Sick Oscar?

[AndreandAnnie09]

I came home today and out of the blue, my oscar who I have had for nearly a month was sitting at the bottom of my tank. He has been eating well. (Mostly Pellets, but also a little bit of Giant Meal Worms and Krill. He has been very active and seemed to be perfectly good and healthy. I do not see anything on him that looks unusual. I tested the water and all the levels are the same they have been... good. Okay I just ran in the other room to take a couple more photos and he was at the top, ready to eat. He is now swimming around but something still seems weird aobut him. Here are a few photos.... Any input would be greatly appreciated thanks so much!

 

[Citrinellus]

I would like to start by saying your oscar has a really interesting and cool pattern. Oscar tend to pout and lay on their sides when they either stressed or pissed off. Its normal behavior for oscars, mine always does it after i change the decor in his tank or add a tankmate. Like you observed, they usually recover when their uncontrollable appetite demands food and start to act normal again.

 

[AndreandAnnie09]

Okay, cool, and thanks! I love his pattern also I have had oscars in the past and the only time I really seen them do that was when they were sick. His lights were off all day so maybe he was just pissed about that. LoL Thanks for replying so fast I appreciate it.

 

[Sab_Fan]

a hungry fish is usually a healthy fish, but you didn't say how often you feed him . . . sometimes fish get over-fed, and it may just be that you need to cut back on the food a bit . . .

one thing you could try is fasting him a day or two . . . couldn't hurt, might help

 

[AndreandAnnie09]

We feed him twice a day sometimes 3 depending on how much he ate earlier. He eats 4-6 large pellets and one krill or giant meal worm at a time... How often should I be feeding him? I thought that was okay. Not often that I feed him more than twice. In the past I have always fed them in the morning and at night before bed... Thanks again!

 

[Citrinellus]

How big is large? My "large" pellet might be bigger than the another person's "large" pellet. You might want to cut back to 2-3 pellets and mealworms and krill occasionally like every other day. As soon as you see a bulge in his stomach you should stop feeding.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Did anything change in or around his tank? Anything different on top of his tank? I've got 1 Oscar that would float on his side if I left something on top of his tank and when I moved the furniture around he hid in his corner for 2 days when he was a baby. My other Oscars aren't quite so alert. It very well may be something as simple as his lights being off all day when they're normally on. It's not that he's mad about it, it's just that he senses something different. They're the most sensitive & attentive fish