Oscar In Trouble

[indigoj]

Hi, I thought I would post this here as maybe the Oscar Club will have some ideas.

I moved my 2 Oscars yesterday from their 4ft grow out tank to the 6ft permanent home. Water in both tanks is virtually identical and they were acclimatised slowly.

One has settled in fine, the other has apparently had a massive reaction to the move - s/he is covered in white stuff, including a cloudy eye and fins that seem to have been attacked by sudden aggressive fin rot. This started within 10 min of release.

We did a 40% water change and I've treated the tank with esha 2000. Will do another water change today.

Has this happened to anyone else when moving Oscars?

The only other problem in the tank is the clarias has an injury - he burned himself falling asleep on the heater (after pulling it off the side) but this is injury not infection and the wound is clean - no fungus or anything on it.

Any ideas? Anything else I could be doing? I do have a hospital tank I could put the Oscar in but worried the move may shock him too much.

What are your thoughs Oscar lovers?

Thanks in advance from Ghost and Darkness (the Oscars of course LOL)

 

[minxfishy]

That is very strange, if there was a water quality problem surely both would have the same symptoms. Was the poorly O, harder to catch and transfer? Maybe he/she was stressed more by the move. Was there much of a ph change (unlikely but have to ask)?

 

[indigoj]

He was a bit harder to catch - he was darting all over and jumping. The Albino was not much calmer but is a little bigger and generally more laid back character.

I've just checked them and the Albino is showing slight signs of the white stuff too but nothing like as bad as the Black. Other fish in the tank are (so far ) fine.

Ph is low in both tanks (lovely soft Manchester water) they stay steady at 6.4-6.6, temp on both tanks was 0.5 of a degree different (new tank cooler)

I'm baffled - I expect a bit of trouble when moving fish due to the stress but this came on so suddenly I've never seen anything like it.

ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 30
temp = 26.5

 

[bagu]

hmm stats seem fine, just slightly high nitrates, you can do a water change and hope to lower it...

this is very strange!

 

[indigoj]

Nitrates never get below 20 so 30 is about average for me.

I'm going to LFS later - considering a stronger med. Going to do another 40% change and may take out all the decor and boil it 'just in case'.

 

[minxfishy]

Can you describe the white stuff for me please? Or better still post a photograph. Is is fluffy in appearance, like cotton wool covering, is all over the body or in certain areas? Are they flicking or rubbing on anything? Any signs of redness?

 

[indigoj]

Not fluffy, more stringy. On the black O it is pretty much all over.

 

[minxfishy]

Looks like fungus bought on by stress/water quality, it tends to lay dormant but once a fish becomes stress can suddenly show itself.

http/www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm

 

[indigoj]

Cheers, the esha should work but think I'll pick up some myxacin just in case and drop the temp a bit.

Guess he doesn't like moving! I'll keep you updated.

 

[minxfishy]

If the esha doesnt work and I dont know much about esha, you could try pimafix and myxazin, which is used for columnaris.

Drop down the temperature to around 24/25 too

 

[england]

poor little mite, have'nt had this before, but from what minx has said i think her advise sound's perfect
Once i had to move my big oscar "oscar" and he was 6ishft from the floor in the net<height of tank>and decided to leap even higher out of the net, fell hard onto the corner of the tv cabinet, there was a thud banging all over the floor, when i put him back into the tank there was some blood, I was panicing but after two day's he was back to normal self,,,,,,finger's crossed for you mate,

 

[indigoj]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll let you know how he gets on. I'm dropping the temp slowly down to 25deg.

Picked up myxacin today which I'm also going to use to sterilise the decor (can't hurt!)

I know O's are tough - my mate had one that survived the power being off for 3 days!

 

[shelaghfishface]

jambo had that when the temp was a bit low for him, i actually thought he had been electrocuted ( make sure this isnt the case too)

my description of it was asthough a snail had walked over him and left a trail,, sound familiar?

i panicked like hell, but within a few hours of bumping the temp with water and an additinal heater, he was back to normal



im sure you guys remember that incident

 

[indigoj]

Snail trail is quite an accurate description.

Temp is at 25.3 at the mo, just doing water change, gravel vac and sterilising the rest of the decor (wood/plastic plants) in boiling wate and myxazin.

Albino (Ghost) is mildly affected, still swimming and eating. Black (Darkness) is badly affected, sitting on the floor, mouth open and miserable.

The Clarias that got heater burn is definitely sulking while the other clarias and the 2 kissing gouramis seem oblivious to it all....

 

[Davo86]

Does it look like a dusty trail? like the fish is almost covered in cobwebs and dust, looks a bit like velvet, which again is caused by stress