My Adult Girl Oscar Died! The Other One Has Problems...please Help

[oscarsrgr8t]

I'm so sad , last night my treasured female oscar of my oscar pair died. Yesterday morning I woke up and found Scout breathing really heavy, lying down on the bottom of the tank. I thought that maybe she was puffed out by either the other oscar chasing her or she had been chasing the feeder fish, this has happened before....but 1/2 hr went past and still very heavy breathing. I had to go to work and go down south, so I thought she'd catch her breath. I rang home that night, to my sister-in-law, she hadn't checked the tank. She came back on the phone and told me Scout was dead! It was horrible. The night before she was moving gravel, and seemed alright.
I'm wondering what went wrong??
Boff, the male, was apparently breathing abit funny (not heavy), I've noticed that he's breathing normally on his right side but the left side his gill plate is still, not moving at all. My brother said he noticed that before.
My brother is battling a fluke problem with his fish, and I'm thinking maybe we cross-contaminated somehow?
Boff seems alright. Also not so long ago I put peat moss in my filter, it was called pure spaghnum peatmoss, and I checked carefully to make sure no fertilizer additives etc, and nothing was mentioned. But maybe there was something in them?
Also I put some river rocks from the garden in my tank, but I rinsed them under the laundry sinck before adding them. Also there was a peice of bogwood from the river, which I didn't soak, I just hosed it down before putting it in the tank.

I'm just trying to figure out which one of these is the culprit...
also on other thing...Boff as a red blister looking sore on his left fin, close to the base of it.

the feeder fish seem fine and are crusing around, chasing each other and eating, also Boff is still eating,ate a good meal tonight...

What is it??!

One other thing is my sister in law said, when she took my dead oscar out of the tank, she was extremely slimy, so much so that the water she was in (she out the oscar in a bucket of water to show my borther when he came home), when she lifted her up, the water was like glue, thickened fluid etc dripping from her and she had crackling noise when they moved or touched her.

 

[black angel]

A crackling noise on the skin could be dropsy and sometimes thats the only symptom you will get, no bloating or anything.
With the other oscar and the reddening of the base of the fin i reckon theres a bacteria infection going and maybe the feeder fish brought it in. The closed gill is a sign of parasites so there may be a few things going on here.
Ive never seen the reason why people feed live fish to others if theres another way to feed them. Bringing in feeders is a huge risk as the majoroty carry parasites and other diseases and can even look well themselves.
What else do you feed the oscars apart from feeders? if nothing else then they would be seriously lacking in nutrients and need a wider variety of food. Hexamita is a disease that can kill oscars as well if they arent fed a proper diet so read up on that as well.
Can you get any medicated food for them?
What size of tank, filtration and how much and how often do you do water changes anf filtration? You say the feeders are in the same tank so how many and how long have they been there?

 

[WILDER]

Can we also look at size of tank in gallons or litres, and stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.
Don't feed feeder fish they carry desease.
Sounds like septicemia to me, are they flicking and rubbing on things.
Is the gill red and inflamed, sounds like parasites have caused bacterial infections on top.

http/www.fishtanksandponds.info/care-mai...septicaemia.htm

http/article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml

 

[oscarsrgr8t]

It is 84 gallons. There were about 20 tiny 1/2 inch feeder barbs, and 2 two spot rasboras. All the feeder fish I've got rid of.
I stripped the tank, ran everything under boiling water, cleaned the gravel, filter etc and put everything back in, I put water conditioner and pura water (like a cycle product) but I think its too late for my male oscar....he's very pale and is lying down on an angle.
my water parameters before I did the strip was ammonia 0, nitrate 10, pH 7.4 (could be higher but dont have high range test)

 

[WILDER]

Bless him yes not sounding good, you will have to add the parasite med still.

 

[oscarsrgr8t]

Thanks for all your help everyone and Good news!!!!
when I put Boff in the newly stripped tank, with cycle-like product in it etc, he didn't look very good. He wouldn't swim around and I thought he was just about to die, but the next morning he was running around like nothing happened!! (ramming the glass, puffing up his gills, and pushing the ping pong balls around!!) I checked the levels after I did the water change, and checked them today and they are ammonia 0, nitrate 0, pH about 7.2 or slightly higher. He is alot better! I was really worried.
The red ulcer sore with white dots on it on his right fin doesn't look as red, and there are blood red looking veins on his left fin, and that looks not as dramatic. Also yesterday he looked like he was coughing and hiccuping alot, and that's all stopped now. I also feel what's helped is Melafix!! I love this stuff.
I won the battle on Ich on Scout (the one that died) with Melafix even though it doesn't say it kills parasites just bacteria and wounded fins. Scout was completely covered in salt like nodules and within 4 days it was gone!!! Also on Boff, I noticed a slight redness at the base of his tail, and I can't notice it at the moment.....

So I'm pretty sure what happened was a sudden bacterial bloom, probably caused by the driftwood, and peat moss and the tank temperature must have sparked it, this may also have caused an ammonia spike? I don't know, but all I can say is that Boff is feeling alot better, not %100 but better than he was.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad Boff's better

just keep a very close eye on him for a few weeks. I love melafix too, it's great

 

[black angel]

I think water changes are the best tonic a fish can get and you will need to do more of them in the future. I wouldnt get another Oscar until you can upgrade the tank to over 120 gallons.
Im pleased he is still with you and hopefully on the road to recovery.