Wobbly Oscar

[Minaku]

The story so far:

My roommate was tasked to go dog-sit for her boss, and asked me if I'd like to go along. Being a dog lover, I agreed and we went over there. The first thing I noticed was the smell of pee. The second thing I noticed, much more horrible than the first, was a large fish tank with water so cloudy and disgusting you could not see through it at a distance.

Horrified, I went up to the tank to see if there was anything alive in it. To my surprise, I found a tiger oscar swimming around slowly. Tank temperature was 73-75 degrees (the thermometer is a small floating one, hard to read). There was a power filter and a too-small heater, it looked like 50 watts at most. There was a bubbler too, but I didn't see it until I did the water change.

I immediately did a 50% water change for the fish. The tank looked like it was 50 gallons, so I crossed my fingers, hoped I was right, and got my roommate to help me with the change. I figure that cleaner water, even if it had a small level of chlorine, was better than the filthy, green, cloudy water the oscar was in. As the change progressed we found a medium-size pleco in the tank. The gravel had not been vacuumed, it seemed, ever since the dog owner had gotten the tank. I changed the filter, scrubbed out all the brown algae (EWWWW) and put in the new water.

I then had the chance to observe the oscar and pleco. The oscar is very fearful, but when he swims (or she) he wobbles around, like he has poor control of his swim bladder. The pleco rests for a long time, then makes a mad dash around the tank, finally finding a place to rest. Is there anything I can do for this?

I'm going back today to do another 50-75% change for the tank. I didn't want to do a 100% because I felt it'd shock the fish, and the new filter has done a good job of clearing out some of the cloudiness.

It horrifies me that these two fish had to live with an owner that obviously did not care for them (the dog also has never been disciplined, nor housetrained). She didn't even have food for the pleco. I'm bringing over some de-seeded cucumber and my gravel vacuum tonight to give the poor fish a bit of relief.

If there's anything else I can do, please tell me.

Edit: If I stick my hand in the water to vacuum the gravel, will the oscar bite me?

[eepy]

Good lord! That's terrible. Good for you for stepping in and doing the right thing for those fish. Can we get an update? How are the fish? Did you speak to their owner?

[Minaku]

I unfortunately haven't spoken to the owner since then. My roommate told me that after the owner got back from her trip she was "pleasantly surprised" to find her tank "so clean", and said that it had never been so clean before. I don't know about the oscar, but it did have hole in the head. On top of ammonia poisoning thanks to the biological filter being knocked out (and no thanks to me scrubbing out the pad and putting new carbon in) it also was in a tank that was too small. The pleco looked traumatized.

Apparently this owner has been keeping oscars all her life. It's not my place to ask after the fish or to tell her what to do, but I really feel sorry for the fish in her care, if they all get the same level of care that the pleco and oscar did. Anyway, she's left my university, and it's also been half a year, so there's really no point in trying to follow up with the fish.

[bcroft]

I know one thing, Oscars will not bite you. They swallow their food whole, so they are no threat.

(just noticed that you wrote this in march, sorry)