Sleepy Oscar?

IndefactorX · Post by **IndefactorX** » 18 Jun 2003, 21:39

Do any of you guys have oscars? How hardy are they, i just bought mine and for some reason it sits ON the gravel for most of the time and sometimes even goes flat against it, is this common behaviour...? i've seen it swim around quite a bit, but i have no experience with this fish

saylaveev · Post by **saylaveev** » 20 Jun 2003, 20:36

is it lying on the gravel when you come in to the room or something like that?

Many fish will lie right down on gravel because they are very scared. Are they lots of hiding places for it? Granted when larger its better to not have much stuff in the tank, but when young they do appreciate some form of coverage.

Oscars are great, very fast growing (hope you have a big tank lol) but are prone to hole in the head disease.

I'd make a bet, that if water quality isn't of concern, its probably just scared and hiding.

IndefactorX · Post by **IndefactorX** » 20 Jun 2003, 23:45

its laying on the gravel when the lights are on, i'm looking at it right now and its swimming around, its laying down on the gravel less and less and it seems that the coloration is also getting a bit brighter*dunno* maybe it was just stress of moving from one tank to another, my nitrates are rather high tho and i'm not sure how i can bring them down, my ph is at 6.5 and there are no nitrites and i just treated for amonia so there shouldn't be a problem with that.. I think my oscar is fine now but i am rather concerned about the nitrates and how to bring them down from 100ppm

aeroflight · Post by **aeroflight** » 21 Jun 2003, 10:11

When an oscar is moved to another tank, or pretty much whenever the oscar experiences any significant change to its environment, it will behave as you have described. It's commonly called "sulking". There are a number of websites/forums dealing specifically with oscars. One of my favorites is Oscarfish.com. Check it out. Be sure to read through the oscar faq's.