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Please help - sick Oscar.

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6 weeks later the bigger oscar is in a dire state. Hasn't eaten in weeks. Looking very very sick - getting skinny, gasping, has a slime(white stuff) or something on it's body, and hardly moving. I prompted it to move with a poke and it went nuts and swam upside down and running into stuff. Now he is just sitting at the bottom of the tank . Water parameters are fine. Ive changed water(50%) and currently doing a salt bath plus melafix. I started treatment Friday. No improvement. Looks as if he is going to die any moment. He is the only fish.

Any suggestions?
 
At this point it’s hard to intervene. Could make things worse. I’d suggest a methylene blue dip daily and kanamycin. How long has the Oscar been sick? Seems a while.
 
Few weeks ago he stopped eating. About 5 days ago he started to look bad. I don't understand because my water is clean, no other fish in there, just can't figure how he got sick. Was looking forward to him getting big.
 
Kingrugha said:
Few weeks ago he stopped eating. About 5 days ago he started to look bad. I don't understand because my water is clean, no other fish in there, just can't figure how he got sick. Was looking forward to him getting big.
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I'm no expert but you should take your fish to a vet...

Tuberculosis?
Poison, chemical in water?
Was tank exposed to toxins?
Did he swallow something?
You say the water is "clean". What does that mean? Have you tested for ammonia, nitrites or nitrates? Is the tank cycled? How often do you change water?
 
Check to see if your heaters are in good shape and not giving off any voltage in the water. It’s a long shot, but just in case. Otherwise I can’t think of any reason this would happen if your tank is fully cycled with good parameters. Maybe go though all your equipment and give it a once over. Any chance something got into the water that isn’t testable? Cleaning supply spill or something? I’m grasping at straws but maybe it can help.
 
He was dead this morning.

Water was good - parameters tested a zillion times. Yes, tank was cycled.

Heater? Hmmmm.... this all started after I got a heater. My tank was without a heater for 8 months - water was upper 60's to lower 70's.

So in March I decided to purchase a heater to get the water to upper 70's. I purchased an Aqueon Pro300. It kept the water at 78(checked the temp all the time with a thermometer).

Looking back, my troubles with the Oscar's started to begin when I started using the heater. Never thought there was any correlation there. Hmm

My Oscars were doing wonderful before using the heater.

Any suggestions? I am going to try once more - going by pet store in a few days.

Thanks!
 
Kingrugha said:
He was dead this morning.

Water was good - parameters tested a zillion times. Yes, tank was cycled.

Heater? Hmmmm.... this all started after I got a heater. My tank was without a heater for 8 months - water was upper 60's to lower 70's.

So in March I decided to purchase a heater to get the water to upper 70's. I purchased an Aqueon Pro300. It kept the water at 78(checked the temp all the time with a thermometer).

Looking back, my troubles with the Oscar's started to begin when I started using the heater. Never thought there was any correlation there. Hmm

My Oscars were doing wonderful before using the heater.

Any suggestions? I am going to try once more - going by pet store in a few days.

Thanks!
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Did you slowly increase the water temp or did you instantly put the heater on 78? A drastic change in temps can cause a lot of stress for the fish, dont know if it can cause the symptoms youve had tho.
 
Well I attempted to get the temps up quickly I suppose but after a few days it was only around 74/75 degrees so I bumped it up to where the water temp stayed 78. So, to answer your question, it took maybe 4/5 days to go from 68 to 78.
 
Kingrugha said:
He was dead this morning.

Water was good - parameters tested a zillion times. Yes, tank was cycled.

Heater? Hmmmm.... this all started after I got a heater. My tank was without a heater for 8 months - water was upper 60's to lower 70's.

So in March I decided to purchase a heater to get the water to upper 70's. I purchased an Aqueon Pro300. It kept the water at 78(checked the temp all the time with a thermometer).

Looking back, my troubles with the Oscar's started to begin when I started using the heater. Never thought there was any correlation there. Hmm

My Oscars were doing wonderful before using the heater.

Any suggestions? I am going to try once more - going by pet store in a few days.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear about your fish.

Can't think of anything to add, other than voltage from the heater. I recently lost a rainbow cichlid from a faulty heater that exploded. When you said the Oscar went nuts and was swimming into stuff it makes me think of low level voltage over long term...it would definitely cause that kind of behavior, even causing seizures.

I had an older Jaeger that would give me a shock at times (underwater). It went in the trash.

Two things...don't get that same heater again (whatever it was) and make sure you have a grounded /surge protected power strip. Good luck!
 
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