Oscar acting stressed out or just adolescence?

[Jintoh50]

Hello all, been a while since I last posted about my boy . I've got about a 5-6 inch oscar. Got him at about 3-4 weeks old, about 5 months now. The tank is:
75 gallons, only fish.
Nitrate 5, trite and ammonia 0.
PH 7.4-7.6
Temp 77
When I first got him he did the same thing, up and down/side to side for hrs, mouthing at nothing. Then he stopped, all was good. I went away for 2 weeks, now he's back at it. He doesn't rub against anything, one spot of scale damage from hitting the decor I'm sure, other than that he looks good.

He is always hungry, has a varied diet:
Farm raised salmon from grocery store, peas, oranges, Omega one frozen cichlid, algae wafers, pellets, avocado (loves this but messy so the day of water changes). As I've mentioned I sit 1 foot from tank 8-10hrs a day working so we know each other LOL. This might be a detriment, anytime I look towards the tank he darts over or is already swimming in front of me, doesn't use much of the tank space (until recently with the darting). Hoping it's just him trying to get my attention for food. I had just fed him, usually reaching for the pellets causes hysteria .

At night, no problem, lights out he's chillin. posted a video (it's too long, was trying to wait for him to do the diving down to the bottom thing), does anyone think he's stressed or is it just adolescence?

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

My DoJo's do that all the time, they are perpetual juveniles about 8" long in snake like form. Love them to death but they would love to eat me out of house and home. They use their mouth like a vacuum to scrape the pellets off the gravel, get about 10 in their mouth then crunch them up leaving pieces all over the place.

My Rainbow fish eat like of a pack of piranaha's as soon as they see food. My Gourami and Tetra generally don't care a lot - they get there when they feel like it and eat what they want,

So I have fish of all ages but they all show different reactions to food. He's just trying to talk you into more - don't let him, he can overeat and be unhealthy.

 

[Colin_T]

He is always hungry, has a varied diet:
Farm raised salmon from grocery store, peas, oranges, Omega one frozen cichlid, algae wafers, pellets, avocado (loves this but messy so the day of water changes). As I've mentioned I sit 1 foot from tank 8-10hrs a day working so we know each other LOL. This might be a detriment, anytime I look towards the tank he darts over or is already swimming in front of me, doesn't use much of the tank space (until recently with the darting). Hoping it's just him trying to get my attention for food. I had just fed him, usually reaching for the pellets causes hysteria .

Fish can't digest citrus so stop feeding it oranges, and no avocado.

Fish never evolved to eat terrestrial plant matter and aquatic plants and algae are easier for them to digest. Having said that, Oscars don't need a lot of plant matter at all and are normally happy on a meat based diet consisting of prawn/ shrimp, fish, octopus/ squid, and other marine or aquatic organisms.

Some mushed up peas and algae wafer/ pellets mixed with fish or prawn would be ok but don't get carried away with the veges.

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As for the behaviour, it can be a territorial threat but doesn't look like it.
It can be boredom and the fish is showing stereotypical behaviour patterns (swimming back and forth along the glass).
It could be begging for food.

Set up a video camera in the room and film the fish when you aren't there, and get someone else in the house to go in the room and sit where you normally sit. Make sure you are not seen by the fish during this. See how the fish responds to other people in the room or near the tank.

Try rearranging the tank a bit and that can stress or change their swimming pattern.

Put a mirror on the side of the tank for a few minutes every couple of days and see how the fish reacts. It might be wanting to breed.

 

[Jintoh50]

Fish can't digest citrus so stop feeding it oranges, and no avocado.

Fish never evolved to eat terrestrial plant matter and aquatic plants and algae are easier for them to digest. Having said that, Oscars don't need a lot of plant matter at all and are normally happy on a meat based diet consisting of prawn/ shrimp, fish, octopus/ squid, and other marine or aquatic organisms.

Some mushed up peas and algae wafer/ pellets mixed with fish or prawn would be ok but don't get carried away with the veges.

---------------------
As for the behaviour, it can be a territorial threat but doesn't look like it.
It can be boredom and the fish is showing stereotypical behaviour patterns (swimming back and forth along the glass).
It could be begging for food.

Set up a video camera in the room and film the fish when you aren't there, and get someone else in the house to go in the room and sit where you normally sit. Make sure you are not seen by the fish during this. See how the fish responds to other people in the room or near the tank.

Try rearranging the tank a bit and that can stress or change their swimming pattern.

Put a mirror on the side of the tank for a few minutes every couple of days and see how the fish reacts. It might be wanting to breed.

Thank you all good suggestions, I thought maybe boredom, I've put ping pong balls in the tank with him, he attacks them/plays for about 10-20 seconds off and on then doesn't care anymore.

I thought I read somewhere they could have oranges/avacado and needed the C, doesn't get much but I'll discontinue that. I put his pellets where he can't see them last night, seems calmer today; guess if I saw a steak I couldn't get to all day I'd be pissed to LOL.

Thanks again, we'll see.

 

[Colin_T]

I put his pellets where he can't see them last night, seems calmer today; guess if I saw a steak I couldn't get to all day I'd be pissed to LOL.

Gimme the food you bastards, gimme the food

If you want the fish to have vitamin C, use algae or aquarium plants cut up really finely and mixed with some raw/ cooked fish or shrimp. You can buy sheets or marine algae from health food stores, and Asian supermarkets sell dried algae. Just make sure it doesn't have preservatives or additives. And you can use the algae wafers, which should have vitamin C in.