Why Is My Oscar Fish Dying?

Having your fish die on you sucks. Especially if we’re talking about expensive species like Oscars. It takes a lot of diligence to set up and maintain the tank running just right. But even then, some fish still get sick for no apparent reason.

If you’re dealing with this situation, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about common causes of death in Oscar fish. I’ll also walk you through the necessary precautions and steps to prevent this from happening again.

7 Reasons Oscar Fish Are Dying

Oscar fish are known to be sturdy, but they’re also more demanding than other species. Clean water is paramount in an Oscar tank. If your fish are mysteriously dying, you’re probably dealing with poor water quality. As you’ll see, five of the following reasons are related to water quality in one way or another. Here are the 7 most common reasons why your Oscars might be dying:

– Ammonia or Nitrite Poisoning

Ammonia and nitrite poisoning are among the most common causes of sickness and death in fish. These compounds have very high toxicity and a small threshold of effect. To make matters worse, the cause is often insidious.

Invisible to the naked eye, even small spikes in ammonia and nitrites can send your Oscars down a painful path. A sudden increase in these parameters will shock your fish and lead to a quick death.

Prolonged exposure to low-level increases in ammonia and nitrites will also cause a lot of damage. Some of the most common signs of ammonia poisoning include reddish or purple gills, lethargy, poor appetite, ammonia burns on the body, clamped fins, and duller coloring.

Your Oscars might also come to the surface to gasp for air. Shortly after being exposed to the compound, the fish’s bodily functions begin to fail. Signs of nitrite poisoning include darker or paler coloring, lethargy, lack of appetite, and a weakened immune system. Nitrite poisoning predisposes fish to further health problems including fin rot, ich, and bacterial infections.

– Chlorine Poisoning

Chlorine is toxic to virtually all fish species. This is why dechlorinated water is an absolute must. If you accidentally forgot to dechlorinate the tap water between water changes, things can get ugly pretty fast. Fish exposed to high levels of chlorine will deteriorate quickly.

Depending on the chlorine concentration in the water, your Oscars might die in a matter of hours or even minutes. And even worse is that there’s currently no treatment for chlorine-induced damage in fish. The signs of chlorine poisoning are similar to those of ammonia exposure.

Fish exposed to chlorine will become pale and develop nasty burns on their gills and body. Other complications include tissue necrosis, excess mucus secretion, hypoxia, suffocation, and neurological abnormalities that affect swimming. If you notice any warning signs, you’ll have to move your fish to a chlorine-free tank as soon as possible.

– Diseases or Parasite

Like all fish species, Oscars can develop a variety of illnesses. Some are easy to detect, while others are more insidious. But all require urgent attention if you want to save your fish from a grim future. If such illnesses go unnoticed and untreated, the fish will eventually die.

Some of these diseases are also contagious and can spread to other fish in the community tank. The most common diseases in Oscars include hole in the head disease, columnaris disease (fin and tail rot), popeye disease, ich, velvet, and dropsy (bloating).

There can be multiple causes that lead to these diseases. Everything from overcrowding, to stress, deficient diet, poor water quality, and even parasites. All of these factors can play a role in the development and progression of health problems.

Parasites are especially difficult to get rid of because they’re often hidden. Some parasites that commonly affect tropical fish like Oscars include Oodinium, Hexamita, Ichthyophthirius, Piscinoodinium, and tapeworms.

– Physical Injury

Physical injuries can occur for multiple reasons and take many forms. The most common causes for wounded fish include aggressive tankmates, sharp or pointy aquarium decorations, and low-quality gravel substrates.

The most common injuries you’ll notice in fish are cuts along the body or mouth, nipped fins, damaged eyes, missing scales, or dislocated jaws. The most common cause of death in injured fish is infection. A wound isn’t life-threatening in itself. Fish can heal cuts and other similar damage.

All they need is a peaceful, clean environment. But an open wound combined with poor water parameters is a recipe for disaster. Even just one small cut can become infected in an unclean or overcrowded aquarium. If the fish is often bullied, it might also die just because of stress and the extent of its injuries.

You need to keep an eye out for fish with nipped fins. This is a sign the little guy isn’t getting along well with its tankmates. Finally, Oscars tend to dig and move the gravel in the aquarium.

If the one you’re using has sharp pebbles, the fish might accidentally hurt its mouth or jaw. This will cause trouble with feeding. Even an otherwise healthy-looking fish might starve because of a dislocated jaw or painful mouth wounds.

– Temperature Shock

Temperature shock will kill your fish almost instantly. Sadly, it doesn’t even take a huge swing for your fish to feel the nasty side effects. Sudden changes of as little as 2-5 degrees are enough to cause trouble. Even if they’re well within the ideal range for your fish. That’s why acclimating your fish to a new water temperature is crucial.

Temperature shock can happen due to various reasons. You might have a faulty water heater, or, God forbid, no heater at all! There might have been a power outage that stopped your heater from doing its job. You might have introduced new fish to the tank without properly acclimating them.

Perhaps you accidentally caused a swing in temperature when performing water changes. This often happens when performing large changes of 40-50% or more. The answer will depend on your specific situation and how you manage your tank.

Signs of temperature shock include lethargy, fish resting at the bottom of the tank, erratic swimming, rapid breathing, gasping for air, poor appetite, coma, and death. If the water gets too warm, your fish might suffocate due to the lower oxygen concentration. Water that’s too cold will lower your fish’s metabolism and decrease appetite to extreme levels.

– Overfeeding

Proper nutrition is important. But too much of a good thing can cause some issues. Overfeeding is another common cause of death in fish. And it means trouble for two reasons. First, overfeeding, especially low-fiber foods like flakes and dried feed, can lead to constipation and bloating in fish.

Remember, Oscars are omnivores. They need both meaty foods and plants to keep a balanced digestive system. Untreated constipation and bloating can, over the long term, lead to life-threatening problems such as swim-bladder diseases, intestinal blockages, and even bowel perforations. Not cool. But the problems don’t stop here.

The second issue with overfeeding is excess fish waste and uneaten scraps. This brings us back to our first point– ammonia and nitrite poisoning. A cycled aquarium has tightly self-regulating bacterial colonies. As long as the output of waste-by-products stays the same, the number of good bacteria in the tank will also be stable.

When you get a sudden increase in food leftovers and fish waste, the bacteria can’t keep up with the “demand”. The excess waste rots and leads to ammonia spikes before the bacteria can take care of it. And as we’ve already discussed, ammonia is highly toxic for fish.

– Non-Cycled Tank

Cycling a tank is a long and boring process. It takes around 6-8 weeks before the beneficial bacteria grow and complete the first nitrogen cycle. You might be tempted to speed up the process. After all, who wants to wait close to two months before adding fish to the aquarium?

But this is where things can go south. A non-cycled or poorly-cycled tank is deadly for fish. After all, ammonia poisoning in fish is often referred to as “new tank syndrome”. In a new, not fully-cycled tank, the ammonia levels are extremely high. They will slowly drop as the beneficial bacteria start growing in the tank.

But it takes time before you get enough bacteria to bring the ammonia down to 0. Adding the fish too early is a sure way to expose them to deadly levels of toxic compounds. To make matters worse, the newly-growing bacteria won’t be able to deal with the fish waste if you introduce your Oscars too early.

Keeping Oscar Fish Healthy and Happy

We’ve covered everything that could go wrong in a fish tank. Now, on a more positive note, let’s talk about what you can do to prevent these issues. Here are the easiest and most accessible ways to prevent ammonia spikes, infections, digestive issues, injury, and other health problems in fish:

– Proper Feeding

A proper diet will enhance your Oscars’ immune systems. It will prevent nutrient deficiencies, digestive issues, and other potential health problems. And when I say “proper feeding”, I mean both the foods, as well as the frequency.

The first thing you need to remember is balance. Oscars are omnivorous fish. They eat both protein and vegetable matter. I recommend simulating their natural diet as closely as possible. This means you should include plenty of insects, larvae, feeder fish, and small crustaceans.

Fiber and vitamin-rich plant foods to include in their diet are algae, spinach, green peas, broccoli, zucchini, and cucumber. These foods will keep your fish regular and prevent intestinal issues. You can include both fresh, dried, and frozen foods.

Cichlid flakes and pellets also make a good staple or food substitute if you have trouble finding high-quality feed. Always feed your Oscars only what they can finish within 4 minutes. Anything more will lead to excessive waste and will dirty up the water.

With regards to frequency, I recommend feeding adult Oscars no more than once a day. Feeding them up to 4 times a week is even better and reduces waste to a minimum. For juvenile fish, feeding 3 small meals a day works best to encourage growth.

– Regular Water Changes

Even if you have the best filter in the world, you’ll still have to perform regular water changes. This is the best way to keep waste by-products at the lowest levels possible. Water changes also keep the aquarium looking fresh and pristine.

Sadly, Oscars are a lot messier than other fish species. The least you can get away with is a 20% water change once a week. If the aquarium is well-stocked, you can do as much as 30% per week. This means that if you have a 100-gallon aquarium, you should replace around 30 gallons every week.

Performing water changes more often won’t do any harm. But you have to make sure you prepare the water well, as not to shock your fish. The new water should be as close to the tank parameters as possible.

Remember, Oscar fish need a water temperature between 75-80°F, a pH between 7-8, and a water hardness around 12-15 dGH. The water you add to the aquarium should be close to these values. You should also add the new water slowly, to let your fish get acclimated to it.

– Regular Tank Maintenance

Because Oscars are so messy, you’ll have to also keep on top of the tank maintenance. Besides weekly water changes, you’ll also have to do some cleaning. How often you have to clean the aquarium will depend on its size and how many fish you keep.

For a small or heavily stocked aquarium, I recommend performing the tank maintenance together with the weekly water change. Otherwise, you might be able to get away with a bi-weekly cleaning.

If your aquarium has an algae problem or is very smelly, you’ll have to increase the cleaning frequency. Here’s what the regular tank cleaning should entail:

• Vacuuming the gravel: this will get rid of any waste or debris the filter couldn’t pick up. If you don’t have one already, a siphon-type gravel vacuum is both cheap and effective.
• Wiping the tank decorations and the glass: this helps remove debris, bacteria, and algae build-up.
• Cleaning filter media: this helps boost the performance of your filter. You should take out filter sponges and rinse them without using any cleaning agents or tap water! Just gently clean the sponge in the same water you take out of the aquarium. This will get rid of any dirt and gunk without killing the beneficial bacteria in the filter media.

– Disease Control

Fish are very sensitive. Most common illnesses progress quickly and a full recovery is unlikely once the symptoms get really bad. Disease prevention and early treatment give you the best odds of saving your Oscars. There are a few things to consider here.

Most common ailments in fish result from a combination of stress, poor diet, and unsanitary conditions. Each of these factors weakens the immune system and makes fish susceptible to infections and diseases. We’ve already covered the proper feeding and tank maintenance. Besides good nutrition and frequent sanitation, you’ll have to get serious about stress management.

Common causes of stress include poor water quality, suboptimal water parameters, poor diet, aggressive tankmates, overcrowding, lack of hiding spots, too much light exposure. You’ll have to avoid these factors to minimize stress in your community tank.

You also have to learn to recognize and quarantine fish that display early signs of disease. Early quarantining gives them a higher chance of survival. Separating a sick fish makes the treatment more effective not only due to reduced stress levels, but the environment is also easier to control. Quarantining your sick fish also prevents the other fish in the main tank from getting sick.

Some of the physical signs to watch out for include white spots, open wounds, blisters, cloudy eyes, excess mucus on the body, paler color, torn fins. Certain behaviors are also telling. If your fish refuse to eat, lay at the bottom of the tank, rub their bodies on the gravel or decorations, gasp for air at the surface, or swim clumsily, they’re most probably sick.

The fish exhibiting these signs should be isolated and treated as soon as possible. To be extra cautious, I also recommend sanitizing any new decoration you add to the aquarium. You never know what nasty bacteria might be hiding in plain sight. Quarantining and treating all new fish before introducing them to the main tank is also a good idea.

I usually do a preventive parasite treatment just to make sure. Finally, you should be very careful about the fish food you buy. Low-quality feed doesn’t undergo a thorough verification and approval process. It might sometimes contain harmful bacteria that can cause some nasty diseases.

– Reduce Aggression

And, last but not least, I just had to mention this again. This is a very important thing to remember. Aggressive tankmates are harmful for a multitude of reasons. They cause direct injuries such as torn fins and body wounds. They prevent the bullied fish from feeding properly. They increase stress levels in other tankmates.

And a combination of high stress, low food intake, and repeated bodily injuries eventually leads to death in bullied fish. This issue can’t pass. But there are multiple ways to solve it. A combination of some of the following factors works best:

• Upgrade to a larger tank. Oscar fish need plenty of space and they’re very territorial. Each Oscar fish needs at least 50 gallons of water just to itself. And up to 75 is even better. If you keep a trio of Oscars, this means you’ll need a least a 150-gallon tank.
• Separate male Oscars from each other. Males are especially aggressive and don’t like competition. If you keep them together, especially in a cramped tank, a pecking order will soon emerge.
• Add more female fish. Around 2-3 females for each male Oscar fish is best. This will prevent the male fish from competing for mating rights since there are enough female fish in the tank. But this only works if you have a very large aquarium. This strategy won’t work if you have a beginner setup.
• Add more hiding spaces. Bullied fish need some place to feel safe. Providing them with plenty of options will decrease stress levels. You can use wide plants, rocks, caves, resin decorations, pots, and so on.
• Separate your Oscar fish into different tanks. This is the simplest solution. You don’t need a super expensive 300-gallon aquarium. You can just keep your fish in smaller aquariums. They won’t bother one another, and this strategy also prevents disease breakouts. Luckily, Oscar fish don’t mind the loner life, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Conclusion

Oscars are highly adaptable and are known for their tough personalities. However, they’re still prone to the same health problems as any other freshwater fish. And most of the health problems in fish come seemingly from nowhere.

Ammonia, nitrite, chlorine, harmful bacteria, and stress are all invisible to the naked eye but can wreak havoc and cause irreparable damage. However, if you take the necessary steps to maintain your tank in pristine conditions, no further health problems should surface in your Oscars. Proper diet, a low-stress environment, and proper water chemistry are equally important.