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i have a 20 cm oscar in a 3 foot tank with 2 blue ocaras. my oscar has been happy in his tank for 8 months until about 3 weeks ago i noticed he laying on the bottom and wouldnt surface for his food.he hasnt eaten in 3 weeks.he is very pale looking and seems to have a respitory problem(gasping for air it appears)....both of his eyes are foggy,very sick looking and i dont know what to do?

.....i tried fin rot and alge meds and white spot meds to no avail.i aways insure his water is of the highest quality and well filtered.....he definatly has some sort of disease,that im sure of but what exactly? im going to take the blue acaras out and do a water change...also the aquarium suggested that i add 2 small hand fulls of rock salt....she said aquarium salt but i cant afford it this week so she said rock salt is ok as a substitute?

if anyone can help me in identifying the problem i would greatly appreciate it.thanx

i also just noticed a white alge growing on his under belly and some on his side? what is it? how can i treat him???????????????????

Sounds like you might have too many fish in that 36" tank.  As a start I'd suggest an immediate 50% water change.  Be sure that the new water is within a degree or two of your current tank temp (by the way, what is the current temp?).  If you don't have aged water on hand, be sure and add dechlorinator.  Read the instructions carefully.  Pick up test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate ASAP, and let us know what the readings are.  From what you're describing I think you need to get your water conditions in hand before you start adding meds.  What sort of filtration are you using?

aquarium salt expensive?  It's like $2-$3 here.

amy5335 wrote:aquarium salt expensive?  It's like $2-$3 here.

yes thats how broke i am and anyway ,salt is salt...im using rocksalt it has no additives like table salt

DanRad wrote:Sounds like you might have too many fish in that 36" tank.  As a start I'd suggest an immediate 50% water change.  Be sure that the new water is within a degree or two of your current tank temp (by the way, what is the current temp?).  If you don't have aged water on hand, be sure and add dechlorinator.  Read the instructions carefully.  Pick up test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate ASAP, and let us know what the readings are.  From what you're describing I think you need to get your water conditions in hand before you start adding meds.  What sort of filtration are you using?

yes i did water change and i am going to do a 70% WATER CHANGE EVER DAY TO SECOND DAY  to ensure good quality water and add salt to give him a bit of a boost.....the water temp is 25 degrees celsius wich is perfect but maybe i could crank the heat up to 30 to maybe kill of any bactirea? im using a submergable filter plus 2 hang on filters(over kill) so the water is always crystal clear. my oscars symptons are trouble breathing,lying constantly on the bottom of the tank,not eating for 3 weeks and his eyes are cloudy plus i noticed some sort of white fungus growing on his stomach and he his very pale........not well at all, he will die soon im sure of it unless the constant water changes and salt work................ive only ever done pf test and never nitrate or ammonia cause several pet shops told me it was not necasery! but now i pet shops and aquariums dont really know shit! so ill have to wing it untill payday next week to get the test kits....ill let u know how it goes but if you think of anything else please let me know

..........and yes i took the 2 other fish out and gave them there own home in a very small tank but they will be alright...oscars are a bit different they need there space

here a couple of pics of my sick oscar his name is oscar dela hoya(im huge boxing fanatic lol) the pics lie a bit,they make him look more colourful than he is at the moment and the white fungus is on his other side so u cant see it sorry...........just thought id post the pics so you can all see him and danrad,you can see the filter i have,sorry bout the poor quality

...........and also to the administrater(mark stone)....mate i couldnt attach the full photos of the tank cause they were 460 kb and the max limit is 192 kb,so i had to cut the pics down quite a lot...,...so maybe you could look into that and allow the max upload to be more so we can all post pics of our full tank set ups and see everyones set up in all its fishy glory ....just a suggestion....thanx mate keep up the good work cheers

here another pic

and heres my heathy oscar and his tank mate a female jaguar....there in a 3.5 ft 50 gal aqua one AR-980 tank....

....ive had the both of them for almost 2 years and never had one problem with them

ps i wish i could post bigger picture of them

Did you get readings yet on the ammonia & nitrites?

have to wait until next wednesday when i get paid....i hope my o can hang in there until then?

Recommend doing daily 50% water changes in the meantime.  Once you get the readings we'll have a better idea where to go from there.

thanks mate....been doing daily water changes and adding salt to the tank....i also turned the temp up to 30 degrees celsius,do you think this might help? guess anythings worth a try at this point

Hopefully that will hold the line till you can get the test kit.

With all these water changes, their won't be anyting to test.. 30c is to much, that is 86F.. NOT good.. bacteria thrives in high temps. Turn it down to 26c ( 80F) and leave it their.. YOU said he has fungus on his underside. Do you vac the gravel with you clean this tank?? THE FILTER, do you clean it weekly too?? 50 to 70% water changes is to much.. ONE good tank/VAC  cleaning, AND CLEAN THE FILTER BOX,  and do some melaFix is all you need to do. I would do the MelaFix and PrimaFix if youi can get the later, and do them together.. IF you dont'clean the filter when you do the tank, then the water change is useless.. Cloudy Eye and the fugus problems is a sign of a DIRTY TANK/FILTER..