hey guys,

alright so a couple months ago i bought a tiger oscar from a LPS and brought it home. It has been doing and eating fine for the last 1 and a half or so, until a couple weeks ago i noticed it getting white patches all over his body, i wasn't sure it was ich or HOTH so i added some salt to the water and raised the temperature to around 86 degrees. I have also noticed that on his lower lip he has a white bump (which he has had since i bought him)... and I've also noticed that when he opens his mouth.. there is a white substance that looks to be ich. I have provided some pictures that may help you try to understand what I'm taking about. Anything information or advice would be greatly appreciated thank you!

Tank setup
- 45 gallon
- Marineland H.O.T magnum canister filter and corner box filter
- pH about 7.2, 100ppm Alkalinity and i havent been able to test ammonia or nitrate levels, but i do small WC's (15%) every two or three days a week.

- **the second image down shows the white bump

welcome to the community

Unfortunately your fish has got hole in the head disease. I suspect that your water quality is not so good, we will need to see a sample of water, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and pH. The lump on the lower lip is quite normal, many Oscars develop this, just take a look at the picture at the top of the forum.

Not sure about the problem when he opens his mouth, ick looks like grains of salt on the fishes skin.

When you can get a sample of water tested, or get yourself a test kit, please give us the results of an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test. In the meantime, I would advise a small water change every day, let's say around 15%

thats quite a bad case of hith dude 45 gallon tank needs REALY GOOD FILTRATION

alright .. i got my levels

nitrite = 0ppm
nitrate = 10ppm
ammonia = .15ppm

Your ammonia is extremely high and is probably why your Fish is not eating. You need to carry out a large water change to bring the ammonia down. I would go for something like 70% if I was you. Also, make sure you use a water conditioner to remove any chlorine. You may find that your fish suddenly becomes a little more responsive & may well want to eat.

A couple of questions. Did you prepare the tank before getting the OSCAR, i.e. cycle it? Also, have you been cleaning your filter at all? Finally, what is the temperature of the water?

yes i prepared my tank, i had it cycled with about 6 or 7 small tetras in there for 2 weeks. I have been cleaning my filter every 2 weeks, and my water temperature is at 85 degrees.

and he has been eating fine, he has never not eaten.

roundhousekick55 wrote:
on duration, have you tested your water? 2 weeks is too short
to cycle the tank completely unless you used establish tank seeding method


can you expound how do clean your filter????


can you lower it around 80.... you may end up with cooked oscar.
high temp tend to give less oxygen in water or deplete oxygen in tank.
you need additonal aeration or air bubbler


that will be a good sign of survival

and yes i have tested my water ... but ive only been able to test the pH, and alkalinity because i havent been able to get my hands on a complete testing kit until recently.


when i clean my filter i take my filter media and rinse it thoroughly using warm water.. and then i let it soak in warm water just to make sure eveything is out, i always clean the inside of the canister filter itself, using warm water as well, and of course when needed i change my media.

Ok, Test your water ASAP, But I can tell you now that you are cycling the tank again... When you clean your filter media, YOU MUST USE DIRTY TANK WATER. Fill a bucket with water you are taking out of the tank and clean the media in that!

When you clean the media the way you have been you are killing all of your beneficial bacteria. And that BB is what keeps the tank Cycled..

You will need that water test kit, and you are looking at 40 days of DAILY 30% water change. During this time, DO NOT clean your filter, and feed lightly!

This process will also help with the HITH!

I hope this helps Hun!

Keep us posted!!!

hi, there.
Every time your clean your filtermedia like that all beneficial bacteria is completely gone and you'll have to cycle the whole filter again, which will take you 40-50 days.
Resulting in high ammonia, as we have seen.
When cleaning your filtermadia squeeze the media inside old tankwater in a bucket.
The media may still look dirty, but will at least contain enough bb to keep the waterparameters in check.
You'll have to keep up wc of 25% at least daily, until your ammonia reads 0 and you start to get a reading on your Nitrates.
Do not clean your filter in the meantime.
Good luck!

thank you so much noddy and nickisue, i actually just got the test kit yesterday... i made my mom take me to the LFS. but hopefully this method works, and thanx for the info on cleaning my filter.