Sunken Eyes on Oscar??

[Jadeoliviia]

Have you tested your water?

Yes

If yes, what is your ammonia?

.25ppm

If yes, what is your nitrite?

0

If yes, what is your nitrate?

30ppm

If I did not test my water...

...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

What percentage of water do you change?

51-60%

How frequently do you change your water?

Every week

If I do not change my water...

...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

Does anyone know of anything that can cause sunken in eyes on an Oscar? Or possibly everything is slightly swollen around them? I’ve been gone for two days and got a call that he was laying at the bottom of the tank and has a large spot that looks like hole in head, but with black around the edges. It appeared suddenly so I don’t know if it’s HIH or a bad injury from his usual random thrashing once in a while. Possibly lateral line disease but I’m not too educated on that.
He’s been laying on his side mostly, sometimes upright, sometimes swimming upright or sideways. It’s been several times today of randomly swimming up to the top or around the tank really fast and going back down to sulk once he crashes. At one point he was swimming in place into the glass. not attacking it or anything. Other than that his eyes being sunken further into his head is concerning me a lot and I cannot find anything about this other than dropsy. but he doesn’t seem to have any of the other symptoms. Also noticed some fin rot as well. Prior to the last day or two he looked healthy, parameters were all good besides nitrate which I’m having a hard time controlling. I just did a 70ish% water change before testing, currently nitrates are high, between 20-30ppm, and now ammonia is at .25 ppm. Usually that’s at 0 so not sure what caused that to spike. Everything else is normal. I’ll do another change tomorrow to hopefully get those levels down. Currently treating with kanaplex for the fin rot, hoping the other issues are bacterial as well so it helps with that. Any advice?

included a pic of the top of him, hard to tell but his eyes are further into his head than normal. Some abrasions from his occasional freak outs and running into things

 

[Deadeye]

The pics aren’t attached. Can you try again?
The positive ammonia value is a concern, though it shouldn’t cause the issues you are seeing.
Anything in the tank to be getting aggressive?
If by lateral line disease, you mean head and lateral line erosion (hlle), that’s (essentially) just the marine equivalent to hith.

 

[Jadeoliviia]

Sorry they weren’t uploading when i originally made the post.
But update: unfortunately he had passed by time i returned from work. However I still am curious as to what this was.
(For context his left eye has been blind since they were babies from siblings attacking him. So he’s been in a solo tank for a while now. I used to have the tanks side by side but since upgrading him to a 75 he was moved and couldn’t see other fish. So since I hadn’t yet gotten him a tank mate I think that was what was causing the random freak outs)
Aside from that hopefully its visible how m

 

[Jadeoliviia]

Sorry they weren’t uploading when i originally made the post.
But update: unfortunately he had passed by time i returned from work. However I still am curious as to what this was.
(For context his left eye has been blind since they were babies from siblings attacking him. So he’s been in a solo tank for a while now. I used to have the tanks side by side but since upgrading him to a 75 he was moved and couldn’t see other fish. So since I hadn’t yet gotten him a tank mate I think that was what was causing the random freak outs)
Aside from that hopefully its visible how m

View attachment 1553723View attachment 1553724

uch his eyes are sunken. Easier to tell with the blind eye however they both were set back more than they should be. But this was out of no where as far as I understand but I wasn’t here for when this may have started being noticeable sadly unless the previous random freak outs were from an underlying issue and not just isolation.

 

[Deadeye]

Sorry to hear.
It does look like hole in the head was an issue, but a bacterial infection could have also been present. The right eye looks fine from what I can see, but is there even a left eye there?

 

[Jadeoliviia]

Sorry to hear.
It does look like hole in the head was an issue, but a bacterial infection could have also been present. The right eye looks fine from what I can see, but is there even a left eye there?

Yeah both eyes were further out of his head normally. I made a post a while ago when he first was moved to this tank where you can see how he did look before. With the blind one you could see the eye move behind the white cast, he just couldn’t see out of it. Or see very well for what I know.

 

[Jadeoliviia]

Yeah both eyes were further out of his head normally. I made a post a while ago when he first was moved to this tank where you can see how he did look before. With the blind one you could see the eye move behind the white cast, he just couldn’t see out of it. Or see very well for what I know.

Old pic when they were smaller but the only one I have of that eye

 

[DawnMichele]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[duanes]

I agree, looks like HITH was also a problem.
To me those elevated nitrates are problematic, and as such, a 50 to 60 % water chaange per week is not enough to ward off these type bacterual infections.
If it were me, I'd be doing at least two 50% water changes per week (maybe more), and if you have the capability, set up a large planted refugium.
And
I practice what I preach
My 180 gal cichlid tank is filtered by a 125 gallonplanted refugium, and I try to do 30 to40% water changes every other day.

In this way, my nitrate level remains undetectabl