Oscar fish

[Vvixen]

We had an Oscar, an 8" goldfish and a 14" pleco in a 75 gallon tank for about 2 months. In this time we had a very hard time keeping the nitrates low. I didn't want to do a water change every day. (Tank is a few years old and well cycled) Oscars fin got a white fuzzy dime sized patch on it which became a hole. I put indian almond leaves in the tank.
We also rehomed the goldfish and pleco yesterday and got the nitrates back down to 10ppm. Now Oscar is swimming fast in circles. Is he looking for his missing tankmates?

 

[GaryE]

No, he is ill. The accumulated nitrates will sometimes cause repetitive swimming patterns, from neurological damage. He could recover - clean water can do amazing things. It all depends on how long the exposure was doing damage for.
Goldfish and plecos are waste machines, and keeping them in a tank is not always fun.

 

[Vvixen]

No, he is ill. The accumulated nitrates will sometimes cause repetitive swimming patterns, from neurological damage. He could recover - clean water can do amazing things. It all depends on how long the exposure was doing damage for.
Goldfish and plecos are waste machines, and keeping them in a tank is not always fun.

It's just odd that the erratic swimming didn't start until after we got rid of the other 2.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

It's just odd that the erratic swimming didn't start until after we got rid of the other 2.

Didn't you also mention that you did a large water change to get nitrates down? The sudden clean water can sometimes shock the fish if they have become accustomed to dirty water with high nitrates.

 

[Vvixen]

Now he is also refusing to eat his pellets. We gave him koi pellets. He will eat live crickets but I’m sure that’s not a balanced diet alone.