MY MARBLE OSCAR

Question
My oscar is two years old or so and i refer to it as a she and her name is dotty. About three or four days ago i noticed a small amount of ich on her forehead, she hates the intake tube of the filter and bashes the cover off it and then gets it sucked on to her head.So she gets these round like abrasions on her head. I saw that she also had a small spot on her eye that was a fluffy white mass that looked like ich, but now she has it on both her eyes and they look like she has an upside down white contactlense on her eyes, about a 16th of an inch thick. I have done an aggressive treatment with the rid ich at 12 hour intervals. It is not helping the eyes but the fluff that was on her forehead and fins are gone. What can I do please, I am so attached to her and she with me. lol I would like to share alittle thing she does with me. When she gets hungry and i am ignoring her(she is right behind me at my computer desk that i work at everyday) she hits the top of the tank which makes me jump thru the ceiling rofl. she is so funny. well please let me know what i might do and thank you for your time and attention, i really appreciate it. oh i change 1/4 of the water everyday before i put more rid ich in, the ph and all of that i checked before i did water treatment and it was right on. The temp was 74ish and i also added some sea salt because i heard that it is good for stress, and they live in brackish water. I put about a half cup in. Normally i change the water only once every six months and only half so not to mess the bio's up. I always check the water's ph and all of that every time i clean the filter which i do every two months since it is just her in the tank. She is about 9 inches long and about an inch or so thick.

Answer
Hi Mary;

She probably needs an anti-bacterial or anti-fungal for her eyes to heal. I'm glad she is now feeling better and getting well otherwise. It's probably because you have been diligently doing daily water changes while medicating. She is loving it and so is her immune system. The ich medicine itself is probably not doing anything at all because she doesn't actually have ich, in my opinion. The 'fluffy stuff' is a bacterial or fungal infection related to poor water quality. Ich looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt. They are tiny white dots. If a case of ich has gotten out of control, the spots can be infected with bacteria or fungus, but it just doesn't sound like that to me.

She really needs more frequent water changes all the time. Every six months is definately not enough I'm afraid. Oscars a very messy fish that need a 25% water change and gravel vacuuming every week. Weekly changes are not going to do anything harmful to the biological balance. The system requires periodical replenishing of trace elements and electrolytes to remain balanced. This is done with the weekly changes. Adding water due to evaporation doesn't count. Some of the water must actually be replaced every week. Otherwise, nitrates (NO3) will rise and cause more problems like she is already having.

I hope she keeps feeling better. Keep up the good work!....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins