oscar with fish lice.

Question
QUESTION: Hey, My Oscar has had fish lice , I think for about 3 months. He is in a 55 gallon tank. I have been treating it. It just don't seem like it is ever gonna go away. I hope i have been doing it right. I wait 48 hrs, then I change 25% of the water. The directions said to treat fish lice , do this 3 times. Do you know if I should be doing something else? What is something better to use?
Please help, Christina

ANSWER: Hi Christina,
Are you certain your Oscar has fish lice? I've never encountered fish lice before and it's really a very uncommon problem. I'm not trying to doubt your diagnoses I am just wondering if your Oscar -really- does have fish lice.

Please let me know all your oscar's symptoms and I will do my best to help!!
Best wishes,
Karen~

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

QUESTION: Hey Karen, He hits his self on the rocks and it looks like little bubbles stuck to him.

Christina

Answer
Hi Christina,
Sounds like your Oscar is scratching himself indeed. But I kind of don't think your Oscar truly has Fish lice from the symptoms you described. Usually the lice don't appear as tiny bubbles but rather they look like small crustacean-like animals. Here is a link to some photos-

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

Your Oscar may in fact have ICH or white spot disease. For a good picture of ich and excellent info on treating it please visit here-
         http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

It is possible that the bubble-looking things you are -are- actually bubbles. Sometimes if an airstone is nearby a filter intake, the filter can dispense the bubbles into a very fine size and these can attach to almost anything and sometimes even cloud the water.

I really hope this helps!
Best of luck with your Oscar!
Karen~