Hi all I originally got on here to ask about one of my oscar fish. Its an albino and it has had a white string hanging from it for a couple days. It also wasnt eating anything or swimming much, but now it appears to be dead so I guess Im too late. its laying on it side and I dont see any breathing. Im sad, we have had such bad luck with oscars lately so now we have 2 left. Any idea on what it could have been?

first off all sorry to hear about your loss!

second could you please let us know what all yr water readings are eg:ph,nitrate,amonia ect,what size tank you have,what filtration,what u feeding temp of tank,how often water changes are done & any other info that could possibly assist in anilysing what when wrong.

for now i would suggest do a major water change anything between 25% to 50% get some meds to stabilize yr tank & get back to this forum ASAP with those readings from yr water test.

Please find below what yr water test readings should be:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10-40 ppm
Ph: between 7.0 & 7.2
Temp: approx 26/27 deg celcius(79/80 Fahrenheit)

hope this helps

It sounds like your fish had some kind of internal parasite the white string hanging from the fish is probably the mucus lining of the gut which is why i suggest an internal parasite. I probably think its too late to take the readings of the tank as if the fish is already dead this may already be affecting your readings perhaps youd like to tell us a bit about your set up and we may be able to shed some light on the problem

I agree with dinger totally, white stringy faeces is a telltale sign of internal parasitic infestation. To determine exactly what sort of parasite would mean examining the faeces under close magnification. However, since it's too late for your fish, you need to ask yourself if there's anything that might have contributed to this. What have you been feeding your fish? This can often give the answer to why fish become ill. Having said that, the fish are very difficult to diagnose and sometimes you just don't know why these things happen. Really sorry to hear about it, I can totally sympathise with you, it's horrible when you lose an Oscar.

Hi everyone thanx for the great advice, Its my hubbys fish and Im not sure of the reading. We did get the water tested before and everything was fine. We are feeding them the cichlid sticks Im sorry I dont have much info for you guys to go on