Has HITH. I have been doing 50% W/C every 3 days, He was eating fine up to 4 days ago, now he just sits at the bottom and breaths heavy. Sometimes he swims around but goes right back to the same spot and gasps. Now hes stopped eating.

He's in a 150 gal tank all alone.
U/G filter with 3 power heads.
I dont know what the brand name of the filter is but I've had it for a while and never had a problem. IT uses the bio-bags and I don't use the carbon.
I installed a air stone a week ago in hopes of clearing up his gasping.

to this day the ammonia is 0
Ph is normal level for the O

The HITH head does seem to be clearing up. but he's still lathargic.
Oh. and sometimes his tail twitches.

O is 5 years old and 13"

sorry i overlook your post..... 5 years old and 13 inches long is already an
accomplishment. i believe what you are doing is good... but for the sake of
knowing what is your problem... can you post the data for:
nitrite=?
nitrate=?
pH=?
temp=
further... any pictuire will be appreciated.
HITH is always associated with water quality problem thus we need to know why?

Just checked. Ammonia is 0. pH is 7.6. Cant seem to find nitrate/nitrite tester. But it must be fine because I've done so many water changes.
O is in a 150 gal tank which is usually set at 78o.

Cant take picture right now. G/F has camera. But other than some minor HITH craters around his face...4 or 5. They seem to be healing probably from all the water changes.

Other than that hes looks good. Top dorsal fin is always up and he seems to gasp for air.
When I approach the tank. he comes up wiggling like he always does at feeding time, but then quickly turns around and goes back the the same spot. Wont take any food. His favorite food is small crawfish. but shows no interest in them.

Im worried.. Damn. great time to lose the nitrate tester. Town is 50 miles away and am planing to get another one tomorrow.

checking your water with a test kit is the only way to be certain of the quality. changing large amounts of water could lead to your filter loosing cycle. also large water changes could upset the fish as too would PH drops/highs. if your tank is 150g and only contains 1 oscar you should not need to change anywhere near as much water as 50% every 3 days. this could be the reason why your oscars off its food. testing for nitrate will give you the answer as to when and how much water to change. i will assume you have been doing a lot of water changes because the water was in poor condition(as thats the only real reason to change so much) a few 50% water changes should have made a big difference to its quality by now. a nitrate test will show this, but also the other tests are still very important. once you have test we could give more advice. also please test your tap water for nitrate and post the result.

I'm with Marcus.
Your waterquality should have improved allready with those large waterchanges, but too much will hurt your beneficial bacteria.
I'm curious about the testresults.
How did the initial case of HITH set in?
i don't remember the problems you had.

It all started about a month ago. I noticed small soars on his head. Didn't do anything about it because I just thought it was from banging around the tank. (He does that from time to time) Then it got worse. Check the water and Nitrates were way high. started the water changing. Got the numbers to a normal level and it just didn't seem to get any better. So from then on I have been doing about a 35 to 50 percent water change once a week. He just seem to be going down hill ever since.

I dont think i've hurt any of the benificial bacteria. but with no tester. I dont really know.

Oh by the way. Congrads on your 5000 posts! For whatever thats worth.

WOW! Great news. O just ate a small crawfish! I'm so happy right now. Things might be looking up

marcus wrote:


Excellent point.

Some more info on HITH I found interesting.

Does your fish has white poo?
The twitching and (swimming and going back to the same place indicates that it is suffering when swimming)....maybe entiritis!!!

(If it is enteritis,its not a big prob coz sometime big fish overcome enteritis easily though you still need to treat it)

Continue to give your oscar live food,this will boost its appetit and will keep it strong so that it can fight the entiritis...

( Add some vitamins in the water coz sometimes when the entiritis is gone ,the fish is too weak to feed itself).

I am not an expert in enteritis ,these are only suggestion... i learned them when my baby oscar was suffering from entiritis

Ok folks. I have numbers.

Ph....7.5
nitrates...40ppm
nitrites...0
amommonia...0

Guy at the pet store told me O don't live much past 5. I don't agree with him.
O has eaten some pellets. 1 small crawfish in the past 2 days.

When I approach the tank. He comes up from the corner with some struggle.
Checks around the surface for food and then goes back down where he was. Seems to plop down when he gets close to the bottom.

Still gasps.

Your water is in good condition, although I wouldn't like your nitrate to get any higher. You say that your fish still gasps, make sure that there is plenty of oxygen being created and the water. Position the inlet from your filter so that it is creating plenty of surface agitation

I have plenty of agitation (sp) plus I put in a air stone last week to ensure the oxigen level is sufficiant for him.

I guess I just have to wait to see what happens in days time..

Also. I put in a minnow hopefully to arouse his instincts. Not seem to be doing any good. Minnow swims in front of him and he does nothing.