CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

hey all,

I have an albino tiger oscar, who was just fine, then all of a sudden stopped eating and not swimming around much. We noticed that it was having a creamy colored, almost transulecent thing coming out of him/her. At first we thought it was waste, even though it's waste was normally a brown color. Then we thought maybe it was a girl laying an egg. Once in awhile it would break off but more would come out.

Was it the oscar's intestines? Does anyone have any other suggestions? We also have 3 small cats and a placo in the tank and they are fine.

My guess would be one of two things... either it is a simple case of constipation, which is fairly common among fish feed primarily on a diet of pellets since they can compact in the intestines. Or it is a case of intestinal flagelates or nematodes. Just to be on the safe side I would treat for internal parasites, if you can get the fish to eat then giving the medication internally via the food is the prefered way to treat internal problems. Go to your LFS and see what medications they have available, there should be several that will treat internal disorders.

However adding 1 tbs untreated salt per 5 gallons and raising the water temp to 82* F, might do the trick as well.

Our Oscar died.... found him/her at the bottom of the tank. Had it about 4 days. So far none of the other fish are showing symptoms. What was coming out of him/her didn't look like worms of any sort.

If anyone else has any ideas as to what it could have been, I would be happy to hear it.

Also, should I put the salt & increase temp in general or just when they are ill?

If you only had the oscar 4 days then there was probably something wrong with it before you got it. Id be taking a visit to the LFS where you got it from and asking for a new oscar or refund.
Yeah definatly treat the tank with salt/temp as a precaution.DO a 40% water change first.

May have had some sort of internal parisite or stomach bacterial disease. Treating the tank with a parisite med would be wise too as a precaution.

------------------
TONY
Australian and proud of it!!
My Cichlidfish.com Home page

Sorry guys, I didn't type the last post very well. We had the oscar over a month, but he was sick only 4 days... .Sorry about that!

Just because you didnt see any worms coming out doesnt mean there werent any inside it, many of these little buggies are very small and you need a microscope to see them. The clearish discharge leads me to believe that the mucous lining of the intestine was sloughing off in an attempt to get rid of the parasite... this discharge is likely highly contagious and I would start treating the tank pretty aggressively, as well as adding the salt and raising the temp. Hopefully no other fish will become ill, but they probably will if you dont treat the tank.

Did you do anything differant with the tank? miss a water change? add a new fish? If possible if you can figure out what caused the disease it makes it easier to prevent in the future.

------------------
Adam

Come see my website!
Adam@cichlidfish.com
Got ?'s about HITH? Read this to learn more!