Oscar Dying

[jbokhart]

I just was given an Oscar from a friend that did not want him/her anymore. It is a red oscar and is as big as my hand. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to put him in a new tank, yes I know not what should have been done but there was no choice. He has tail rot and scales that are missing. He came froma filthy tank. He has laid on the bottom of the tank now for 4 days, he still is breathing but does not move unless he is touched. I do not know how to help him at all. Please help as it is going on day 5. The tank is now clear and finished cycling pretty much.

 

[england]

ok how long has this tank been set up?
what size is the tank?
what tank mates do you have?
what water stats do you have?
was the oscar like this prior to you taking it on?
does your friend still have his fish tank running?

 

[jbokhart]

ok how long has this tank been set up?
what size is the tank?
what tank mates do you have?
what water stats do you have?
was the oscar like this prior to you taking it on?
does your friend still have his fish tank running?

The tank is now 1 week and one day old. It is a 26 gal. tank and has no tank mates. Water is normal I took and had it tested today pretty much still just a hair high on ammonia but not enough it should be bothering him to much at this point. He was fine prior to taking him on though he had tail rot and was in pretty bad shape with his scales because of the filth of water he was in. She has her tank running completely cleaned out and with new fish. She was afraid of him is why it was let go and he ended up with me now. Hope this helps

 

[LauraFrog]

Oboy... sounds like a combo of ammonia poisoning, Old Tank Syndrome and stress all at once, which is really not looking good I'm afraid.

Ammonia poisoning = self explanatory. Old Tank Syndrome is what happens when you move a fish that has been living in a filthy tank (and has adapted to high nitrate etc.) into a clean one suddenly, or clean out the tank drastically. Stress - both ammonia and OTS, plus a new environment.

Scales missing/damaged plus finrot sounds a lot like septicaemia. Which country are you in? If you want a hope in hell of curing advanced septicaemia you need to attack it with antibiotics immediately. In the USA, maracyn 1 and 2 combo. In Australia, Aqua-cure (tetracycline is usually easy to obtain.) In the UK, TBH you're screwed as usually you can only obtain antibiotics through a vet, there might be somebody on here who will sneak you some but I don't know who that might be (as I'm lucky enough to be in Australia, where you can buy antibiotics online.)

 

[minxfishy]

Well for the long term, the tank is no where big enough, minimum size tank for a single Oscar is 75g IMO and many others here.

Oscars are messy fish, they require very good filtration as well as large tanks. Right now, the stress of being in filthy water, moving and the fact that your tank is not cycled will all be contributing to his state of health and state of mind.

Whilst I appreciate you took him on to help him, you will need to upgrade quickly or rehome him yourself.

In the meantime, daily 50% water changes will be required to keep ammonia and nitrItes lower than 0.25ppm, preferably 0, anything more than those values will be poisoning him, causing the scale damage and fin rot to get worse and ultimately death if not kept on top of. Your tank unless you had some mature media to start it off, is no where near cycled, you still ammonia and most likely will soon go thru the nitrIte spike phase. You really do need to get a liquid based test kit to do daily tests, or take the sample daily to the LFS and WRITE down the results, do not accept, fine, ok as a result.

We can talk you thru the cycle if needs be, but his best hope is a clean cycled larger tank.