Oscar help... possible tumor, lump? Don't know.. help!

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landmineyouth

landmineyouth

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 3, 2005
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North Miami
www.djrobriggs.com
Okay guys, I've had this oscar in a dedicated home to him for almost 5 years now. He is grown from a baby and only sharing his habitat with 2 silver dollar fish, also who have been in the tank this same period of time.

I feed him about 6 to 10 large sized hikari pellets around 5 times a week, and do 20-30% water changes once a week. He has two Emp400 HOB filters and an Ehiem canister filter. All his water parameters are clean. No amonia, no nitrites, very low nitrates (keeping an oscar tank with 0 would be nice, but i havent been able to do so).

Over the past month or so, I've noticed he was geting irreguarly larger.. I first thought overfeeding? But I'm already so careful... none the less, I cut his feeding back to 3 to 4 times a week, but the bloatedness did not go away. Then I thought maybe it was constipation? No idea... here are some photos to illustrate what I am talking about..




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Any help with what this may be would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to lose this guy. He still actively begs for food and does his general oscar-activities, which as you may know is mainly being lazy or eating.

If it is infact a tumor growing, is it fatal or merely cosmetic? Do any vets do surgeries on fish as small as Oscars? Is it even feasibly worth the cost?

View attachment 2011-08-21 18.34.00.jpg

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View attachment 2011-08-21 18.33.30.jpg

View attachment 2011-08-21 18.33.16.jpg

View attachment 2011-08-21 18.33.24.jpg

View attachment 2011-08-21 18.34.26.jpg
 
could be he ingested a pebble or something from your gravel... i would treat with epsom salt and feed him some thawed/skinned peas as well and see if that helps, GOOD LUCK
 
The pebble theory seems likely, as I notice he loves to 'eat' gravel.

What is the appropriate amount of Epsom salt to treat a 75 gallon tank that houses this size full grown oscar, and for how long?

For the peas, what type??
 
umm im not sure on the amount of epsom as i have only treated things with normal salt, i think the epsom treatment is 2 tablespoons/10g so for a 75g you would put 15tblsp of epsom salt. but you might want to wait for somebody else to 2nd that. as for the peas just regular frozen peas from the bag will do, just thaw a couple and give them a little squeeze and the inside part of the pea should pop right out
 
I can only get the poor guy to eat about 1 pea in a feeding, then he gets sad that he was tricked and goes and sits in his corner at the bottom of the tank.. should I keep trying this daily until his bloating goes down? How long should this process take? I feel bad because he has been like this for so long now, he can't be very comfortable. I'm also dosing with epsom salt daily... is there anything else i can do?
 
wait so how much epsom salt have you put in there now? just dose the tank with the salt and leave it alone, turning the temp up a few degrees might help moves things along as well, and i wouldnt feed him any other food right now, just try the peas and other than that dont feed him right now until this passes, hopefully it gets better soon if it doesnt it might be bacterial and you may have to give him some type of anti-bacterial meds
 
Sarah88 said:
wait so how much epsom salt have you put in there now? just dose the tank with the salt and leave it alone, turning the temp up a few degrees might help moves things along as well, and i wouldnt feed him any other food right now, just try the peas and other than that dont feed him right now until this passes, hopefully it gets better soon if it doesnt it might be bacterial and you may have to give him some type of anti-bacterial meds
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I only dosed the tank with epsom twice, did a water change today to compensate for that second dose. Ill try increasing the heat but the tank stays around 80-82 already with the heater maxed out.

2 Questions

1) How long should I expect to wait before I notice any improvements?

2) If the problem doesnt go away, what type of anti-bacterial medications should I be looking into??
 
landmineyouth said:
So in your opinion, what your seeing pictured here is NOT constipation?

Where would I obtain magnesium sulfatesolution?
Click to expand...

Yup. I can tell you didn't read the thread lol. You take some Epsom salt, mix it in some water and soak the pellets in the solution.
 
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