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My son has had an oscar for 4 years. In a period of 2 days, it went from perfectly normal behavior and appearance to a fish that looks like it is going to die within minutes. Yesterday, it seemed as if it's back was somewhat bent, today it is at the bottom of the tank bent in a U-shape, (head and tail touching the bottom) tho gills are still moving. What happened? Is there any chance to save it? Thank you so much for any advice anyone can give.

WOW.... I have never heard about this before... I'm not even sure what to suggest. My first instict is that the tank is way to small... many large fish forced to grow in small quarters can develop a curvature of the spine that can cause major problems later in the fishes life.. but never have I heard of it happening so fast or to the degree you are speaking of. I would test all the water parameters, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp, and ph. And see if any of those could be your culprits. Your readings should be
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - less then 40 ppm
Temp - 74-80* F
PH - 6.8-7.8

I couldnt find anything in my disease reference material that even sounded remotely like what you are talking about, Sorry.

To be on the safe side I would recommend doing 30% water change, add 1 tbs of Aquarium/Kosher salt per 5 gallons of water, and raise the temp to 82* F. This may or may not have any effect on the condition at hand, but is helpful with quite a few...

I wish you the best of luck and please let us know how it turns out

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Adam

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Adam@cichlidfish.com
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Hi,

Try some anti-parasitic medication asap. If cartilage is damaged too much you'll probably have to mercy-kill the fish.

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

My first rescue job of a sick oscar ended up like that. Bent, but not as bad as that, I treated it with antibiotics and popped his swim bladder with a hyperdermic needle and it picked up for a while but after a few months it went down again so I made the unenvious decision to put him down

Unfortuantly it doesant sound like yours may recover but give it your best shot.

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TONY
Australian and proud of it!!
Duboisi.com Home of the Oscar Cichlid Fan Club



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Ajay, just noticed this all happened in "only two" days, so don't give up just yet, treat with anti-parasitic and try diff kinds of antibiotics, tetracycline etc....

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com