G'day,

My female Oscar (Nova) 6-7 inches, has been seemingly under the weather for the last 2 weeks. She has been mostly sitting on the bottom of the tank looking like she is breathing heavily. She has a small amount of 'hole in the head' and it's starting to get worse.

Tank readings
pH - 6.6
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrate NO2 - 0ppm
Nitrate NO3 - 40mg/L

I have a 220L tank and a large cannister filter. The tank gets cleaned regularly and at the moment I am doing a water change every 3-4 days. I am also adding API 'stress coat+', Safeguard 5 water treatment, Aquarium salt and last week I added API 'Melafix, cichlid'.

She is not eating and doesn't look like she is improving.

Also in the tank is a Male Oscar (Galactus) 7-8 inches, he is healthier than ever, eating as normal, perfect.

Any suggestions would be fantastic, I don't want to lose her. If I add medication is it going to affect the healthy oscar?

Thank-you

welcome to oscarfishlover

Firstly, your water results are quite good. To help cure hole in the head, you really want your nitrate levels no higher than 20 ppm. Your tank is a little small for those Oscars but it seems the water conditions aren't too bad.

Since I've not seen your Oscar, it's difficult to speculate what could be wrong. If indeed the hole in the head is in its early stages, I don't think this is The reason for your Oscar acting the way it is.

since the other Oscar is okay, I think there is probably an underlying problem with the Oscar that is ill. When fish breathe heavily it can be a sign of stress due to illness, toxins in the water etc. I've got to be honest with you, there's not a lot I can suggest, I've seen this countless times before, I've even had Oscars myself that have done this. Is the Oscar swollen around the abdomen?

Finally, is the tank being oxygenated probably? In other words, where the water comes back into the tank from the filter, is it causing quite a bit to surface agitation?

I would consider stopping the melafix as this will not help hole in the head much,if thats why your using it. and may make breathing worst. you are adding a fair amount of treatments to your water and all this will also make breathing heavy. salt is ok because it helps the gill function.also some treatments can make your water test kit read wrongly. please check your test kit instruction and make sure your treatment is ok with your brand of test kit. if all is well then i would turn your filter input toward the surface to make waves as OFL said. you could add a air stone too, but if all other fish are ok then it would seem that it is sick. when it moves off bottom dose it swim ok or dose it seem heavy and sink back to bottom?? can it maintain its self in mid water.?? Lastly has your water reading always been those reading or have you recently improved them.

I agree with marcus on stopping the treatment with melafix - it reduces the amount of available oxygen in the water, and if your fish is having trouble breathing (evident by the gasping) the melafix will probably do more harm than good. A large water change would be a good way to get rid of it.

Thanks for the advice guys.

I did a 75% water change earlier. The gal at the pet shop said that the problem may be worms. I have put some worming medication into the tank, I will do a 25% water change in 48hrs. I have stopped the melafix. Will this worming medication hinder her breathing too?

Further info.. I have 1 air stone and a 1metre air hose, so there is plenty of airation. The filter creates a swell and I believe is sufficient.

What advice can you give to get her to start eating again? I will update on her condition tomorrow.

What makes you think it's worms? Have you seen her poo lately? If so, what did it look like? For intestinal parasites (internal "worms") the poo is a decent indicator, generally.

Honestly, the best thing to get her eating again is probably to stop medicating and just give her clean water for now. Have you ever taken new medictions and felt kind of crappy because of the meds? There's a decent chance that fish experience something similar.

If she's sitting on the bottom you might also try a sinking food that is especially tempting, like some small raw shrimp or something similar, just to get some food in her for now. Sinking pellets or veggie wafers might also work if she doesn't want to go to the surface to feed.

My bigger Oscar Tantrum does the same thing but,not as long as yours does and usually when that happens Tantrum does the heavy breathing due to encounter with the cray fish every once in a while though.Other than that just do what Marcus and OFL said and you'll be in good shape and all.Also if the POOP is kinda runny looking like well ours when we all have stomach aches then its something that its sick and when its usually healthy well they POOP BIG which I think you have seen already which you can just pick up and without clogging your gravel vac and skimmers... So just watch and do what the two said and you'll be fine I know I will if this happens to mine:)

to improve eating try earth worms(no i am not taking the piss) or live shrimp. moving foods sometimes look more inviting to fish. I think the clean water will work wonders,just give it time and keep it clean.

Nova is dead

After a 75% water change and adding the worm medication, I woke up this morning to find her dead. Thanks for the advice though, it was much appreciated. I will probably look into finding Galactus another tank mate in a couple of weeks and will be seeking advice on that. Not a very good birthday present this morning, doh.

I took a couple of photos of her body and also cut her open to see if there was any signs of disease, I also took photo's of her insides in case you guys were interested.

sorry to hear that. I had lost my oscars twice
but not the way you did. I know how it feels.

just take good care of galactus and look for
another tank mate

This is one of the reasons i don't like to add medication without being totally sure that's the problem. if you get it wrong you cant add the right med an till a wk or so cos the previous med is still present.also too many meds do tend to kill the fish as breathing becomes difficult. I wasnt conviced your fish had worms. sorry to here about the death.its best to make sure all med is clear before adding another fish.

sorry to hear of your loss. unfortunely as marcus has pointed out this is the risk we face when we try to medicated without being 100% sure of the diagnosis.