Bloated Oscar fish - What can I do?

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eligri

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I have a Oscar fish who has gotten pretty bloated as of the last month. He behaves normally, eats normally, etc. Today he was very sluggish, but ate normally yesterday. Fasting did not result in bloating going away, tried this for 4 days without food, then a week at 30% feedings, and then 70% feedings. Bloat has gotten far worse since last week, which is the time when I returned to 70% feedings. However he had that size of a meal for years without problems, and I really doubt it's considered a large feeding by any means.
I have seen some poops which I believe belongs to him.

He has a good diet, with quality food (Hikari and Ocean Nutrition mainly). Frozen foods once per week as of late, as suggested by another forum. Also tried feeding peas every now and then, but have not tested epsom salts (in food nor bath), as was suggested against it.

120 gallon tank with frequent waterchanges and good filtration. He is about 6-7 years old.

His body looks normal, but it looks like he has swallowed a golfball. Just like a large bump on either side of his lower stomach. Slightly more on one side than the other. What can this be?


Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 500l
How long has the tank been running? 7 years
Does it have a filter? Yes, plenty of filtration. 10x volume per hour, 2 large external canister filters.
Does it have a heater? Yes.
What is the water temperature? 25.5C.
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
Oscar
Sailfin Pleco
2x Albino pleco
2x Common pleco
2x L333 pleco
4x Yoyo loaches
Unknown amount of baby pleco

Maintenance

How often do you change the water? Weekly (Every 7 days usually, sometimes 9-10 days on rare occasions)
How much of the water do you change? 35-50%
What do you use to treat your water? Nothing. Virtually chlorine free water, straight from tap, with temperature to match tank. Been able to keep fish and shrimp with great success this way for a decade.
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Usually gravel vac parts of the tank

*Parameters - Very Important

Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? Liquid test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20 (BEFORE waterchange)
pH: 7.6-7.8

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? 6 days a week, one meal per day.
How much do you feed your fish? Quite little. A hungry fish is a healthy fish.
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Hikari, Ocean Nutrition, Tetra. Mostly Hikari/ON. 10+ different pellets mixed up.
Do you feed frozen? Not really/very rarely. Once per week as of late.
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? Not really/very rarely.

Illness & Symptoms

How long have you had this fish? 6 years
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 4 weeks ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Bloated. On both sides, slightly more on one side. Behaves normally other than this, perhaps a little sluggish but eats and swims normally.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No food for 4 days. 1/3 meals for 4 days. Then 2/3 meals for 1 week.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No.
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Worse bloat as of late.
 

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Do you feed the Hikari sinking cichlid pellets? I fed these to my cichlids a few years ago and my Severum always got bloated (quite badly) after eating these. One time she was the most bloated fish I'd ever seen but by the morning she was fine and normal-sized again - I stopped feeding Hikari after that.
 
Do you feed the Hikari sinking cichlid pellets? I fed these to my cichlids a few years ago and my Severum always got bloated (quite badly) after eating these. One time she was the most bloated fish I'd ever seen but by the morning she was fine and normal-sized again - I stopped feeding Hikari after that.
Nope, floating.
Honestly doubt its due to diet. After 4 days of starving and 7 days of near starving, it should have shown atleast some improvement. But it didn't.
 
I dont think you have but have you added anything new to the tank recently? Fish, plants or decor etc?
 
I dont think you have but have you added anything new to the tank recently? Fish, plants or decor etc?
Nothing at all. Last addition was a new filter 9 months ago, a plastic plant a year ago. Anything living (plant/fish) was at least 3-4 years ago last.
 
If this is a possible tumour it might be worth seeking out a fish vet?

Probably has no bearing on the fish's condition but I would change more water more frequently due to all the plecos.
 
If this is a possible tumour it might be worth seeking out a fish vet?

Probably has no bearing on the fish's condition but I would change more water more frequently due to all the plecos.

Pretty sure the water is pristine, maxed out at 10-20 ppm nitrate just before doing a waterchange.

Unfortunately a fish vet isn't really an option. Doesn't exist here, and even if it did, it would likely run into the thousands of dollars for a real checkup. A surgery for a cat runs about 5000$ :/

He is still sluggish today. Not begging for food as he usually does.
 
The thing hanging out of his bum is still there. Could it be a dead worm?
 
I have to admit I was wondering about a tumour as it sounds like you are doing everything right.

The thing poking out though is interesting, few things it could be, as harmless as a bit of stuck poop to the start of a prolapse from the swelling.

Did the peas do anything and did he eat them ok?

Wills
 
I have to admit I was wondering about a tumour as it sounds like you are doing everything right.

The thing poking out though is interesting, few things it could be, as harmless as a bit of stuck poop to the start of a prolapse from the swelling.

Did the peas do anything and did he eat them ok?

Wills
He perhaps went nr 2 from the peas. He has passed food normally, and they aren't empty poops.

Found these meds locally, thoughts?
(Google translate works well on these pages)
 
According to an article in Practical Fishkeeping, JBL Nedol
Nedol is a worming treatment with the active ingredient benzimidazol — a derivation of which is fenbendazol, which many who have had worms in fish may already be familiar with. This ingredient has a pretty good track record against hair worms, pin worms and Camallanus, and should represent a treatment that importers of wild fish and Discus keepers will appreciate.

Sterazin contains acriflavine, malachite green, piperazine citrate and formaldehyde. In humans, piperazine is used to treat pin worms.



I assume from these products that you would like to treat the oscar for intestinal worms?
Can you get eSHa products where you live? eSHa gdex contains praziquantel which treats flat worms and eSHa-ndx contains levamisole which kills round worms.


But before using any medication, you need to diagnose what is actually wrong with the fish.
 
According to an article in Practical Fishkeeping, JBL Nedol


Sterazin contains acriflavine, malachite green, piperazine citrate and formaldehyde. In humans, piperazine is used to treat pin worms.



I assume from these products that you would like to treat the oscar for intestinal worms?
Can you get eSHa products where you live? eSHa gdex contains praziquantel which treats flat worms and eSHa-ndx contains levamisole which kills round worms.


But before using any medication, you need to diagnose what is actually wrong with the fish.
EDIT: Yes, I can get those here. Should I do that yet, or check anything more beforehand?
Not sure how I can accurately diagnose him. Been a month, he just gets worse and worse; but no super clear symptoms.
 
That treats "hole in the head, Malawi bloat and some types of dropsy". Your fish doesn't have Malawi bloat as it's not a Malawi cichlid. Dropsy is a symptom of an underlying disease, but the problem is knowing what the underlying disease is.
Looking at your fish, Octozin is not the appropriate medication.

I would not listen to the LFS, many of them know little about fish. As you have discovered, the product information does not agree with what the LFS said.
 
That treats "hole in the head, Malawi bloat and some types of dropsy". Your fish doesn't have Malawi bloat as it's not a Malawi cichlid. Dropsy is a symptom of an underlying disease, but the problem is knowing what the underlying disease is.
Looking at your fish, Octozin is not the appropriate medication.

I would not listen to the LFS, many of them know little about fish. As you have discovered, the product information does not agree with what the LFS said.
Felt the same, but a bit shocked that he gave such poor advice. It's not a normal LFS, it's extremely reputable, with the owner having worked within the aquarium hobby his entire life. Bit shocked at the poor advice from him, although he was at least honest about not being sure if that med would even help, and did suggest waiting a little before trying it.

Was suggested to try and get my hands on Metro and dose his food. But that isn't really legal here (only by prescription), so won't be easy to find. If it really is likely to help, I will get some though. Got contact with a fish vet, so maybe can get a prescription via him.
 

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