since he hasn’t done a water change in 3 months, doing a big one now can harm the fish. He needs to do 25% water changes everyday for 1 week before attempting one large one. This tank is more likely suffering from old tank syndrome
Keep doing 25% water changes everyday for 1 week, then you can increase to 50%. The water parameters have to get close to the source water you use.
until you give us more info on the water parameters and background about the disease, then it would be hard for us to give some medication. Personally, I'm on the cautious side of meds, because meds deal great stress to the fish. If these fish are in critical condition chances are meds will kill them not save them. I would first do water change, then add small doses of meds. Then every following day add a bit more meds. I would first try out some of the more generic meds that work decently against a wide range of diseases, then when you know what disease it is, you can get the more specific meds to counter your specific disease.
We were just going to do water changes everyday and hope our pet store has general medicine and use that for them. I don’t know what disease they have, that’s largely why I came here for help. Looks like they could have anchor worms, maybe Popeyes disease, possibly fin rot and my dad thinks ich as well
Ich can lead to secondary bacterial infection. I wouldn't dose with medication until you can get into the routine of 25% water changes everyday. Gravel vacuuming the substrate will help to remove the ich eggs, so changing the water everyday will serve 2 purposes. If you can do this over the course of the week, and give us the ammonia and nitrite readings using a liquid test, and the PH reading, then we can suggest a medication. Not all medications work well in all PH ranges. If the water issues are not sorted out first, then medication becomes almost useless, sort of like putting a band aid on a dirty wound.
Getting the water tested in a few hours, I’ll tell you the results when we get them.
The "main disease" they have is poor water quality and poor aquarium maintenance routines, possibly including how to 'clean' filters. The latter is very much needed, but correctly, or will result in major problems, including some of the observed problems..
Concentrate in the water changes for now and that, by itself, will be the best current medicine, and should show major benefits in the short time (1-2 weeks). It will even aid the healing processes in the injuries themselves, by reducing bacterial/fungal densities in the overall medium. Conversely, adding medicine without fully improving conditions will not solve the problems.
When doing partial water changes, do make sure to vacuum debris from the bottom (including under substratum), which almost certainly is in poor conditions.
Only then, medicines become absolutely relevant.
And then.... there is the issue that the tank is too small for 2 oscars....
Concentrate in the water changes for now and that, by itself, will be the best current medicine, and should show major benefits in the short time (1-2 weeks). It will even aid the healing processes in the injuries themselves, by reducing bacterial/fungal densities in the overall medium. Conversely, adding medicine without fully improving conditions will not solve the problems.
When doing partial water changes, do make sure to vacuum debris from the bottom (including under substratum), which almost certainly is in poor conditions.
Only then, medicines become absolutely relevant.
And then.... there is the issue that the tank is too small for 2 oscars....
You should not be seeing foamy bubbles like that at the surface of the water. I would stay away from meds for now. Water changes and a proper amount of aquarium salt will help cure the fish and heal the damage. You'd be amazed at how well simple aquarium salt can help heal all sorts of bacterial and fungal infections. Once they are back to health a regular water change routine will keep your water quality up. Also when you clean your filters only clean the mechanical filtration portions. Leave the bio media alone to preserve your beneficial bacteria so your tank doesn't have to cycle all over again. There are plenty of resources online to teach you all the basics. KG Tropicals on YouTube makes tons of videos with a focus on new fish keepers. Aquarium co-op is another good source of information. Once you start researching you'll find there are many others as well.
