Hi all, sorry I have been a stranger for so long
hope you understand .... work commitments and all.

anyways:
I find myself needing some more advice,
recently i noticed some strange almost like faded pigment blotches on my Oscar's head, I am concerned they may be hole in the head as I have never seen this before and I am very concerned for him, I decided to ask the experts.

I have also been having a lot of difficulty lowering the nitrate level of the tank.
I have never had a problem with balances before, however the last three tests have shown nitrates to be between 20 and 40 ppm. I have not changed my routine in any way, and perform a standard 30% water change every week. No matter what I have tried, I can not seem to lower it, I have started doing a 10% water change every three days now but the readings are still above usual. any advice will be gratefully welcomed.

on another note.... is it possible to have a negative reading of nitrites? Today's reading the test tube was almost clear rather than a pale blue also the ph low 7.6 reading was higher than the ph high 7.4 reading, am I going nuts?

I know this is a silly question, but could adding a heater to the tank cause any of this? As it is now coming into winter here, I decided to buy a heater for the tank, I installed it about 4 days ago and have the water at a steady 24 degrees, Oscar seems to be loving the heat and has become very active and is spending a lot of time close to the heater ....
ok looking forward to any answers

thx in advance
Robert

Hi
My oscar rubs himself againsts things and sometimes i notice a white blotch where he loses a scale,not sure if thats what happened with yours
As for the nitrate levels,are you doing gravel cleaning with your water changes?

hi ... thx for the response

I don't actually have gravel in the tank anymore, I removed it about 3 months ago and decided to go with just white rivers washed stones and some larger rocks. but in answer to the question, yes i do clean those regularly also, not as often as the water changes though.

Is there any chance of you posting a photo of your O? It will make things alot easier.

Answering these questions will as well.

Tank size:

Filtration:

How many fish:

Any recent spikes in ammonia or nitrite?

Water Change routine:

Have you tested the tap water?

Have you added any deco recently?

HITH is a result from water quality issues and stress.

I try to keep my tank at around 25-26C, I dont see how adding the heater would cause stress to your fish unless the temp change was a sudden one.

I would test the nitrite again, could of got a false reading.

hi
ok tank size ... it is roughly 240 litre ... no idea in gals
using a canister jebo 838 filter, which i did a half change of media a day ago.
only the one fish, he is about 10" long.

The only spikes i have had, have been over the past 3 weeks.
usual reading have never fluctuated from day one, until about three weeks ago.
suddenly nitrates went up to 40, then after 35% water change, they were at 20 the next reading. today it was back at about 30. I have just done another 35% water change as is my routine every Saturday.

I suspected I was over feeding him so I have cut his feeding back to every second day. and am stopping the treats for awhile as he has become fussy and not really eating the fish food.

yeah I suspect Over feeding would do it as well.

240L is good for one oscar works out to be around 63G

I would trial the every second day feeding, testing water everyday. A fully grown Oscar doesn't need to be fed everyday and can go weeks without food, some people feed theirs once a week, so if nitrates are still high you can still cut back the feeding a little more maybe to once every three days and see how it goes etc..

As for if its hole in the head or not thats hard to say without seeing the fish, but pristine water is the recommended treatment for it.
does it look anything like this?


Some info on Hith:
www.oscarfishlover.com/hith-disease

A tank upgrade would probably sort you out on the nitrates

Nice to meet you
-johnny

EDIT: doing a half (new)media change means you have half of the beneficial bacteria you had before and could explain the spike you got today of 30. Once it has seeded this should reduce your nitrates.

thx Johnology,
no i cant say it does look like that.
what it actually looks like is pale pigmentation, where the color has simply faded to a pink / white color and it is not a great deal just a couple of spots high on his head just to the side before the top fin,
I happened to notice it and hadnt before.

I am probably just a little over protective as I have heard of HITH but never seen it and as such did not know what it looks like, so i just guess the worst.

he doesnt seem to be any form of stress, in fact i have not seen him quite so active in a few weeks, thinking the water may have been a little chilly before.

as for the food issue, he has always been fussy eater, i feed him Cichlid pellets (small ones) he doesnt seem to like the bigger green ones at all.
but have also been supplementing it with frozen blood worms.
he goes crazy over those as a treat, along with live cockroaches occasionally.

now most of the time he refuses the pellets and only wants the treats.
It sounds far fetched but he actually communicates with me in the way that he will look up at the top (float vertically) to let me know he wants food, so i give him some but he spits it out again unless its the blood worms.

guess I am going to have to hold off on the treats until he starts eating the pellets. I just hate the way he watches me when i dont feed him hehehe

lol I know what you mean, I've seen HITH at one of our LFS and it freaks me out for a sec when i see a scratch or something on my O.

my O gets mealworms and krill every two days, (he's about 5 inchs now) and when I give him his pellets he'l sorta stop as if to say 'wheres the worms?' but he'l clean it up when i shut the lid. he's in my bedroom so i am around him all the time, if i move my toe he thinks is feeding time lol..

I love the feedme dance they do, but sometimes you gotta give em some tough love.

hahaha
know exactly what you mean

Mine is in the living room, which is where i spend any and all time I am home ....
besides when im sleeping of course.

he watches every move I make, every time I go to the freezer (which is in the living room also) he starts his little dance thinking I am getting the treats for him.

when I walk around the room, he follows me around the tank, making sure he sees me everywhere i go. He is my special baby hehehe

as for the spots, I am still not sure what to make of them, they almost look like the faded marks of a scar, I have tried desperately to take some pics, but he is a camera hog and will not turn sideways and stay still long enough for me to get any.

I have just turned on his tank light and they are more prominent under the pink light, and there seem to be a few more that I had seen prior.
I really want to know what it is, so I will persevere and try and get some decent pics.

ok trying to add pics .... don't know if this is the right link, but here goes

looks like it could be the beginning of hith. if possible could you post another picture so we can be sure.
assumng it is hith the first thing you should do is water changes. try to keep the nitrates down under 20 ppm at all times and it will clear up.

be patient and keep your water in pristine condition and make sure to give him a varied diet with a quality pellet as a staple and you should be fine. also if you have any carbon in your filter remove it as it really isnt neccessary with oscars.

hope some of this helps....

hi necro long time no speak hehehe

yeah, really concerned about this ... after more research i tend to think it is HITH and this scares me, I do not want any harm to come to my little man
ok attaching more pics ... but I reckon it is.





just now decided to check the water right from the tap .... as I have never had problems like this before .... direct from the tap measured at 20ppm. For some reason there has been increased nitrates in the tap water .... how do I now beat this? even changing water daily will not lower it if the tap water is high to start with...
Up until about 3 weeks ago ... the tests were never higher than 10ppm

red_101 wrote:


1 nitrites should read 0. unless your are cycling the tank. any sign of nitrites in long term up and running tank means there is a problem.
2 a new heater could leave marks on the fish that look pale faded skin. fish tend to sit close to the heater if the temp isn't warm for them. I prefer 26-28 compared to your 24.
3 i agree with the others It dose look like beginning HITH but as i said adding the heater could give that effect too. solution is buy a heater cover. are there any marks in other places? if they heal up quickly chance is its the heater.
4 to lower tap nitrates you can filter the tap water with a nitragone (lasts many yrs). its a very slow process but you get 0% nitrate. other solution is an expensive RO unit. are you on a meter? if so go with the 1st option or do lots of small changes.