely fast rate.
Click to expand...

^ this definitely
 
VRWC;4659945; said:
As overstocked as that tank is, Youd be better served putting him in a hospital tank to heal.

1 weekly water change wont keep the nitrates/ammonia low enough for his wound/fins to heal properly & in good time. Thats WAY too much waste in a 90 for anything to heal correctly no matter what how warm you make the tank or how much salt you add.

HITH & fin rot will more than likely set in and being in the SAME tank with whoever beat him up will only stress the oscar and cause it to progress at an extremely fast rate.
Click to expand...

First off the only full grown fish in this tank are the Gourami and the Pleco. I don't overfeed, and when I do feed it is pellets, not live, nor frozen foods. I have a huge sump running a 900gph pump and I have NEVER seen ammonia readings in this tank(set up with precycled media and water), checked with liquid testers. Nitrates have registered to all of 40ppm max again with liquid testers.

I currently only have a 6 gallon unheated tank for a back-up/hospital/snail home, of which is too small for even this little oscar. I say he got beat up, but who's to say he didn't get stuck someplace? I will keep an eye on him, but at the moment, I can't move him elsewhere.

I appreciate your concern. But you have no idea how much filtration I have on this tank, nor the actual sizes of the fish in this tank. So your comments of high nitrates and ammonia levels at this time are unjustified, even with 'only' weekly water changes.

I will keep a closer eye on the knifes when the lights go out and see if the oscar is going into their PVC hideouts This could have caused the bad night as well. All fish have been together for roughly 3 weeks without any ill effects until last night..
 
Racersk;4660513; said:
I appreciate your concern. But you have no idea how much filtration I have on this tank, nor the actual sizes of the fish in this tank. So your comments of high nitrates and ammonia levels at this time are unjustified, even with 'only' weekly water changes.
Click to expand...

I hope that my comments didnt rub you the wrong way, as I was merely pointing out issues that will prevent your oscar from healing at its optimal ability.

I know your fish sizes because you listed the fish and their size in your original post:

List of tankmates biggest to smallest:
-Common Pleco (12.5")
-Golden Clown Knife (11"?)
-Asian knife (10" but way tinner and in height than the GCK)
-Bala Shark (5.5")
-x4 Tin Foil Barbs (5" to 4.5")
-Blue spot Gourami

For starters, 3 10+ inch fish that put out the amount of waste that knives and plecos do, is too many to add tankmates in a 90g (48 x 18 x 25) if you dont want to have to do water changes 2x a week. Those are the same dimensions as a 75 except for roughly 3 inches taller, which none of your larger fish appreciate due to the fact that they are predominantly bottom dwellers.

Also, Ive seen common plecos @ 24", tin foil barbs potential size is 13+ inches and Ive seen bala sharks at 10"+ in optimal conditions...so your heading towards a WAY over stocked tank as well.

Then you said:

" I have NEVER seen ammonia readings in this tank (set up with precycled media and water), checked with liquid testers. Nitrates have registered to all of 40ppm max again with liquid testers."

You admittedly have never checked ammonia levels and your nitrates are at 40ppm.

IMO, 40ppm is too high (especially to try and heal a fish with injuries) and they should be, at most, 20ppm, throwing up a red flag that its time for a water change when they reach 20ppm. Sure some others on here will argue that 40ppm is fine, but the scientific fact is that the lower the nitrates, the better for the fish.

1 water change a week isnt enough for a 90g with 9 fish at their current sizes and stock amounts if you want to keep the nitrates at optimal levels (roughly 10ppm or lower).

Your pump size isnt going to matter if you dont have enough beneficial bacteria (bio balls, sponge filters, filter pads etc) in the tank/sump to compensate for all the waste. Turning over the water only helps with oxygenation without the correct amount of media for the water to run over and help with the growth of BB.

Leaving the oscar with his possible sparring partner will do nothing to help him survive or even get better. Its a downhill slope now without a divider if it was indeed a fight and not some aqua-scaping mishap. Maybe a divider (light diffuser sold at home depot for $12 a sheet) will enable you to divide him from the rest of the fish until he heals.

Just some thoughts on how to get him better, avoid future issues, and have a thriving healthy tank that no one ever told me and I had to learn the hard way...and by no means meant to be condescending or have any other form of negative connotation to it.

Good Luck with whatever you choose to do.
 
yeah i agree with VRWC i didnt even think about them all being that size, and the O didnt have to go into one of their pipes if they are that large then at night they viewed the O as a meal and were going after him (im almost positive thats what happened) if he got caught in something then he might get those cuts on his head ro scrapes on his sides but his tail fin wouldnt be shredded like that, those kind of injuries only come from something attacking it as its trying to swim away and i agree that by not at least separating them by a divider that he will just get more stressed and then be even more susceptible to predation by whoever is attacking him and will become a meal some night soon
 
I have been trying to relocate the 4 barbs for weeks, no one wants them and the LFS will 'accept' them for donation...But that's even more money lost... The Pleco was my first monster fish, the other 2 that I did have are now relocated into other tanks. The bala is the last of 3 that I had previously(before I knew about how big they got and how they liked to school with others). The Gourami was a rescue from a 10 gallon. And the Oscar came from a 55 gallon that is now a cold water tank(I have ~800W in heaters at the moment and the electricity is getting outrageous!)

I am also planning on either donating or (hopefully) upgrading to a 180 or 210 if I can find one for less than $600+.

VRWC,

Your first post came across to me as condescending, I have seen others come down on members like a dad to a child, so yeah, I got defensive. I will see what I can arrange to lower my stocking, and get my Oscar the help he needs. Maybe a Craigslist hospital tank, like a 15 gallon or something is in order. I already have a cycled Hydor IV in a tank I can use for this. Thanks again for the help, it looks like I needed a wake up call.
 
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