Need Help Ron A.S.A.P. I have a sick Oscar

Question
Hey Ron,

How's it going pal, as for me, not too good, I have a sick oscar that is making me very nervous. I am not sure what's going on with him, but I hope you can take the time to answer my Question: He is a red oscar and is about a year to a year and a half old, he has always been a good friend, and now that he is sick I would like to return the favorer, two days ago I noticed that one of my texas chiclid and him had ick, so I did a 25% water change and headed out and bought some Ick Clear and followed the directions. I ran it for about 12 hours and procided to add the carbon back in to the filters and added stress coat, stress zyme and some easy balance as directed. This morning I saw Rusty ( my sick oscar ) laying sideways or even at times up right on the gravel and will have a sudden short swim around and go back and lay on his side on the gravel and won't move. The Ammonia level is low but the Nitrate is at 6.0 and Nitrite is at .75 and the water is hazy but I thing it has to do with the good bactria is reforming. But what do you think? I don't know what color his gills are because I do not know how to check them. Please Write Back as soon as possable and Please help me save my best bud!

Answer
Hi Mario,
  It takes several days to a week or more to clear up ick so you have to stick with it.  Basically, ick is a parasite that has two stages to its life. The one stage is a cyst which is the little white blob thing that you see on a fish. Nothing can hurt the cyst -- I'm pretty sure a small nuclear explosion wouldn't kill those.  But the cysts hatch into free-swimming parasites and that stage is susceptible to the medication.  So basically you have to keep treating until all the cysts have hatched and been killed (which typically takes about a week).

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>