CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

MY DAMN BOY JUST SWALLOWED ANOTHER ROCK, AND THIS TIME HE DID NOT SPIT IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE SEEMS TO BE STRUGGLEING AND TRYING TO GET IT TO COME UP, NOW HE IS JUST IN A CORNER NOT MOVING BUT BREATHING HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WHAT DO I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, he took about 3 minutes (THE LONGEST 3 MINUTES OF MY LIFE!!) and then started breathing extremely hard, by this time i thought he was dieing it was horrible but he spit it out. . . thank god! I need to get those rocks out of there, they are about the size of strawberries and he is a big fish but i doubt he would ever pass that!

WOW and I thought mine were bad......my O Scarface continues to bang his head on stuff when he is rearranging his plants and toys......he gets little scuffs on his tail too!

hi there. i need help.i have a baby oscar.what can i put in his aqu.how many times do i feed him.how big will he get.i gave him chicken hearts.he don't want themi gave him tubifex worms freeze dried.no luck. please please help me somebody :

Hi, Lindsay.  If I were you I think I'd probably remove those particular rocks.  Maybe also give him a ping-pong ball to play with.

Scorpion:  Please start a new thread with your question, rather than taking this one in another direction.  Include some additional info, such as the size of your Oscar, the size of your tank, what other fish are in there with him, how long has the tank been running -- stuff like that.  If you have a water test kit, give us the ammonia, nitrate, and pH readings.  That'll give us a better chance of giving you useful advice.  Having said that, if he's a new fish in a new tank, he might be a little freaked out for a few days, and not be ready to eat.  One thing young Oscars love to do is eat, so I wouldn't worry too much just yet.  I'd suggest cichlid pellets or sticks of a size that he can get in his mouth easily.  Wait a bit on stuff like the chicken hearts.  Set him up on a good basic pellet diet, then use the other stuff as treats.

As Dan says get the rocks out & give him something to play with that is too big for him to swallow.
My O has a golf ball to play with and lots of dither fish but the gravel is pea gravel (about 6-7 mm across)

Ya, i am going to have to take all of his rocks out. I was thinking, when we are up in the mountians we see many large rocks. . do you think i could rinse/soak 5-10 real large rocks to lay at the bottom???? Would a rock from the wild be harmful???

yeah clean them and let them dry....I get some from the lake here in town.....and I put a golf ball in with one of my O's and he loves it!

I have some rocks from the beach in my Malawis tank.  I soaked them in a bleach solution and then thoroughly cleaned & rinsed them with tank water from a water change.