Why do my Oscar fish lay on his side at the bottom of the aquarium?
by Aquaboy on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 | 4 Comments
i just put him in its been 15-25 mins waiting in the bag in the fish tank, i let him out and he floated right to the bottom and now laying on his side. i have 5 dannys in there and they been in there for about 3weeks . WHATS WRONG?!?!?!
He is vary limp, the current in the water moves him more then he moves him self, its been a couple of hours now scene hes been in my tank and he is still doing it,
He’s probably just stressed out from the new environment; fish will get stressed out when you first introduce them to your tank, and Oscars have a tendency to be shy for the first few days, even few weeks, of being introduced to the aquarium. Keep the light off for today to help him get used to the surroundings and just be patient with the little fishy. You’ll love your Oscar once he starts showing personality!
Just in a side note, you might try to do another acclimatization method. If you just float the bag, no matter for how long, you’re only getting the fish used to the temperature and not the water parameters. Either try adding water from the fish tank every 15 minutes and when the bag gets full, empty 50% of it and do the add-water-to-the-bag thing each 15 minutes again, or try drip acclimatization.
Basically, drip acclimatizing is putting your fish in a bucket or container with the water that the fish is used to, and using airline tubing you suck out water from the fish tank and tie a knot on the end that goes outside, so it releases about 2 to 3 drips of water per second. Add that to the bucket/container where the fish is at and let it get slowly used to the water. When the bucket doubles around 50%, remove half of the water and let it drip again. Then add the fish and everyone’s happy. You can drip acclimatize for like half an hour to an hour, maybe even more if you have sensitive fish like Discus.
Oscars can be “moody” fish and will sulk with the slightest changes to environment. Moving him from one environment to another will cause similar effects. Give him a day or two to get used to his new home.
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