Oscar's dying. Please Help.

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mixx2001

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 19, 2010
13
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Greensboro, NC
Hey guys! I always thought my first post would be in the Poly section, but their on autopilot! ;)

I have a 4" Raphael Striped Catfish and two Sengal Bichirs (6" and 4") in a 55. I'm planning on picking up a 125 within the next year, so I decided to pick up a couple of Tiger Oscars to keep them company until everyone moves to the 125. I started with one 3.4" Tiger, and one 3.5" Albino Tiger. Both moped around the tank, seemingly depressed, for a couple days (which I've read is normal), then became quite active troughout the tank, wagging their tails everytime I came near. Then the problems started with the regular Tiger.

He started hiding from all his tank mates, and not eating, then after about three days, he began constantly gulping water, like he was hyper-ventilating. Two days of that on the bottom of the tank, and then he finnaly died. I purchased him from my local PetSmart, where they actually have a decent fish section (unlike most any other one I've been to), so I brought him back. My water tested fine (I knew it would, as I had adamantly checked it myself), so he gave me another. Same thing happened. Exactly.

What really surprised me most about this, was that the Albino was doing absolutely fine. He is all over the tank, and get's more excited than a 3rd grader promised ice cream everytime I get within 10 feet of the tank. BUT after my last water change two days ago, he started showing no interest in food, is staying under his driftwood, and this morning, looks like he is hyper-ventilating. Just like the others. I've had him for a month, and this is just now starting to happen.

I don't understand. The water tests fine, my Bichirs and Catfish are as well, and I feed them Bloodworms, Flake, and Occasionaly a Massivore Pellet chopped into fourths. What is causing these otherwise hearty fish to perish repeatedly? Could it just be stress and bad luck?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Your water tests fine. What's their water test like? The differance can be too much for the Oscars to handle, ie your Ph vs their PH. Some fish can handel the change better than others how did you acclamate them, because I'm leaning towards PH shock.
 
Might be PH shock. Ocsars are a pretty hardy fish but a drastic change in PH can kill any fish. As them what their PH is then test yours.............
 
my son had a gold fish tank and we bought him a new fish from petsmart to add to his tank. we had the exact thing happen to him then one by one it passed thru the tank. I have still not figured out what happened. GOOD LUCK i hope all works out for you
 
The healthy one may well be beating on the other one, I've had this before, both as babies one grew dominant and would not tolerate the other.
 
pH is 7.0 on the money
Trites are <0.3mg/l
Ammonia is 0mg/l​

The guy working at says everything tests at 6.5-7.5pH, and his tanks are always clean. I never see any dead/diseased fish there, and have had no problems with any of the other fish I have purchased from them for my community tank.

To acclimate them, I usually just float the bag for 20mins or so, the mix the water for another 20 then, let them loose. Like I said the first two Tigers lasted approximately 5 days each, but the Albino has been going strong for almost a month.

He was fine two days ago. The only thing that changed is I removed the gravel from the tank, so the was a lot of moving the de or around. Could that have stressed him to this point?
 
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