1 nostriled Oscar

[Humboldt]

Never had to deal with this disease before and have no clue if I'm diagnosing it correctly.

I was recently given a rescued Albino Oscar that lived through extreme neglect, was starved for a couple months, then lived with electric eel for a few weeks.

It has either 1 nostril or HITH, but I don't know which.

Hole is minute, maybe two or three as big as a period used on this forum, located just below and between the eyes.

Is it not rather odd to have a 1 nostriled fish, if that's the case? If it's HITH (from the horrendous water quality it's dealt with) will it progress to a point I can definitely ID it?

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

 

[smb]

Is there any way to provide us a pic? HITH does affect the face and lateral line.

It might be going out on a limb to try and take a guess on whether it was HITH or not.

It's not known for sure what causes it but it has been linked to poor water conditions, insufficient diet and/or stress.

Caught early, HITH is easily cured. Just incase he does have it until we can come up with a definitive answer, I would treat as though it is HITH to be safe.

Feed varied a diet as possible. Earthworms, krill, shrimp, crickets, beefheart. etc. If possible I would try vitamina also, at least for now.

Add 1 tbs aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water.

I would do a 25% water change 2-3 times a week for a few weeks. If there are time constraints at least try twice a week and watch the nitrates. Make sure to gravel clean at the same time and get all food and waste.
Try to keep nitrates under 10ppm for the time being. After the water change/gravel clean add more salt but only for the amount of water you took out and not the whole volume of the tank.

If the temp is below 80F, then I would raise it to 80F. This increases the Oscars metabolic rate.

If you become positive that it is HITH you can buy some medication and proceed from there.

Not sure if this is possible but if it is, I would check for electrical current in the tank. I know it's not mentioned much and it isn't all that common but it does happen. Electrical current in the aquarium is very stressful on fish. You can buy a voltmeter and stick one probe in the water and then ground the other. Any reading other than zero isn't good. If you get a positive reading buy a grounding probe to see what hardware is causing it.

Hopefully this is enough to start with for the time being.

 

[Humboldt]

Thanks for the feedback...I think we've been reading the same sites, heh.

Have a voltmeter lined up for sometime next week to check for any stray current.

I accepted the poor guy before his new tank was even fully cycled, as it was in a tank with an electric eel and getting zapped regularly. Wilol keep up on the water changes.

Currently getting a very varied diet, no feeders as of yet (no quarantine tank yet) but shrimp pellets and earthworms and crickets and moths and a bunch of rolly-pollies/potato bugs.

You mentioned Vit A...what form would I look for that in please? Is there a special aquarium version?

In regard to the 1 nostirl theory...ever heard of a one nostriled fish before?

Thanks again

Will see if I can get any decent pictures.

 

[smb]

Thanks for the feedback...I think we've been reading the same sites, heh.

Have a voltmeter lined up for sometime next week to check for any stray current.

I had a friend of mine tell me that years ago. I thought he was nuts but he proved it to me.

It's just something that has always stuck with me since. I don't see it very often but it does happen from time to time.

I accepted the poor guy before his new tank was even fully cycled, as it was in a tank with an electric eel and getting zapped regularly. Wilol keep up on the water changes.

This could definately cause extreme stress. You did the right thing to take him as he would have never been happy with that eel.

I accepted the poor guy before his new tank was even fully cycled, as it was in a tank with an electric eel and getting zapped regularly. Wilol keep up on the water changes.

You did the right thing in taking him. He would have been very unhappy with that eel.

Currently getting a very varied diet, no feeders as of yet (no quarantine tank yet) but shrimp pellets and earthworms and crickets and moths and a bunch of rolly-pollies/potato bugs.

Yea, I wouldn't worry about feeders. They have very little nutritional value. Some like watching their fish eat feeders and if you do that's fine, but holding off for now is the correct thing to do.
A good quality flake food contains the essential vitamins needed as do pellets. Depending on the size of your Oscar, use one or both of those. Make sure to get Cichlid Flakes as they are much bigger and more easily consumed instead of falling to the bottom of the tank and to get the biggest pellet the Oscar can easily eat.

In regard to the 1 nostirl theory...ever heard of a one nostriled fish before?

No, I've never heard of that one before.


Please keep in touch and let us know how it's going.

 

[Humboldt]

Heh, I just want to see Elvis eat some smaller fish, I know they're not worth much nutritionally.

Speaking of which, I'd like to get him a companion fish to eat everything he misses. Don't want a pleco, have a dwarf in my other tank and am not too impressed, plus it's so small another similar one would be toast with Elvis...and I don't want a normal sized one either as they get so damn big in the long run.

I've read cory cats will do ok with an Oscar as long as they're big enough...how big is that? None of my cories have ever gotten bigger then 1.5 inches, and I think that'd be an expensive snack for Elvis (about 6" without tail).

I've read as many threads here as I can find on this but don't see cories mentioned, always plecos, and not enough room at this point for dithers (and really just looking for something to keep the bottom clean as he's such a messy eater).

 

[cichlidmaster]

HITH and LLD (Lateral Line disease) is cureable to the extent of stopping the spread of the errosions!!

It is NOT however curable to the extent of clearing up the lesions!!

You can kill two birds with one stone by adding Dick Boyds VitaChem to the oscars diet.

There are two ways to do this....

1. You can add the drops directly to the aquarium water as it is absorbed thru the fishes skin or

2. Soak the oscars food in a small amount of the vitamin liquid allowing the food to soak up all the liquid!!

This will not only add essentials vitamins to your oscars diet, but the VitaChem is a very good treatment for HITH and LLD.

I have used this on a very large fish that had LLD due to a very streeful time in a tank that developed a leak. The fish was 15" at the time and only had 3" of water to use one gill to breath with!!

This fish had LLD errosion off and on for over a year before I tried the VitaChem and within a week it had cleared up and has not returned.

Great stuff IMO and a good thing to have around....even if only adding it once a week for the vitamin properties!!

CM

 

[Humboldt]

That is good to hear

I'll be on the lookout for that. Am still trying to determine if that's what this actually is, as there're no sores or tissue damage visible other then this one small pinprick hole.

Am trying to take some pictures but have a bad camera and keep getting blurry shots. Any recommendations for this? I've read up on all the lighting issues for fish photography and am getting as much light as I can in there without using the flash (and with using the flash too, but that creates too much reflection), but all my shots come out pretty poorly.

Thanks again.