I have an adult tiger oscar 14 inches,
He started getting cloudy eyes and slight fungal lookin stuff on his tail,
Amonia levels were a bit high, did a water change gradually over last few days and given the tank a good clean,
Now he is floating on his side now and then really looking ill, i,m panicking, can't get a vet to see him for another three days, is there anything i can do for him, Have medicated with pimafix, thats what the aquarium told me to do...
help please. if he gets worse i feel i should put him down, he is really in a bad way..

I guess Pimafix is better than nothing. But truth is this type of "natural" antifungal/antibacterial "agents" are almost like nothing. Melafix is another one.

Ammonia poisoning. If your fish is floating, he/she is likely going to die.

I am not a licensed veterinarian, what I share with you is what I would do, but if you go this way it's at your own risk. Keep in mind I don't have competence to prescribe anything.

You need to take it to a hospital tank. If you don't have one running 24/7 and already cycled, just set one up (20gal tank?) and do twice-daily 50-80% water changes, simulate shallow water, keep temp steady a bit below 76F (most bacteria growth slows significantly below 76F), keep as good levels of dissolved oxygen as you can, and if you attempt to feed, do so sparingly; try Spyrulina based fish food if you have some at hand.

You need good broad spectrum antibiotics, forget the fungus, focus on beating both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. If you have a pharmacy or drug store near by, ask the pharmaceutical for Eritromicyne Estolate suspension and for Tetracycline; if available, purchase for at least four days.

Calculate adequate dosage and administer 12 hours apart, just after you do a partial water change (only if you don't have a cycled hospital tank). If you do have a running Hospital tank, don't do waterchanges until your Nitrates readings reach 25ppm, or if you run into a mini-cycle (readings of Nitrites).

This is no substitute for the fish formulated products, this is just to attempt something while you can get antibiotics such as Maracyn and Maracyn-Two (if you don't find the Freshwater formula you can use the Saltwater formulation, the only difference is added vitamins).

Hope your fish makes it.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

what were the actual test results for ammonia,nitrites,nitrates. Retest the water now you have done a water change and post results for previous test and new test.This will give us some history. an less your Oscar has got very bad fungus and been suffering for a long time I think there is likely to be another problem,most likely to do with your water conditions. Did you treat new water to de-chlorinate.? other than that pepe is probably right with ammonia poisoning. you need to test water asap.

What does "given the tank a good cleaning" mean? Did all of your bacteria die?

Hellboy wrote:


what cleaning have you done? did you also clean the filtering system? this is the common error of enthusiast in cleaning their tank. they also clean all the filtering system interrupting the cycle. when we do the water change, we should not clean the filtering system simultaneously. furthermore, cleaning the filtering system should not be done drastically. there must be some media that remains un-touch to let the good bacteria propagate fast.

please check if your filter against carbon materials. it will make your medication useless. please check and post water parameter so that we can help you better.