My Oscar fish is about 2 years old. He is the only one in his tank. He gets feed regular and regular tank changes. About two weeks ago my husband and I noticed that there was alot of white "cotton" looking stuff on him, so we went to the pet store and got medcine for it. We treated him and things seemed to get better. However about 2 days ago we noticed that he was not acting himself. When we looked at him he seemed to have a blister looking thing on his face and side. We immedatly did a full tank change, scrubbing down the tank in the process. (that's hard work, its a BIG tank) anyway so when we put him back in the tank the blister looking things seemed as if the had broke while he was in the holding tank, he was only in there for about 2 hours. There seemed to be extra "skin" hanging off where they where. As soon as we put him back into his tank he seemed to liven up abit, and the yesterday he seemed ok. However last night I noticed that he was not very active, I feed him and he ate very little. This morning he was just laying on the bottom of his tank. Even when I tapped on the tank he did not move when he usually does. I put the net in the tank and was able to get him in it with out a problem and that REALLY not him, after a moment it seemed as if he relized that he was in the net and took off like normal. I just took another look at him and he has a white spot on his side, and near his mouth is a big whit spot that looks like it has a blood spot in the middle, and it almost looks as if he has white stuff in his mouth. HELP:ohmy: I have no clue what to do, or what caused this. I do know however my kids and I would be devastaed if somehting happend to him. Please help,

Thanks,

snowife79:unsure:

A photograph would be very helpful. It's not easy to help just from a description. At least we can compare a photo to photos in health books.

Have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? Also, you say you scrubbed the tank down. Did you turn filters off for very long or clean the media inside?

Is your oscar breathing heavily at all i.e. opening and closing its mouth?

If you can get back to us as soon as possible answering these questions, we may be able to help you.

My digtal camera is broken at the moment, I am going to call my mother and see if I can get hers tonight. As soon as I do I will post a pic for you, also when we clean the tank we completely took it apart and cleaned EVERYTHING pump and everything in the tank. Also little side ?, Oscars are usually good with another Oscar, well we have had 3 different Oscars with my Oscar and he had killed all three, we would love to have another with him, and have not tried any others in a year or so, why do you think that he would kill them. Oh at the time that we had the others it was a total of 4 oscars in a 55 gallon tank, he was the smallest of them all do you think that there we just to many? And if so why kill them ALL.

Unless you have got a tank that is well over 200 gallons, I wouldn't advise anyone to keep more than two Oscars together, unless you are trying to pair some off, then you would find new homes for the rest anyway.

Okay, you didn't exactly answer my question. You said you have completely cleaned the tank out including pumps etc. This is very important, how long did you turn the filter off for and did you wash the media out in tap water? When you keep fish in an aquarium, it is not just a case of filling it up with water and putting fish in there. That is only half of it. You've got to create a mini environment that is safe for them to live in. This means having a healthy biological filter that will take care of all the toxins. Basically, that means having bacteria living in your filters. If you don't look after your biological filter properly, you can upset the whole workings of your aquarium. This could have a serious detrimental affect on your fishes health. If you lose your biological filter, you lose the means to deal with all the toxins that the fish produce. This could result in a serious health risk to all of your fish.

So I want you to forget about adding other fish at the moment, we need to concentrate on getting your tank setup properly and making sure the water is in good condition. You could also send some photos to be one possible, I can't promise that I can give you a reliable diagnosis. It would be rather like going to the doctors with a skin complaint and asking a doctor to diagnose what is wrong without him actually touching or taking samples. It does rather sound like some kind of fungal infection but since fish can suffer from all kinds of ailments, it could be anything. We can only but try

Ofl is right its possible that by cleaning everything you have destroyed the biological filtration in your tank and inadvertently made the water conditions worse. All fish depend on a process called the nitrogen cycle to filter the water of ammonia and nitrite and render the water safe for them to live in. For the process to work you need beneficial bacteria to build up in the tank to carry out this process. By scrubbing everything clean you have probably wiped out all of the beneficial bacteria that you built up within the tan thus emding the nitrogen cycle. As for the fish fighting and killing 3 other Oscars this surprises me unless the other 3 were albinos. Albinos when small are always picked on by reds or tigers because they are unusual. They would not survive in the wild as they have no colour to help them survive in their surroundings. I have read about oscars killing each other but have never witnessed it other than in the small albinos.

To find out if you have killed all the bacteria in your filter get a testing kit. You need to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 and nitrate no more than 40. If ammonia and nitrite are not zero increase your water changes until they are 0. Cotton on the skin and the blister sound like it might be a bacteria infection but cant really say until a picture is shown

Ok so the "carbon" filter has been out for a week and when I was cleaning it the pump was out for no more then an hour. I am not sure if thats what you are asking. As far as testing I always do when I change the water. Everything was great! I even took some to a pet store and they came up with the same things. As far as adding more fish, I was just asking. I would not add any till I knew Oscar was better. Attached is a photo. I have few but am not sure how to add more then one here. They are not the best but I am sure that you can get the idea.

Here is another pic

And one more..if there is a better way to post these pics for you to see let me know

We are trying to ascertain exactly how you cleaned your filter and all media. Sorry if that sounds like we are giving you a third-degree. So you turn the filter off for no more than an hour, some bacteria would die off, but as long as you kept the media wet, and did not wash out in tap water, you should be okay. When you tested the water, with this after you clean the tank down? If so, how long after.

Anyway, we have to ask all these questions so we can get an exact idea of what you are doing. Sometimes it can be something very insignificant that you do that turns everything to crap.

Photo bucket is a very good way of posting photos on here.

I can't see the markings that well. Can you send them to my personal e-mail just for the time being

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The thing we are trying to get to is to try to find out if you have killed all the good bacteria in the filter when you cleaned the tank. If this is the case you will have to cycle your tank as well as solve your oscars problem

Its hard to see in that picture. Can you put a larger picture on photo bucket and put a link to it in a post