I have a 10inch male oscar who I have had since he was about an inch long.
"Sarge" has had ongoing problems with bloat over the years and we have got that sorted with the types of food we give him.
Recently we discovered tiny worms in his tank, so on the advise of a friend (who doesn't have oscars but does have other fish) had read online and told us that "AVITROL" a bird wormer worked well for fish. I had a bottle of that here, so we medicated his tank, with him in it, and as per instruction did a water change and it seemed to work on the worms. Weeks after Sarge started to lay on the bottom of his tank, seemingly unable to swim around easily. I thought it was another one of his bloating episodes and treated him accordingly. He has gotten worse and now his scales appear to be falling off, and his bouyancy is shot. He will still eat if he can catch the sinking pellets as they fall past his face.
I am guessing that this Avitrol has poisoned him, but am unsure as to how to fix this situation. He didn't react to the chemical immediately, but is showing bad signs of something wrong now.
Does anyone know of a medication or treatment I can give him? I have done water changes and have put a general all purpose medication in his water but hasn't done anything for him.

welcome to the site in your very uncomfortable situation.
i have move your post to the emergency since your case need
immediate help. as of today, this is the first time i've that
a fish was treated with bird's medicine. to be honest, warm
blooded animals have different body structure than that cold
blooded fish. i am not sure that a medicine for birds will work
with fishes.

nevertheless, we need the following information to narrow down your
problem:
tank size: how many fishes in: type and capacity of filtration?
water reading as to ammonia: nitrate? nitrite: temp?

while waiting for the data. i sugest you do 50% water change every
other day. pristine water if the first defense in any fish illnesses
add pure salt to enhance oxygenation and to soften your water.
wait for other inputs. good luck.

When you say worms... are you talking about planaria?

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/planaria_white_worms/

They are harmless (though alarming the first time you come across them) but as Paul said water changes are probably your first and best defense.

And don't use table salt. =)
Aquarium salt - "it's got electrolytes, it's what fish crave" LOL
(Idiocracy knock-off for those that haven't see the movie)

-Rich

thankyou so much Rich & Paul for your answers, yes that is what they look like, little red wiggly worms that are hair like- the excess food explaination sounds like it would fit well, as old Sarge is pretty grubby. :o)
I too thought it was strange about the bird wormer, but I was assured that thats what they use... stupid me should have looked into it before I treated the tank.
I have a big bag of aquarium salt so I will do a waterchange and treat him with some salt and see if that helps him some.
The tank is a 4 foot tank- and I have a power head filter.
Temp is around 28-30 degrees (cen not far), summer here in Australia, so its naturally pretty warm.
I am going to sounds like a real nuff nuff but I havn't testing his ammonia, nitrate etc.. I am assuming there are test kits I can buy? I guess he is just very hardy to have survived with me for this long. I have had him for about 7 years now. He is the only fish in the tank.

btw, salt should be at 1 tablespoon per 25 gal water.
kindly place your powerhead not lower than 6 inches below
the tank rim to ripple the water. there should be enough
aeration to have good oxygen in the tank.

Crazy Horse wrote:


i would recommend that you get a testing kit that reads ammonia nitrites and nitrates preferably with a liquid reagent not the dip strips. api makes a reliable easy to use master test kit that can be found in most lfs and are relativly inexpensive.

good luck with your treatment

necromancer4 wrote:



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