sick tiger oscar

Question

sick tiger oscar   QUESTION: Hi! I have a tiger oscar that is very sick in a 50 gallon tank. All the other fishes in the tank seem to be fine.

I have done a water change and up the temperature of the tank to 85 degrees fahrenheit. I have also added in something fungus guard and it seems as though it is not working. I have included a picture of the tiger oscar so that you can see how sick it is.

I have never fed feeder fishes to my fishes only thing I put in the tank is Hiraki pellets and algae wafers.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me save my fish!

thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Felicia,

He looks horrible.  Let's get him out of the aquarium and into a hospital tank immediately.

Let's take this approach, since I can't diagnose his issue by the image:

Heat the hospital tank to 82 degrees.
Filter it double for its size, cleaning the filter daily.

Let's not put anything but fish and water into that tank...he needs no substrate or plants.  He needs hospitalization so you can watch him closely to find out what's going on.

Without knowing his symptoms, from the image, he looks discolored, and it looks like an ammonia burn, caused from bad filtration or bad water conditions, so the other thing I want you to do is to immediately begin changing his home tank's water every 3 days, 10%, for a couple weeks.  When it's done about six times down the road, you can move to once a week for a month.  Then every month after that, take out 25% permanently and change that.

Back to Oscar - He has to have ample filtration.  No debris can form on the bottom of the tank and he needs to have ample oxygenation while he recouperates.

Put 1 teaspoon of Marine Salt into his hospital tank, per gallon.  If it's a 10 gallon tank (which I suggest, use at least a 10 gallon for him), then ten teaspoons of marine salt per gallon gets dissolved in the water.  Tomorrow, increase that again and add one more teaspoon per gallon to the tank.  That will make it a total of 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon.

This will help him with several different things, and gives a good all-around treatment.

I hate being redundant, but here's the list of what should be done:

1.  Hospital tank - 10 gallons at lest with a filter made for a 20 to 40 gallon tank on it (to keep water amply clean) and a heater, heated to 82 degrees F.

2.  1 teaspoon of marine salt per gallon dissolved in water.  Tomorrow, add another teaspoon per gallon.

3.  No substrate, no plants, nothing.  Let's keep an eye on him...does he have any small holes in his head?  The image is so small I can't tell.  If so, let's keep the salt treatment going.

What are your water change/filter change habits, and what kind of filtration are you using?  

Thankyou and I hope this helps.  I can perhaps provide more information down the line as we find out more about your system and his tankmates.  

Renee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Renee!
The filtration I am using for the 55 gallon tank is a 70 gallon penguin biowheel. I usually do a water change about once a month and when I do it's about a 15% water change. The  themselves I change almost every 2 weeks or sooner if they are really dirty. The water I put back in is always the same temperature as the water already in the tank. I do not add any chemicals such as stress coat or anything of that kind, all I put in is aquarium salt.
The other fishes in the tank are: 1 albino oscar, 3 electric blue johannii (I'm not quite sure) and 2 plecos. I inherited them all from my friend.
There is no hole in the head whatsoever just a huge amount of white patches.

Thanks again!

Answer
Hello again,

The biowheel you are using is either the 350 or the 400 and rated to 60 gallons at highest, but that is insufficient for a 70 gallon tank.  I'd add one more of those to add better filtration.

Also, how often do you clean the gravel?

Most likely this is caused by a water quality issue, but it sounds like you are a wonderful fish owner who really does take good care of the tank, so let's begin by adding the 2nd filter and then adding the salt to the aquarium to combat the white skin.  Sometimes Oscars get white on orange coloration, but it doesn't look like his natural coloration to me.  He just looks very ill to me.

I'd go with the same advice I gave earlier.  A hospital tank, heated to 80 degrees, add salt to the water, and if you can get it, please get some Quick Cure and add that as well.  The Oscar will benefit from both together.

Remove all charcoal filtration while it's being treated.

I believe this may be related to bad water simply because the filtration is lacking and if you can install a second filter, it would greatly enhance his chances of survival and the future quality of the water in the tank.

Keep up the water changes, and the great fish keeping routine.  You sound very caring and loving to your fish.

:)

Renee