Oscarfishlover.com

Okay, so I had two baby oscars in my tank, I've had them both for a couple months.

About a month ago I went to the tank to find the tiger oscar, the bigger of the two, laying on the bottom of the tank, gasping, his fins practically worn down, his eyes clouded and popping out of his head. I didn't know what to do so I left him for the night hoping maybe he could recover, even though I knew he wouldnt. That next morning I found him dead with both eyes laying next to him and all of the other fish in the tank avoiding him.

I called the pet store immediately after I got him out of the tank and they told me it was an internal parasite, so I treated the tank as they instructed me to. I waited a couple weeks and everything was in order in the tank and so I bought another baby oscar to take it's place. But the, now older oscar, I had had before this new one started showing the same symptoms as the last one that died, I found him this morning the same way I found my last one, with both eyes out next to him.

I'm so disappointed, I had already become so attached to him because he had such a personality and amazingly different coloring than most oscars I've seen. But I'm worried for my new oscar that's beginning to have his fins deteriorate like the last two. What the heck is going on in my tank?! I can't find out what it is online and the pet store keeps telling me it's the internal parasite, but does it really come on that quickly?

I'll also note that my oscars were the head of the tank, no other fish messed with them, they were never beat up on or anything. Also none of my other fish are getting this 'disease' or whatever it is.

Please help I desperately need to find out what's going on before I lose the new oscar as well.

no, I don't think it's an internal parasite, it's more likely to be some kind of internal bacteria infection. As for the Fins, do they start going white and then just rotting away? This is possibly bacterial fin rot. I've got to be honest with you, I really don't know what is wrong with your fish and nobody else is going to be able to help you on the Internet, we're just getting really. I would suggest that if this happens again, you find someone who can examine the fish internally and externally, takes smears and have a close look under the microscope. That is going to be the only reliable way of finding out what is wrong. I would strongly advise you to do this if it keeps happening, this way, you will know what is wrong, and more importantly, how to stop it happening again

what I would suggest is having a word with a vet. Tell him what I have said and see if he agrees, or disagrees. If he agrees, you could try treating the tank with a broad-based anti-bacteria in my dedication and see if that helps. However, he might have some ideas of his own. Think about it, if your dog had these symptoms, you'd go straight to the vet, fish shouldn't really be treated any different. If you are intending on keeping fish long term, I would suggest building up a library of fish keeping books, especially fish health books, they are absolutely invaluable.

one book I would recommend is the Handbook of fish diseases, very very good with lots of photos.

I assume your water is good. can you post the actual results for ammonia, nitrite (both should be zero) and nitrate (should be less than 40)

wats the water parrameters @??????
is every thing ok????
how big is ur tank???
how long has it been set-up????
did you let it cycle properly????

like OFL said its very unlikely that any1 on here can help but its best to know the parremters just in case

regards ashley-john1984

Okay, so now my other oscar is looking bad I think he's going to go soon too unfortunately.

I don't have any way of testing the water so I'm going to take in a water sample to have it tested to figure out what the heck is going on.

My tank is 55 gallons and it's been set up since before I was born, therefore, it's at least 18 years old. (It's my dad's tank but I've sort of taken over it) We've had oscars live to ripe old ages in that tank, even when we moved and had to transport them in a cooler for 14 hours of driving, our oscar then did amazingly well. I just know oscars are really tough fish.

Anyway, I'm still kind of skeptical that it's and type of internal parasite or what not just because none of my other fish have gotten it, or even look bad at all, their fins are super healthy looking but my oscars looks bad.

I recently just put a green spotted puffer in there a couple weeks ago and that's pretty much when this started happening. They have poison so if any fish bites them it'll keep it from happening again but all of my fish seem to leave him alone. Who knows. Maybe my oscars were getting brave, but I doubt any of my other fish wouldn't try to nip at him as well. If it's the case with the puffer being the cause, he's being given to my soon to be sister-in-law, they have another puffer too so they'll get their own tank. Then I'll wait a couple weeks and try putting another oscar in. I'm just scared of this happening again. I don't want to lose another fish that I've become attached to. They just have the most amazing personalities.

Thanks for your help everyone.

like I have already said, you really should have a vet look at your fish, and if possible, take some samples to test.

It is vital that you get the water tested. You must get some tests if you are keeping Oscars, simply relying on the fish store to test your water is not good enough. you really do need testkits at hand all the time. shops are not always open when you need water testing.

I might also add to that puffer fish that are bred in captivity are not poisonous. For them to become poisonous, they need a certain type of bacteria that they can only obtain in the wild, they get it through a certain type of food I think.