my friends oscard looks pale and is not growing

Question
hay my friends oscar looks really pale and is very small for its age ive owned oscars before and it was always so vibrant in colour and was almost too big for the fishtank it was always thriving do you know what's wrong with it?

Answer
Hi Sharlene,
This is likely a care-related problem. I don't mean to blame your friend at all or be harsh or anything. But pale color and stunted growth are both related to improper care. Poor diet and inadequate tank size are the biggest factors to poor health in oscars.

If the tank is too small the oscar will produce too much waste for the tank to handle and a buildup of organic pollutants will all cause an oscar to become stunted.

Plus improper diet of just feeder fish or just pellets for example are terrible for oscars. They must have variety in their diet. A staple of a high quality pellet food like OMEGA ONE cichlid pellets is best. Along with frozen and freeze dried foods like Shrimp, Krill, ect.. Also worms like earthworms, crickets, and meal worms are all good for variety. Now you can buy crickets and mealworms in a freeze dried form or in a can and you don't have to deal with the real live thing. Also, having a few different kinds of pellet foods is best for oscars. Algae wafers are also great. Sometimes oscars like green peas and its good for digestion. Providing a varied diet is essential for good health, color and growth.

To keep oscars healthy and to live to their full potential they need an Aquarium size minimum- 75 Gallons for One, A Varied high quality diet, and plenty of large weekly to twice weekly water changes of 50% or more.

Oscars are really a commitment you have to undertake when you bring one home. They cannot be neglected of their needs or otherwise the poor fish has to suffer a poor life.

Hopefully your friend's oscar can be saved. He may need a much larger tank than he is in right now. He probably needs several massive water changes most of all. Try to do 50% everyday for several days to see if he improves. Also make sure your friend is giving his/her oscar enough variety in the fish's diet.

I hope we can save the poor Oscar. It would be too much of a shame if the poor fish become permanently stunted or died early in life because of improper care. It would be good if you could test the water quality also. The water conditions should be as follows- Amonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate- 20 or less

You can also look on these websites for more about oscars-
http://theoscarspot.com/
http://oscarfish.com/
http://www.oscarfishlover.com/
{ ^An excellent website!^ }

I really hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Karen~