Oscar fish help

[Boomer1234]

Hello all I have recently purchased two beautiful wild caught oscar fish and noticed one has damage to its fins any help would be appreciated as new to keeping Oscars.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Are you sure they are wild caught?
Oscars are normally bred in captivity and very rarely come in from the wild.

The damaged fin has excess mucous on it (the cream stuff on the edge of the pectoral (side) fin. Clean water and a bit of salt should clear it up in a few days.

-----------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[Rocky998]

Hello all I have recently purchased two beautiful wild caught oscar fish and noticed one has damage to its fins any help would be appreciated as new to keeping Oscars.

I would use salt as suggested by Colin.

I also just wanted to say that the oscar is very beautiful! I love the orange lines that run on him...

 

[Colin_T]

The orange markings are just juvenile colouration and they fade or go completely as the fish matures.

 

[itiwhetu]

Just out of interest did you purchase these fish like this or has this condition appeared in your tank. What is the pH of your tank

 

[Boomer1234]

Thank you all will definitely use the salt thank you for the in depth response.

One of the Oscars is a columbian wild Oscar so should go copper green in colour and the other is a black and yellow oscar both wild caught as they say...

Brought the fish like this pH level is around 7.0 in a well cycled tank.

Thank you all for you help.

 

[itiwhetu]

Thank you all will definitely use the salt thank you for the in depth response.

One of the Oscars is a columbian wild Oscar so should go copper green in colour and the other is a black and yellow oscar both wild caught as they say...

Brought the fish like this pH level is around 7.0 in a well cycled tank.

Thank you all for you help.

Interesting