COSTA MESA / NEWPORT / IRVINE : NEWPORT BEACH : Quake-Sensitive Fish in Protective Custody

Oscar’s big talent has gotten him into big trouble.

Following death threats two weeks ago, the earthquake-predicting fish was removed from his aquarium in the biology lab at Corona del Mar High School and moved to an undisclosed location, said school principal Tom Jacobson.

“We were afraid that Oscar would be deep-sixed,” Jacobson said Thursday.

Why would anyone want to harm Oscar, a lovable, one-eyed South American red oscar?

Perhaps, Jacobson said, it is because of all the fame Oscar has garnered since school officials discovered several years ago that he swims on his side hours before an earthquake. Like other fish, Oscar normally swims upright, Jacobson said.

After noticing the unusual behavior a few years ago, Jacobson said, biology teacher Ron Schnitger began testing Oscar’s reliability in predicting earthquakes. Oscar went on to predict 15 to 20 earthquakes in Southern California over the next three years, according to his keepers.

In recent months, Oscar has drawn national attention, appearing on a number of television programs and even making the pages of People magazine. But apparently fame has earned him some enemies.

About two weeks ago, said Jacobson, the school received written and telephoned death threats against Oscar. Schnitger, Oscar’s guardian, at first put a chain and padlock across the biology lab door at night, said Vince Abbascia, a school custodian who helped him.

When the threats continued, Jacobson said, Schnitger decided that it was unsafe to keep Oscar in the aquarium he has shared with two other fish. That’s when Oscar was spirited away into protective custody.

Schnitger, who could not be reached Thursday, apparently filed no report with the local police.

“I haven’t heard anything on that one,” Police Sgt. Joe Lambert said with a hearty laugh Thursday.

Did Oscar predict Tuesday’s devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area? No one knows for sure because he was alone during the day while Schnitger and other biology lab teachers were at school.

But Schnitger told colleagues that when he checked up on Oscar that evening, the coffee-saucer-size fish was sleeping on his side, with his one good eye facing down. Normally, he said, Oscar sleeps upright, the same way he swims.