HELP! my oscar is in trouble:/

[Sebub77]

hello everyone, i have a question about what i believe to be a parasite my oscar has... i have noticed that he does not eat as much, or as ravenously as he used to this past week, and his poop is red, not brown like my smaller oscar, who eats the same food as the one in question... it is my 12 inch tiger oscar that im worried about, it is about a year old, in my 125 with a smaller ruby oscar, jd, an ornate bichir, and a new loiselli... i do weekly water changes and my temp is at 79degrees, all parameters are 0..
i think this might have happened when i got a small school of silver dollars from petsmart, he ate 3 of the 5 i bought within minutes, (i didnt realize how small they were)..
whats the best way to deal with a parasite if thats what i am dealing with?
thanks everyone

 

[Agliata45]

go to and pet store and in the fish section there are medicines, just look for the one that suits your fishes sickness! most have directions and/or pictures of the parasite in question

 

[cacichlids]

12 inch tiger oscar, "ruby" oscar, jd, ornate bichir, loisellei in a 125 and nitrates are 0? hard to believe.

I do not think red poop means anything, my cichlids do it all the time after eating krill and some pellets with color enhancers... internal parasites usually produce white, stringy poo.

And Oscars generally do not eat as much when they reach maturity as they do when they're juvenile, both their appetite and growth slow down a lot once they hit around 10".

Advice: Do not medicate until you're sure what you're dealing with, some medicines can kill your fish faster than whatever it might have.

 

[ibz_rg]

I wouldn't be worried. Unless your Oscar is showing signs of lethargy, skittishness, white stringy poop (as mentioned above), or very abnormal behavior, you should be okay.

 

[Sebub77]

nitrates are not always 0, but i change water when they go up, and do major water changes once a week... thank you for the input, im hoping its not a parasite..

 

[Aquanero]

Doesn't sound like an IP. Fish sometimes build up higher than normal levels of bacteria in their gut and intestinal tracts for various reasons a new food or somthing harder than normal for them to digest ect.
Fast the fish for a few days with oscars two is usually enough to get them good and hungry. Marinate some skinned peas in raw garlic for a few hours or over night then feed the peas to the fish. The garlic soaked peas will act as a lacative to purge the system and decrease any elavated levels of bacteria. Fast for one day after feeding the peas to rest the digestive tract and the fish should be back to eating as before. The up side of this treatment is if there is nothing wrong with the fish this will not hurt it one bit.

 

[ciocca]

12 inch tiger oscar, "ruby" oscar, jd, ornate bichir, loisellei in a 125 and nitrates are 0? hard to believe.

I do not think red poop means anything, my cichlids do it all the time after eating krill and some pellets with color enhancers... internal parasites usually produce white, stringy poo.

And Oscars generally do not eat as much when they reach maturity as they do when they're juvenile, both their appetite and growth slow down a lot once they hit around 10".

Advice: Do not medicate until you're sure what you're dealing with, some medicines can kill your fish faster than whatever it might have.

a healthy OSCAR eats like a pig no matter what size

 

[nfored]

I have the same problem with mine, but I can't get him to eat the anti parasitic medication. Poop looks normal but he just almost never eats went 3 months and never saw him eat. Then out of no where he started eating, and just as suddenly as it started it stopped and now he only eats maybe 1 time a week if I am lucky.


I wake up every day and think this will be the day I loose my Favorite fish.

I was not sure he had a parasite so I was not willing to stick him in a tank and medicate the water, as I was told that almost never works. He has been like this for long enough that he would have been dead if it was a parasite.

 

[Aquanero]

Also, try bumping the temp up a little to around 82 that sometimes gets them eating. I ment to metion that in my original post but forgot.