possible infection on oscar

[oscarsftw]

My O started out with what looked like a fungal infection similar to yours... then it progressed and after 2-3 treatments it stopped.

In a separate tank
1 treatment of ParaGuard
2 treatments of Methylene Blue


The blotches still were there but not as white... Then like over night they sunk in and got extremely bumpy... Took it as the fungus was dead and now is the healing process... It just got worse... as it progressed to HITH and then Lateral line...

I treated with H-N-H guard and Metro+ but it was still advancing quickly...

The O could not be put back in his original home as he was just thrashing the tank and other fish...

water changes were daily and was almost 50/50.... ran another (friends) FX5 with Purigen and Nitrazorb (new) with established BB scrubbies.

Diet consisted of vitamin enriched foods from Omega One as recommended from both my friend and 2 people from the Pet shop (who btw dont' sell omega one products). A week later he was dead... his lateral line was completely deterioated and the craters on his head were many and deep...

I spent a little bit of money trying to keep him alive... Now my JD is not eating and appears depressed as she just sits in the corner all day...

What were the water readings?

 

[TPS reports]

i dosed the tank with melafix after removing the carbon every day for 4 days straight.
during the treatment i changed the water 3 times that week, 75% each time.
after the initial dose of melafix i noticed his infection flare up.
the next morning it looked significantly better.
3 days later, there was only a trace.
by the end of the week it was completely gone.
the oscar is in good health, very active and eats like a champ.
i think he has overcome the infection and am glad he is back on the right track.

thanks for everyones help.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

i dosed the tank with melafix after removing the carbon every day for 4 days straight.
during the treatment i changed the water 3 times that week, 75% each time.
after the initial dose of melafix i noticed his infection flare up.
the next morning it looked significantly better.
3 days later, there was only a trace.
by the end of the week it was completely gone.
the oscar is in good health, very active and eats like a champ.
i think he has overcome the infection and am glad he is back on the right track.
thanks for everyones help.

My opinion was it was the water changes that helped not the MelaFix. Most people use MelaFix and start doing a bunch of extra water changes and assume it was the MelaFix that worked when in fact it was all the water changes. I work like a dog to keep nitrates under 5 on my Oscar tanks. You must have 'negative nitrate' tap water to keep them under 5 in a 75 g with a GT & Oscar (was a joke).
His head in the pictures does look dimpled and dented-has he always looked like that? My Oscars all have heads like the end of a horse's nose, almost like soft velvet I guess. I've seen a lot of pictures though with dimpled/dented heads on Oscars so maybe some of them are just built that way?
I most certainly agree with Oscarsftw's comment about keeping nitrates below 20-25 ppm max for Oscars. It's my opinion that 40 ppm is far too high.