I need help diagnosing a cause of death. I had a 8 inch tiger oscar and about a 5 inch albino oscar. In about 2-3 days time they quickly started showing signs of what I assumed was ick. I treated with medicine on Sunday. According to the directions I was to changed half the water (I've heard this could have led their demise), which I did the following day. After adding more water and medicine, they rapidly deteriorated (the temp was about 79-80F). We assumed the medicine was the problem so changed about another 1/3 of the water (I know probably another big mistake). By this morning they were dead. Also we occasionally fed nightcrawlers to them out of our back yard. On Thursday of last week, I fed them a particularly slimy, well REALLY slimy worm. Oh, and a small piece of cantalope (on accident, I had some out for the our pet rats and got distracted, plopping it in the fish tank). Could either of these caused some other type of parasite that resembles ick? I just want to make sure I don't make the same mistake again. I am also worried about what I need to do (undo) to the tank to make it livable again. Thanks for any help.
possible ick
- Thread starter lil_mamaog
- Start date
Welcome to the site, and sorry to hear about your fish. 
What did the spots look like? What medication did you use?
More often than not, it's the medication that kills an already weak fish. Some fish are more sensitive than others to certain kinds of medication. Water changes shouldn't have stressed them further, unless the water you used wasn't dechlorinated, or was vastly different in pH from the water you added.
You should do a full water change before stocking the tank.
There's a great article on ich here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
What did the spots look like? What medication did you use?
More often than not, it's the medication that kills an already weak fish. Some fish are more sensitive than others to certain kinds of medication. Water changes shouldn't have stressed them further, unless the water you used wasn't dechlorinated, or was vastly different in pH from the water you added.
You should do a full water change before stocking the tank.
There's a great article on ich here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php