oscar sick maybe

Question
Hi, my name is Timothy and I currently have two ruby red oscars and a black one they are all very small about three inches long each. About a couple of days ago I noticed some white stuff all over two of the oscars but not the other and their fins have not been expanding or flaring very much. I really don't want to lose these fish but I cannot figure out what it could be. Please help.

Answer
Good morning Timothy, mind if I call you Tim? Sorry to not have gotten back to you sooner, but it's the last week of finals and I have been helping with cramming. Ack!

The white stuff, whatever it is, is going to need some attention. First of all, you have to perform some large water changes. Do a 50% water change with dechlorinated tap water, and vacuum the gravel. This will bring up the water quality. Then, you will have to make a diagnosis...

Does your fish look like this?
http://www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm

That is columnaris. A very tough disease to treat, and also highly contagious. It is not a fungal infection, as it seems. To see a picture of a fungal infection, take a look at this website and click on Body Fungus and Fin Fungus:

http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html

I would look for some medicated fish food at your local fish store. The only one I have seen readily available is at Petsmart, Jungle brand, and they call it Anti-Bacteria.

Since three oscars are very messy (you will have to treat all of them) you may very well not have a hospital tank available of the appropriate size. If you treat in the main tank, my very first choice would be to use KanaPlex according to the directions. Call around and see if someone carries this medication or another medication that has the active ingredient of Kanamycin. This will not hurt your biological filter as much as other meds will.

If you cannot find Kanamycin, there are lots of other medicines you can use such as API's tablets - TC Tetracycline or EM Erythomycin. Both of these will cause ammonia spikes in your main tank and you will likely need to re-establish biological filtration after treatment.

I don't mean to make you feel guilty, but, you ought to know that these outbreaks are generally due to poor water quality. I suspect you don't have a large enough tank to rear three oscars into maturity - we are talking an 125 gallon tank here! At the very least, you must have a 90 gallon tank, although if you are upgrading you should buy the largest tank that you reasonably can from the start.

I realize these oscars are small, but they grow fast! I would do 40% water changes a few times a week to maintain high water quality. Be careful not to overfeed, all the food should be consumed in 2 minutes, and twice a day is all that is required. You don't mention the results of your water tests, if you have performed one, but I would suspect that there are high nitrates (should be kept below 20 ppm) and/or detectable nitrite and ammonia, which are both toxic to fish - and must therefore be kept at 0 ppm! Ask your local fish store to test your water, if you don't have a test kit of your own at this time, but I strongly recommend one.

Filtration must be powerful in a tank with multiple oscars, so most oscar owners make use of heavy duty hang-on power filters (such as the Emperor line) or external canister filtration suitable for their sized tank. There is probably lots you ought to read and haven't read yet, let me suggest:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/oscardisfaqs.htm
And the linked files above.

As well as http://www.oscarfish.com - which is a forum just for oscar owners. It has lots of useful information and forums where you can post your questions, it is also searchable! Oscars are cichlids, so the user-friendly http://www.cichlid-forum.com is worth a look, too.

Good luck to you Tim, and have a nice weekend.
Nicole