Sick Oscar

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nfored

nfored

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2008
2,597
14
68
Missouri
I am not sure what happened.

I feed Sunday Morning and he was active as ever trying to eat all the food he can as fast as he can like always. I didn't see any food stuck in his mouth or any other strange behavior after the feeding. Then that night I put food in and he didn't even care, this was very strange as he is always hungry.

Then Monday he is still swimming but not much more drifting unless he wants to get back to the other end of the tank. So I feed him again this time he eat one pellet, and then mouthed and spit out the second, and he was done eating. Also I noticed stringy white poo which I think means internal parasite.

All the other fish seem fine, I only missed my weekly 50% wc by a couple days. When I checked Ammonia was 0 nitrite was 0, nitrate was 40 - 60, I am going to get a confirmation on my test results today since my kits are old.

The only other fish that might have some symptoms is my Texas, but I am not sure. He mouths the bottom sinking pellets but he will eat the crumbs no problem. He also seems to swim around just fine and acts like he always has.

The tank Temp is 76 -78 depending on how cold it gets outside, the only changes recently was the addition on the Texas and an EBJD back in Jan 1st. The EBJD died but he was only 1" big so its my understanding they have a high mortality rate.

It's my plans to try and treat the tank and sump with the jungle parasite medication. I don't think I will have any luck with medicated food since he likely wont eat. I could Isolate him, but I figure its best to medicate the whole tank.

Any thoughts idea? what other information do you need?
 
prazipro is best for internal parasites is my understanding
 
Okay so now it gets strange.

I bought the medicated food, to try and use while I await my medication I ordered.

I walked into the room and the O ran to the feeding hole like he normally does and has been eating right all day yesterday. SO I am like IDK about the issue.

However I did have my water tested and they said i was at 0.25 ammonia or maybe a little less. I retested with my old api liquid kit and they might be right. I did take a Chuck of bio media out on the 3rd of feb to put in the hospital tank for my new EBJD so I likely caused a mini cycle. So I guess they could have been having a small ammonia issue for a week and a half.

So while waiting for the mini cycle to finish I decided to go ahead and pump up the heat and try to add some salt.

Any comments welcome.
 
Quit tossing in meds and start changing water. 40-60 nitrates (why such a broad range?) is too high after just having done a 50% water change. White poo just means intestinal distress. It could be for any number of reasons with parasites only being *1 of the reasons. Get a liquid test tube kit for testing, the paper strips are too vague to be useful IMO.
 
TwistedPenguin;3898102; said:
Quit tossing in meds and start changing water. 40-60 nitrates (why such a broad range?) is too high after just having done a 50% water change. White poo just means intestinal distress. It could be for any number of reasons with parasites only being *1 of the reasons. Get a liquid test tube kit for testing, the paper strips are too vague to be useful IMO.
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I have not added any meds yet, so I will hold off on that. I am confused by the suggestion of not using paper strips? I said I used API Liquid, my kit is just old since the tank has been running for so long and I do water changes all the time. I normally test my water once every 3 months.

IF you use the liquid API the nitrate readings are in 40ppm increments so its not exactly 40 but its not 80. So I gave a range.

Part of the problem was my landscaping, Today when I went to do my water change before adding salt, I moved my rocks; and thats when I noticed tons of gunk trapped under them. So I tore them down and vacced it all up, and then stirred up my sump and vacced it out also.

As far as nitrates being to high after a WC, I guess that depends on how much Nitrate you have in your tap mine is 20ppm. So lets say I add 20PPM per week, at the end of the week I have 40ppm. Then I add back half the water that has 20ppm, the two bodies of water combine to make 30ppm. So next week I have another 20ppm added for a total of 50PPM, I do another 50% WC again adding 20PPM water. I now have 35PPM, so as you can see its not always possible to keep nitrates at or under 20ppm. I normally once a month perform 2 back to back 50's to get the nitrates back to 40ish.
 
nfored;3900758; said:
I have not added any meds yet, so I will hold off on that. I am confused by the suggestion of not using paper strips? I said I used API Liquid, my kit is just old since the tank has been running for so long and I do water changes all the time. I normally test my water once every 3 months.
IF you use the liquid API the nitrate readings are in 40ppm increments so its not exactly 40 but its not 80. So I gave a range.
Part of the problem was my landscaping, Today when I went to do my water change before adding salt, I moved my rocks; and thats when I noticed tons of gunk trapped under them. So I tore them down and vacced it all up, and then stirred up my sump and vacced it out also.
As far as nitrates being to high after a WC, I guess that depends on how much Nitrate you have in your tap mine is 20ppm. So lets say I add 20PPM per week, at the end of the week I have 40ppm. Then I add back half the water that has 20ppm, the two bodies of water combine to make 30ppm. So next week I have another 20ppm added for a total of 50PPM, I do another 50% WC again adding 20PPM water. I now have 35PPM, so as you can see its not always possible to keep nitrates at or under 20ppm. I normally once a month perform 2 back to back 50's to get the nitrates back to 40ish.
Click to expand...
That was my fault for not reading close enough that you used the API liquid test, I'm sorry. And I didn't realize you had 20 ppm nitrate in your tap :-O I really feel for you! That would totally suck-especially with Oscar keeping since they're more sensitive to higher nitrates than the average fish. I do believe meds aren't the answer, it seldom is. I think you'll see improvement by just giving it time.
 
Yes I think I was worrying for nothing He is eating more, just not as much as he was. I just got freaked out because he has gotten so big so fast and has become one of my favorites. I have been adding salt to the tank over the past 36 hours at a dosing rate of 1TBS per 5 gallons, adding 1/3 tank volume each 12 hours and bumped the temp up to 84.

When I go to feed the fish I say I am going to feed Gimli. Plus after loosing my ebjd a few weeks ago to some unknown cause, and my largest Bala to over eating about a month ago I was scared.
 
No, no need to risk it. He loves his pellets.
 
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