have 6yr. old oscar she is sick..need help saving her

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have 6yr. old oscar she is sick..need help saving her

Postby couponkelley on Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:01 am

I HAVE A 6YEAR OLD TIGER OSCAR. SHE IS SICK STARTED A FEW WEEKS AGO WITH FILMY EYES & LATHARGIC.  TREATED WITH AQUARIUM SALT AND MELAFIX FOR 1 WK.  SHE GOT BETTER.  EXCEPT SHE STILL WAS NOT EATING MUCH.  NOW IN THE PAST FEW DAYS SHE IS GOING DOWNHILL FAST :crybaby2:THIS IS SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS I CAN THINK OF:FILMY EYES, VERY POOR APPITITE, POOR COLOR,FILM ON BODY(KINDA WHITISH) SHE SEEMS SWOOLLEN IN THE BELLY-ITS GREENISH-WHITISH, SHE SEEMS CONSTIPATED.  WE HAVE RAISED HE WATER TEMP.  GIVEN HER BIOSPHERE ANTIBACTERIAL, AQUARIUM SALT, AND EPSOM SALT NOT SURE IF I USED ENOUGH SHOULD I DO SOMETHING ELSE? PLEASE HELP SHE IS A MEMBER OF MY FAMILY.. OF ALL THE CHICLIDS WE OWN SHE HAS THE MOST PERSONALITY AND IS A SPECIAL GIRL.  SHE HAS ALWAYS LIVED ALONE IN HER TANK EXCEPT FOR GOLDFISH,WORMS,MINNOWS AND OTHER FEEDERS SHE GETS OCCASSIONALLY.
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Re: have 6yr. old oscar she is sick..need help saving her

Postby KimH on Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:50 am

Hello,

Do you breed your own feeders, or do you buy them from your lfs?  Sounds like an internal parasite transferred from a feeder to me.  I am sure some of those on the forum who have experienced this could be of more use in terms of treatment.
This is one of the main reasons I refuse to feed my O's on anything other than Hikari Cichlid food and Hikari bloodworm. 
Best of luck, those fish become part of the family very quickly  :love4:
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Re: have 6yr. old oscar she is sick..need help saving her

Postby DanRad on Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:40 pm

Could be a lot of things.  If you can answer a few questions we can help you more easily:

What size tank is your Oscar in?  What kind of filtration are you using?  What is the temp? 

Please buy a water test kit if you don't already own one.  Tell us what readings you get for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH.

Meanwhile, change about 40% of the water immediately.  Do that every couple of days for about a week.  I don't know what your current water change schedule is, so I won't suggest a larger amount than that to start with.

As soon as you can get us those water readings, we'll have other suggestions.  Good luck with your Oscar!
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Re: have 6yr. old oscar she is sick..need help saving her

Postby couponkelley on Thu Dec 14, 2006 1:41 am

I have changed her water and that helped some,  one of my friends at michianaaquariumsociety said you can buy medicaited food.  but that was just flakes and she will not eat flakes!!!  the salt seems to be helping too!  i plan on testing the water tomorrow to see if the waterchange helped.  Her color is somewhat better, she still has a twitch in her tail and a little white cast to her body. her abdomen is not as swollen.  i repeated to epsom salt and aquariumsalt.  let me know if you have more ideas.
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Re: have 6yr. old oscar she is sick..need help saving her

Postby Mark Stone on Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:37 pm

If you've had your Oscar for six years, there's two things that are true: 1. You are very attached to your pet, and 2. There's no problem at all with your aquarium maintenance, water quality, etc. (or she wouldn't have made it to six years)

A couple of possibilities:

Something may have happened around/in your aquarium that you may not be aware of; for example, you may have had a get-together, someone set a lemonade on the tank, spilled it, hid it from you -- If you maintain more than one aquarium, move her to a different one to check that possibility out. If you don't have an extra tank set up, start daily water changes.

Second possibility is that you've had her for six years -- although Oscars often live to ten (Felixia lived to be 11 years old), sometimes old age creeps up. She may have had a couple of years before you got her? 

Just a couple of thoughts . . .

--Mark
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