CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

hi guys,

hope some one could give me some advice - i noticed a swelled up stomach of my female oscar .... she's not eating anything and has her mouth opened more than usual.

thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Could be a couple of things. I'll start with this.
Its possible the O' swallowed something, and has a blockage.
How big is the O? What size pellets do you feed it?
For other possible problems, I need some more info, such as tank size, water test results. Types of food, you feed. Other tankmates. Did you add fish recently. Do you give your Oscar feeder fish. Its a big list of questions so I will stop at this point till you post back, then will see where to go next.

hi thanks so much for getting back...

well it's a 1-2yr osacr and is 9inch.. i have a pair which are in a 4 foot tank...
they don't eat much pellets - just only sumtimes .... their main food is beef heart .. i don't measure the water often !! i didn'think it was that necessory at the start ...
they shuffle the gravel all the time , i hope she didn't swollow a stone ??

she has bred 2ice -- and everything seemed fine until a few days back. i clean the tank 1ce a month .... that's cos it didn't look that dirty ...

hope i have given you the information requierd... if you need more details pls let me know

thanks again

Its not uncommon to have a stone ingested, you might try feeding the fish a pea, frozen is usually easier than raw.
If that fails, then a bath in epsom salts is the next best approach.
With out knowing the water conditions, ie ammonia, nitrite etc, and the fish showing no signs of a disease, I have to assume its an injested problem. However it may be something else, but its a place to start. Two O's in a four foot tank, is very overstocked, so it could be related to a water problem, can you tell me how offten you change the water in the tank, and how much when you change of the tank water , when you do a water change.
Also what type of filters do you use on the tank?

i have sepearted her and kept her in a medicine - metronidazole and also put epsam salt .... it's hard to say if it's constipation cos she's breathing very hard and now finds it hard to swim to the surface ...

i tryed feeding boiled Pee but she aint eating that .... it's so hard to think what's wrong with her ... it's been a week ever since i saw the swelling.

the otherone is so fussy - doesn't eat anything but meat. i have now only kept giveing pellets and not meat ... hopefully he will eat it when he's hungry ... but he also had been on strike for a week now.. i have also read that the food if not eaten settles at the bottom and then nytrate is sent out ..so i'm wondering what i should do .....