Is my oscar sick? (pictures)

[pocky]

I just noticed tonight these little white pits behind his eyes on both sides and a bit on the gills. He's about the size of an adult palm and lives in a 90gal. I've been feeding him Northfin krill gold, northfin kelp waffers, north fin veggie, omega freeze dried mysis shrimp, the occasional cherry shrimp, cooked clams, mangoes, bananas, kiwis, watermelon and whatever fruit or veggie he's willing to take to try and vary his diet.

Are those little pits normal? It's not hole in the head is it?

 

[Brandonclark88]

Those are sensory pits. Oscars are very prone to HITH and if your water parameters begin to slip it will turn into that. Do 50% water changes twice a week until it clears up. Right now it doesn’t look too bad but can get worse

 

[duanes]

I agree with Brandon, if those pits enlarge (and become infected) it usually means your water change schedule is too lax and you need to do more, and larger water changes. But not just temporarily, it means forever.
It may also mean you are not cleaning gunk out of filters often enough.

 

[pocky]

Ah ****. Okay. I did a 40% change last night. I guess tonight I"ll be cleaning out one of the canister filters and doing at least another 20%. I didn't realize it was going to be so frequent. I tend to do 10-40% weekly. Maybe I'm feeding him too much. He's a fat pig. Lots of waste.

 

[duanes]

Canisters are notorious for not being cleaned, because the water is clear.
The gunk is out of sight, but because water is constantly flowing over it, all the byproducts of degradation is still in the tank.
So water clear, don't necessarily mean good water, you can't see fish urine, and freshwater fish are constantly pissing.
All the gunk in canisters tends to become an anoxic breeding ground for opportunistic bacteria, which although don't pose an acute threat, often create chronic problems which show up as HITH, and other scarring, and health threatening diseases over time.

 

[pocky]

I'm contemplating if I should just get rid of my eheim 2217 and fluval 406 and get HOB. I've seen the new Seachem ones but when they came out last year there weren't that many reviews out yet. I think maybe with HOB it would be easier for me to just take out the media and rinse it in old tank water at least once a week.

 

[Rocksor]

I'm contemplating if I should just get rid of my eheim 2217 and fluval 406 and get HOB. I've seen the new Seachem ones but when they came out last year there weren't that many reviews out yet. I think maybe with HOB it would be easier for me to just take out the media and rinse it in old tank water at least once a week.

I haven't seen a HOB than can hold as much bio-media as the eheim 2217. You generally need 2 x HOBS (like aquaclear 110 or seachem tidal 110) just to cover the amount of media for 1 x 2217. These you would have to service nearly every other day, but being an HOB that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[pocky]

I guess I just need to clean the filters more often. I used to get away with quite long with I kept small fish but I guess this little monster poops a lot.

 

[Rocksor]

I guess I just need to clean the filters more often. I used to get away with quite long with I kept small fish but I guess this little monster poops a lot.

Personally, I would put an eheim prefilter on the intake, and clean that almost every other day. The pre-filter will keep a lot of gunk out of the canister.

https://www.bigalspets.com/eheim-prefilter.html

You can also use probiotics like Rid-X to reduce gunk build up in canisters. There is a huge thread about using the powder form of Rid-X septic cleaner in the tank. This is used in conjunction with weekly/twice a week water changes.

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/the-use-of-probiotics-in-aquaculture.536531/

Get a liquid nitrate test as well. You really want to make sure nitrates are kept below 20ppm everyday.

 

[duanes]

In my large cichlid tanks that weren't on a sump, I'd line the entire back of the tank with HOBs, sometimes 5 in a row, and clean one every day.
The prefilter to be cleaned frequently Rocksor suggested is a great plan.
As is the Rid-X, it provides the kind of bacteria that outcompete the pathogenic kind.