Oscar: Hurt or Sick? Please see pic.

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PDRed302

PDRed302

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 4, 2011
1,521
90
66
Fort Worth Texas
This isn’t my first post about one of my Oscars and it won’t be the last…
I noticed tonight that my larger O had 2 small lesions on his head, they kind of look like scrapes but I wanted to post and get everyone’s opinion. They are a lighter color of his own (not completely white) and to me the bottom one seems to be slightly raised. I did a 35% water change and vacuum and everyone in the tank seems to be doing fine.

Please provide any input you have, I want to make sure he’s not sick and if he is; how I would go about treating him.

If it’s of any help: he/she (never spawned, never sexed) and the other Oscar in the tank have been digging quite a bit.

Tank parameters are as follows:

125 Gallon
79.2 f.
Nitrate - 20
Nitrite- 0
Chlorine- 0
Ph. - 6.8
Ammonia - 0

SwampThingbumps.jpg


Thank you for any response.
 
it seems to me like early stages of hole in the head disease. could be wrong as I've never experienced it myself. due to poor water quality- possibly your nitrate count?
 
It looks to me like the begining stages of HITH. That being said I've seen many Os look like this and bounce right back without any issue. As long as the issue causing it; is corrected.

I'm assuming your Nitrate is at 20ppm after the 35% water change. If so, I'd do another 35% water change tomorrow. I'd also Bump the temp to 81-82* and toss in some salt to assist the healing process. (It can only help). You can get Salt from the Pet store, Or I've substituted in Kosher Salt, Canning Salt, and Even the Salt used for home water filtration systems you would buy at Home Depot or Lowes. I use a Tablespoon for every 5 gallons of water in the tank and replace 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons when doing water changes.

Also what is the Nitrates in your tap water to start with? Are you conditioning your water with Prime or anything else when you do the water change? What kind of Substrate, and Filtration are you using? As Gravel, and some Filtration systems are known Nitrate factories and may need to be meticulously looked after. What is your other stock in the tank. Do you use a Grounding probe to remove and stray current from the tank. It's speculated that HITH may be cause from stray voltage from faulty equipment.

Mike

On a side note after Water changes my Nitrates are at about 5ppm I do 45-50% water changes 2x weekly.
 
I have always added salt but only 1 tbsp per 10 gallons, so I will up it to every 5. Water is conditioned via Aqueon water conditioner, when performing water changes (I add it when adding water). Gravel is throughly cleaned natural and black from petsmart (changed my substrate about a month or two ago from the old blue and black setup that I had previously, also added drfitwood that had been leached of tannins for a month and cleaned). Nitrate from the tap is around 5ppm, not high, but not 0. Tank stock is as follows: 2 Tiger Oscars, one normal at 12 inches one albino at around 9 to 10 inches. 1 male Golden Gourami at 4 inches, 1 Common Pleco at aroun 14 inches along with 3 Spotted Silver Dollars ranging from 3 to 5 inches.

I'll probably get flamed for this one: Filtration is performed by 3 Whisper ex70 HOB filters, filters are running with media as follows: 1 full of carbon, 1 with floss and bio rings and 1 with foam and Purigen. HOB have always been my method of choice for filtration becuase of ease of use. Tank husbandry is as follows; twice a week 35% water changes and gravel vac with once a month filter maintinance. This tank has been running for around 6/7 months now, and is an upgrade from my previous 75 (additional filter along with a UV sterilzer). I have never had a problem with water clarity or high levels that I believed would hurt my fish.

I have had this fish on this type of filtration/substrate/conditions for a little over 2 years now. It's just a little upsetting because in the last few months the only things I have changed have been for the better ie: more room, better food (Hikari Cichlid Staple large floating pellets) and more water changes.

I will be bumping my water changes from twice a week to 4 times a week now because of this problem, I also plan on removing all of the carbon from the filters over the course of the next month or 2 and replacing it with more bio material and purigen (still leaching the last of the tannins out of the wood).

Also, this is the first time I have been asked or really thought about a grounding probe (Thanks Mike) and I will be adding one. Is this something I can find at my LFS or something that will require a trip to Home Depot?

Current temp is now 80F. strait up and I will be taking it up to 82 over the weekend.

Hopefuly I can keep the damge to a minimum, if anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to add them.

Thanks again,
Ray
 
Yeah water changes are the ticket.

The triple Wisper filters should be OK, yeah not a sump or canister, but your on the right track with ditching the carbon and adding (insert your favorite BIO media here)....On this note-carbon has also been accused of causing HITH..

I have a Cascade 1500 and a 15gallon/ginormous bio tower on my 125....But my oscars are in their own 45g tall tanks...They couldn't get along...
I do have an AC-500 per each tank filled with the sponge and ceramic rings with suplimental rings in a bag in the air bubbler current.

The white fuzz could be a start to HITH, but to me it looks more like an injury, anything sharp in the tank?
 
This is whats called velvet. All it means is something in the water is irritating its skin. Nothing major. Could be as simple as too much nitrifiying bacteria floating around. As stated above be consistant with the water changes and hell be fine.
 
^ U don't think so darippa. pretty sure its HITH... like everyone else said, extra salt and immaculate waters gonna help. aren't there commercial medications for it? i thought i had seen some before... i could be wrong.
 
People jumping straight on the "Nitrate = HITH" bandwagon as usual I see.

Ditch the Carbon in your filter.

I see your pH is 6.8 - do you by chance have access to a Conductivity/TDS meter, or a gH/kH hardness test kit? Do you add any kind of buffer or pH adjuster to your setup?
 
KH reads at about 100-120 but I do not have a conductivity/TDS meter, I also do not add any kind of buffer.

Water changes will be constant (4 a week) and adding a grounding probe as soon as it gets to me in the mail. I will also be ditching all of the carbon for purigen seeing as I still need to clean up whats left of the tannins.

I'm glad that there is hope that it is not HITH. I was getting a little upset; seeing that this fish lived for about 6 months before I had any idea of what the hell I was doing when it came to fish keeping. He's a survivor from the "I just took over my wifes tank and I am going to throw everything in the world in it, not do water changes and over feed" stupidty that comes with owning a tank and not doing your home work.

I've since then, done my best to look after him and the other fish I have.

Hopefully all is well and I will update as soon as it gets better or worse.

To answer Racer: As far as anything that they could bang themselves on, there are the 2 pieces of drift wood that I have in the tank. The pieces themselves do not seem to be super sharp by any means but I guess if he hit one right he could hurt himself on it.
 
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