Problems with Tiger Oscar. Any advice?

[JacobWhitley]

I have a small 4'' inch Oscar who is growing at an insane rate, it was only 2'' two weeks ago. The past 5 days I've noticed big cuts on it where flesh is shown and scales hang off. They heal up real quick but nevertheless it's not a good thing. I think it's one of the tankmates doing this but I haven't caught anyone in the act yet. It's in a 55 grow-out tank, upgrading to a 200 in about a month, with a 3" blue gill sunfish that I caught in a small pond a few months ago, a 8" silver arowana, two 5" pleco, a 4" pictus catfish, a 5" clown knife, a 6" brown knife, two 5" bala sharks, and two 3" red belly pacus.
I think the sunfish is the problem but I'm not sure. Any ideas on what I could do to fix this?

sunfish can be very mean fish so it is most likely the sun fish

 

[charles-n-charge]

Wouldn't it be smarter to remove the bluegill though? After all the bg is also picking on the arowana and pacus so removing the Oscar wouldn't solve much at all. Everyone in there co-exist very well except the bg

 

[Jc1119]

Wouldn't it be smarter to remove the bluegill though? After all the bg is also picking on the arowana and pacus so removing the Oscar wouldn't solve much at all. Everyone in there co-exist very well except the bg

Well, yes but make sure the Oscar gets break from any unneeded stress till he heals. I find that fish heal faster in qt but it's totally up to you. If the bluegill is attacking everything then yeah, he should go somewhere else. Might put him in the cooler till you're ready for the real move.

 

[charles-n-charge]

Well, yes but make sure the Oscar gets break from any unneeded stress till he heals. I find that fish heal faster in qt but it's totally up to you. If the bluegill is attacking everything then yeah, he should go somewhere else. Might put him in the cooler till you're ready for the real move.

I actually would have just thrown it back but after I kept it in a tank for a couple weeks I noticed that it's plain gray body began to turn blue and green with all kinds of bright spots and stripes and it's been becoming prettier and prettier everyday since then. And it's much happier in here then out in that cold pond full of fish that would eat him so I didn't want to have to put him back. Plus taking him from this nice warm water and putting it into that freezing cold outdoor pond would probably kill it. So I'm hoping that someone just puts it in it's place and maybe it'll be an ok fish after awhile but idk. I'm also trying to raise what I believe is a 2" black bass fry in another tank, I'll keep it if it's friendly as an adult from being raised in captivity, but I'm 99% sure it'll be a monster and will kill everything if it is a black bass lol but if by some chance it's friendly then that will be an amazing addition to a collection of monsters

 

[Mavrick813]

Sunfish don't get put in their place imho..

On second thought. I'm sure a couple of guys here has a RTC or two that wouldn't mind distributing some tough love.

 

[Jc1119]

Yikes!! Hope he turns out to be friendly. If he is a black bass he'll be a piscavore which means if any fishcan fit in his mouth, he will eat it. And he could be a largemouth. Maybe you should put him and the bluegill together lol!!

 

[charles-n-charge]

Yikes!! Hope he turns out to be friendly. If he is a black bass he'll be a piscavore which means if any fishcan fit in his mouth, he will eat it. And he could be a largemouth. Maybe you should put him and the bluegill together lol!!

Lol it's just fry so I'm not worried, YET. But I've caught truly monster black bass from this pond, one was a pregnant 35" who nearly snapped the pole I used to catch her, my entire fist could fit into it's mouth without even touching the edges. So like I said, I'm praying that it's friendlier raised in captivity haha

 

[charles-n-charge]

Sunfish don't get put in their place imho..

On second thought. I'm sure a couple of guys here has a RTC or two that wouldn't mind distributing some tough love.

I'm still trying to decide on if i should get a rtc. I've done all te research but how aggressive do they really get? Jw. And could it live with the fish I'm planning on keeping? If I got it ten it'd live with a silver aro, ck, two red belly pacu, tiger Oscar, tsn, pleco, and florida spotted gar in a 200 gallon. And please don't give the overstocked lecture Cus like I said, everything that outgrows the 200 will be moved to the 1500 gal pond

 

[Mavrick813]

I'm still trying to decide on if i should get a rtc. I've done all te research but how aggressive do they really get? Jw. And could it live with the fish I'm planning on keeping? If I got it ten it'd live with a silver aro, ck, two red belly pacu, tiger Oscar, tsn, pleco, and florida spotted gar in a 200 gallon. And please don't give the overstocked lecture CID like I said, everything that outgrows the 200 will be moved to the 1500 gal pond

Everything you listed in this post would be dead within a month excepting the RTC.

 

[convictpleco]

I heard blue gill are pretty aggressive so that or the ck.