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Very ill Oscar

23 11:00:48

Question
Hi Ron!
My Oscar is three years old. He is a Red/Black Tiger. Has been very active and healthy until recently. He is in a 50 gallon tank. I just purchased a 110 gal. as he has outgrown his tank.
BUT...not moved him yet. A few days ago it seemed he was dying. He was unable to descend to the bottom of his tank. Was beginning to float on his side. We found the heater was broken and temp in tank was around 60 degrees. After much assistance (and a new heater) he has mainly recovered. (I also gave him a frozen pea with a Epsom Salt grain in it.)
THE ISSUE NOW: He is not eating since this occurred. Today has been day four (4) of not eating. He seems completely normal other than this particular problem. In addition, I never gave him feeder fish until about two weeks ago on advise of the local pet store. There are around 12 feeder fish left in the tank; and he is not interested in consuming them either! (I read where he should not be fed goldfish or feeder fish. And never will do this again.)
I am leery of setting up the new tank and moving him while he is not well.
Soooo... any ideas? Your advise would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!

Answer
Hi Karen,
  The fact that he is not eating is not good, but not immediately a problem -- he can go several weeks without eating anything.  

  NEVER feed "feeder fish" to an oscar, but you know this now.   Take out the remaining feeder fish.

  I do not see that moving him will cause any more problems.

  His lack of eating may be due to several things: it could be due to the heating issue, or it could be due to an intestinal infection from the feeder fish. I can't really say from here.  The key is to try to give him a stable environment and hopefully it will resolve itself. You might try feeding him some thawed frozen peas, if he will eat them, to help clear out his digestive tract (that sometimes works).

-- Ron C.
   rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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