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Well, my big friendly Oscar Leopold, one of two i own (the other is Spotscar), decided he'd do his leaping tank trick for me yesterday as i was feeding him. This time he got a wee tad carried away, and decided my loungeroom must also be full of water. WRONG. So, there's me at 7am, half asleep, stagering around my loungroom with a fishnet trying to catch the 10" fish flapping around on my carpet floor.

I put him back in the tank, and left for my day at work, to find him back up to his usual tricks when i returned home. Says something about the resilliance of Oscars, i think!! No melafix, no nothing. Just my normal clean the day before. Tears in Pectoral and Anal fin (already showing signs of healing today) and a few scales missing, which is normal for my fish as they like to re-arrange all the driftwood in the tank

Anyway, he was eating normally last night, but didn't stick his head out of the water like he normally does!! I think he might have learnt his leasson!!

My other Oscar has not been a jumper since i first got it. Back then, it spent about 2hours in 40DegreeC heat laying on a footpath in full sun before i found him. Now all recovered, and living in the same tank as Leopold. Took about 2 months before he was back up to health, but boy what a nice fish he is now. He's lets me pat him every time i open the tank, and stroke his belly

Last edited by jester_fu at 03-Jan-2005 23:39

How on earth did your other cichlid wind up on the footpath?

Was he in water or just on the path?
This is amazing.

post some pics

Ahhh... Spotscar, my other Oscar, was the first one to decide to 'jump for their life'. Spent some time on the footpath. Not really sure how he got there, but in my initial ignorance of Cichlids, i decided Spotscar could live in my pond, with the yabbies and silver perch.

Anyway, there was no water on the footpath, and Spotscar was not as slimy as i now know he should be. It was quite distressing to see him laying there lifeless when i'd only had him 2-3days. He was only about 2" long when he did this. I grabed him to see if he was dead, and there was a little movement. So, i grabbed a clean water container, filled it with pond water and dropped him in. I then set about getting airation and another container, medication, and a lunchbox for him to hide in while recovering. Set up the hospital in the kitchen, and started treatng. All i added was anti-bacterial meds to start with, for about 3 weeks, progressively reducing the dose. Then i just kept the water clean and moved him to an inside tank. 2 months later, you'd never have known he spent 1 month unable to swim upright!! All of my friends thought he'd die, but not Spotscar!!

I actually got Spotscar for two reasons. One was because my girlfriend thought he was cute, and the other was to eat the silver perch i could never catch who had eaten all the other fish in the pond!! I did this in summer, and obviously at 40degC ambient temp, the water was well within the range Oscars like. So, yeah, pretty amazing fish to survive all that.

I'll have a look around at home at see what picture of them i have, but i don't have any from when Spotscar was ill.

Last edited by jester_fu at 04-Jan-2005 17:00