My Oscar is afraid of the dark.

by **stormer0719** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:46 am

I believe my oscar to be afraid of the dark. He flipped out when i turn the lights off.....I may have left them on for awhile now. I may have also put a pleco in there that was twice his size and removed it about a week later when the first incident happened. Turned off the lights and pleco touched him and he freaked and hurt himself. any movement with the lights out and he is scared to death. Now yesterday i turned them off and he was playing dead in the corner.

What do I do to fix him?

by **jdak702** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 2:55 am

Try leaving a lamp on for him so it isn't pitch dark.

by **Peterkarig3210** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:21 am

I had a 6-7 inch pleco that killed one of my 10 inch gars at night.

Apparently plecos are very active at night and can suck on slow moving and often stationary fish at night, which causes contusions, and in my fish's case a bacterial infection.

Sounds kind of weird, but maybe the oscar is freaked out about what happened one night?

I don't know if something like that is going on here, but maybe.

by **stormer0719** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:01 am

The pleco i had in there did have a confirmed kill on a green terror. you may be right

by **natalie265** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:02 pm

Well, when i was small and afraid of the dark, my mom got me a nightlight. Maybe you could do the same for your fish.

by **yasherkoach** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:56 pm

I agree with natalie...you can purchase an aqua aquarium submerisible light that you can leave on all night...I bought all three colors when I first got the tank, here's a link to understand:

http://www.petsolutions.com/Aqua-Color- ... 9+C33.aspx

Course I discontinued use for I wanted a more natural habitat or one with less mechnical devices; but if this fish, your Oscar, is afraid of pitch dark, if you put in the green or blue (green is best as far as I am concerned), this little ditty may just solve your problem.

hope it helps

by **yasherkoach** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:01 pm

I just looked at your profile, you do have these lights.....

so the other advice would be, unless the fish does not eat for several days or looks like it is dying, it may need a period of adjustment and you may want to not have fish in there that it believes will torment it during the night

unless of course, you do not leave on any of those submersible lights, and if this is the case, please leave one on all night especially in the area where this Oscar mostly hangs at night

My Oscar is afraid of the dark.

7 posts