hello all.

firstly id just like to build the picture a little...

we first got our first two oscars just short of a year ago, but they reached about 6 months old and one of them died our tank isrio 400 (110 gallon)
we decided to add two severums a plek and two jack dempseys and another 2 baby oscars. at first we thought this would be risky but we left them all to it and they get on fine.

The two younger oscars are now approx 8 months old and seem to be getting on ok with every thing else in the tank. we're just a little concerned that one of the younger two dosen't seem to be growing at all, he's aapprox 3 inches and has been for months. he eats very well, and is always dancing at the front of the tank for more food.

we're just a bit concerned by this because he has some sort of growth hanging from his back passage. initially i went along the lines of he's intestines growing on the outside but i dont think that this is the case because i believe that they would be bigger than what the growth is.

so now im sort of thrown to think that is perhaps some veins or something more along the lines of that.?????

if anyone could help with this in any way possible it would much appreciated

firstly welcome to the site.

now if im reading this correctly you have 3 oscars, 2 sevs, 2 jacks, and a pleco in a 110 gallon tank. well to be blunt your tank is to small for all these fish. what kind of filtration do you have on your setup? and can you post what your current water readings are(ammonia nitrites and nitrates)?
as for the growth on the oscars "back passage" can you post a pic so we can see exatly what you are refering to?

all this will help on figuring out what your issue might be

Thanks for a quick response. Our LFS originally advised us on the size of the tank needed and we have since read conflicting advice on this so still left a bit unsure by different opinions?? we have a jumbo juwel internal filter and a fluval 405 external filter. our current levels are all 0 and have luckily only ever risen when we originally introduced our first fish, and we lowered it right back down by doing large water changes every other day for a week. we monitor the levels weekly, do frequent 20% water changes, and clean our filters weekly. we have never had any disease problems or any other problems. We have taken a photo but the growth does not show up well. basically this oscar has 3 red "whiskers" (this is the best word i can think of to describe) that protrude from his/her anus. The fish eats very well but is half the size of its brother/sister of the same age.
Does this help any???

welcome to the site

I appreciate that taking photographs of these things is not easy.

Cris has already pointed out that your tank is a little small for the fish you've got. I think you're talking in US gallons I do know the tank you are talking about and do it is just less than 100 UK gallons. it's good that you've got the external 405, at least you got pretty good filtration. Okay, here we go again with the water readings Because ill health is more than often related to poor war to conditions, we need to know exactly what your water readings are. Not just approximately, the exact readings. The reason I say this is because a lot of people think that if they've got a little bit of ammonia, or nitrite, that's okay. I'm afraid it's not okay, unless we're talking about tank that the cycling, you can't avoid having it present then. Ammonia and nitrite are deadly toxins that are very dangerous for your fish. Your filtration system is what removes these toxins, as well as debris. Could you tell us how you clean your filters? I get very nervous when people talk about cleaning their filters once a week. I don't like messing around with my own filters at the best of times. I do have to turn them off for a period of time when carrying out tank maintenance, but it's not something I'm happy with.

The very worst thing you could do when cleaning your filtration is to do it on the tap water. People often wonder why they have problems after doing this. Basically, you're killing all your bacteria off, they don't like chlorine.

you describe them as like three red whiskers? do they look the same every day, or does it look like they are actually coming out of the fish? I couldn't really say why the fish is not growing, once we know what the water conditions are, we could probably get more of an idea what is going on.

So if you could get back to us with some detailed answers, that will really help us help you.

Hi, thanks for the response.
Water readings: Ammonia = 0
PH = 6.5
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 20
Whilst doing a weekly water change we save some of the removed aquarium water in a bucket and remove the top sponges from the internal filter and squeeze the sponges once or twice to knock off a little of the sludge as the internal filter gets easily blocked.
As for the oscars bottom whiskers they are there permanently and look the same everyday i did have a very close inspection and they are definately coming out of the fish's bottom, they have been there for two - three months and no one seems to have any idea what they could be????
I hope that helps.

i am thinking tape worm but have never seen this so am not sure. have you tried to remove the whiskers.(wash hands well after) it could just be food waist. your water reading are fine but are sure to become a problem later.