possible oscar problem

[fishdude07]

hey guys...i think i have a problem. lately my oscar hasnt been nearly as active as he normally is...no jumping at night, no splashing...and at times hes been laying in the corner of the tank by the filter intake...he even dug himself a little hole in the gravel (or maybe the hole was just created by him trying to get his reflection in the glass). one side of his bottom lip is protruding outward more than the other side. he has a bunch of tiny bumps on his caudal fin and the end of his dorsal fin. the coloring on his caudal fin is fading. hes not eating as much or as quickly as he normally does. im not sure whats wrong with him and im starting to worry. ill hopefully be able to test my water parameters tomorrow, and ill get them for you guys then. maybe ill take a pic too. do you guys have any ideas of what could be wrong with my oscar? could it be that he needs a bigger tank? hes about 9.5" long right now. thanks guys.

oh, and i treated the tank with parasite medicine (the medicine also treats other things) because i thought my oscar might have internal parasites due to his whitish/clearish-colored poop and him not eating as much as he used to. i havent noticed any changes since i put the medicine in the tank.

 

[Avalon]

Wow, that's kind of crazy. I don't know what to tell you about the bumps. It's obvious he's suffering, but from what is the question, eh?

Do take the pics if you can, and certainly test the waters. How about water changes? You might increase them and see if that can help in any way. Sounds like IP's might be getting to him. They will definitely reduce a happy, social fish into a weak & pathetic one. I've rarely found a treatment other that the one stated in this article that is actually effective:
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13065

I think you will have to act very quickly to save this guy. Is he eating at all?

 

[fishdude07]

i do water changes every few weeks...usually every 2 or 3 weeks. he does eat...just not as much as he used to...and he takes his time eating now. normally he would scarf his food down as fast as he could. hopefully ill be able to check the water later tonight...although i need a new nitrate test kit. so all ill be able to test today is the ammonia and nitrites.

edit: i had nothing to do, so i just tested my water for nitrites and ammonia. both came out as 0 ppm...hmm...

 

[fishdude07]

anybody else have any ideas?

 

[john.stone]

In my personal experience, oscars need about a 75 gallon tank... The common plecos will need something even larger than that...

Oscars and common plecos produce massive amounts of waste, so doing water changes once every 2-3 weeks could easily be leading to nitrate buildup which can cause sluggish behavior and fin damage. I recommend you get a larger tank very soon, something 2 feet wide would be best. Also bumping up water changes to 20% once or twice a week will get rid of your nitrates in no time (If in fact that's what's causing the problem).

Just out of curiosity... What are you feeding your oscar?

 

[fishdude07]

i feed my oscar cichlid pellets twice a day. he also sometimes grabs the plecos' shrimp pellets at night. sometimes i feed my oscar cubes of beefheart when i have it. ill try to make a habit of doing WCs more often. thanks for the advice. i kinda wanna get rid of the common plecos, but not entirely sure what to do with them yet. theyre not very big, so i think ill wait to get rid of them until i move to chicago this summer. hopefully when i move, ill be able to buy a new tank (75 gallons is my plan right now) and i was planning on making the future tank a discus tank but maybe it would be better for the oscar to have it and i could make my current 55 gallon a discus tank. ill hopefully be able to test my nitrates soon...i just have to buy a new nitrate test kit. again, thanks for the advice.

 

[Firebug]

I hope your oscar gets better soon...keep us updated, please!

 

[Revolt]

If you could get some pics up that would be a great help. I don't fill its the tank as I've kept an Oscar in 55g along time ago (which is now in a 85) but theres one big difference I had no other fish in with the O, and I did water change every few days to kept nitrates around 10/15ppm. Plus your O isn't but 9".


Bottom lip protruding out sounds alittle weird because he doesnt have any fish to lip lock with. If he's pooping clear-whitesh poo its usally internal parasites or internal bacteria.

----Edit-----

I'd do a water change because more than likely your nitrate levels are high, clean the gravel very well, clean out the HOB filter boxes (not the media) set the media in a bucket of old tank water until your finished cleaning the filter boxes - the filter boxes can hold alot of crap, and decaying foods that add greatly to nitrate levels. You could really clean of the media is old tank water, just don't clean it to much.
You dont have to do it all in one day though.