Oscar loosing colour.

Good day everybody.

My Oscar that had a rounded belly about two weeks ago is still worrying me.

His belly is now back to normal and he defecates normally, but it seems that he is
loosing colour. It's a Tiger Oscar between 10-12cm. Very young. The orange markings
on his body seems to be fading. He ws pitch black and that also seems to fade into a dark olive green.

Can somebody please give me an explanation on why this is happening and what I'm doing wrong and what to do about it??

Thank you very much for your time.

Have a fantastic day.

Lappies

 

Can you tell us about his feeding regime, what he is fed, your water changing schedule and filtration? These may give us some clues.

Also, as Oscars get bigger, they may lose some of the colouring that they had as juveniles. It may just be a case of your fish growing up.

 

Or its just sulking...

 

Sorry SalmonAfrica. I should've mentioned it aswell.

My fish get fed in the morning. I give them Hikari Cichlid bio-gold+, Hikari Cichlid Excell and Kikari Cichlid gold. I mix the three packets in a big bowl and feed that to them. I used to let my wife feed them a little in the afternoon again, but I stopped that because I was warned about over-feeding them. At night I feed them the same again but I add some Campcom frozen Bloodworms.

I do 15% water-changes weekly. My filtration is a Cascade 1500 Cannister. Inside my cannister I have ceramic rings, bio-balls, activated charcoal and some sponge. I have two powerheads to create good circulation. I hope that this is the info that you were looking for.

---------- Post added at 11:12 ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 ----------

Sulking???

 

Yes, sulking. Oscars are very emotional fish IME, piss them off slightly and they go light and sulk in the corner for a while. Does your guy go nuts for BW?

 

Okay, I understand that, but "Ozzy" doesn't sit in a corner. He still swims the whole tank. He swims slower though but he still stands his ground when other fish try to chase him around.

He goes "gaga" when I give them Bloodworms. He loves it. I forgot to mention that I do give them ox-heart once a week, but not a lot, because of the fat content.

 

Sounds like my wife except the worm part.

 

Sorry to hear that your wife is loosing colour Slojo.

Your account at Revlon is going to spike. Ha ha ha

 

I had a look at my Oscar last night.

His mouth stays open and it seems as if he's breathing heavily. His appetite is not normal either. He doesn't eat as well as he did in the past. He was always close to the surfae of the water but now he swims close to the bottom of the tank and he swims with a slant. His behind is hanging when he swims. He is more vertical than horizontal if you understand what I'm saying.

I tested my pH and Ammonia and everything is normal. The other fish in my tank is looking very healthy and normal. It's just the oscar that seems ill.

I did a water change last night as it was time to do it. My cannister filter is clean because I cleaned it last week Thursday.

Can anybody help me in this regard please? Any advise and help will be appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Lappies

 

What about Nitrite and Nitrate? Sounds like high Nitrates to me

And what levels were ph and Ammonia?

 

My pH is 7.4 and my Ammonia is 4ppm.

I really don't think that it Nitrates. I never had that problem before and I strictly do water-changes every week and my ammonia levels are always low.

My Oscar died last night. Some of my other fish seems to start breathing heavily. Can it be Velvet???

 

@Lappies ... 4ppm ammonia WILL KILL fish... 1ppm is already to much... Amonia levels shouldn't be low - they must be non existant - same with nitrites... Nitrate idealy between 5 - 15ppm...

When you say you "cleaned" your filter - please tell me how you do this?

 

hehehe maybe with handy andy ? hehehehe

 

@Reaper... You joke mate... many years ago when just a pimply kid,this harresed housewife walked into the little petshop where i worked in PE and asked me why her goldfishes skeleton came out of it's body... Needless to say,I was flummoxed... Asked her what she did.... She said that the goldfishbowl was full of algea on the inside ans she put some Handy Andy on a kitchen sponge and wiped it off...

I lost it with the woman and screamed and shouted,calling her a fish killer and worse... Almost lost my job...

 

hehehe heard a simalar story the other day the petshop told this old lady the fish she bought needs warm water then she came bak after a few days complaining the fish died they aked her what happend and she told them she put the fishbowl in the microwave for a few seconds every morning ... and this is a true story hehehehe

 

I might seem uneducated and challenged when it comes to intellegence, but I can assure you that I did not use Handy Andy or any chemicals, Reaper. All my "stupid" questions

When I clean my cannister I use the water that I take out of my tank when I do a water change.
I rinse the sponges, Bio-balls, Charcoal and Ceramic rings with it. I don't use anything else.
My Ammonia levels are almost non-existant now after I did a 50% water change. I lost some other fish aswell
but the rest of my fish are much better now and they seem very happy.

I hope that everybody had a blessed Christmas and that you enjoyed the time with your loved ones.

Have a very nice day.

Lappies.

 

@Lappies .... Try not to rinse/clean all of the media in your filter every time - generally just rinsing the sponge part is sufficient - rule of thumb is to keep the mechanical filtration part clean and leave the biological part undisturbed...
Biofilm is delicate stuff...

 

Good day Azurekoi. I hear what you are saying, but I would like to bring to your attention that I don't clean my cannister filter every week when I do water changes. I only clean it every month and a half to two months. I understand that the bacteria colonies inside my cannister is of crucial importance to my tank and water condition. I will, however, take your advise and only rinse the sponges.

Thank you for your reply and advise. I appreciate it a lot.

 

@Lappies - Use your tank water to rinse the sponges,do not use tap water,as it will also kill the bacteria.

 

Hallo Slojo. As you can see I do not use tap water. I use the water I take out of my tank when I do a water change.