Strange Oscar Behaviour

Question
QUESTION: Hi, my oscar fish has recently cut its head on a rock in my tank (i think) overnight and ever since has been acting extremely strangely, It's done it before, but never really acted any differently, but this time he's just sulking at the bottom of the tank and wont eat (normally its constantly begging for food) also it just randomly "goes crazy" and darts around the tank hitting into the glass, and when i was using a battery syphon to take out some waste earlier it charged at it....REALLY REALLY quickly and basically broke the syphon. ive read that Oscars can get quite agressive towards their reflections at times. also forgot to mention, my Nitrate levels are a bit high at the moment, obviously need to sort this problem but could this be related? thanks, James

ANSWER: Hi James,
 The two are very likely related. High nitrates will cause exactly the behavior you describe.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ok, thank you for your response, another symptom I've noticed is it appears to only be breathing out of one gill, this seems alarming to me, as I've researched a little on the Internet and it seems to point to various parasites and diseases maybe? the two that i noticed are Flukes and Ich, possibly I'm panicking a little? or is this quite likely? also would you recommend isolating the fish in a separate tank away from my other Fish? or will this cause more stress than in necessary? thanks, James

Answer
Hi James,
  I would not do anything else until you get the nitrates down.  That alone can cause all sorts of problems, including gill problems.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>