oscar not eating

[thomas]

Ok, for the past few weeks the nitrites in the oscars tank have been unstable, we found them hih a while ago and have been trying to do water changes to help get things back to normal. This oscar is in her own tank by the way, there are no other fish in it.

A couple days ago, I noticed the nitrites were high again. We did a water change, and 2 days later, the nitrite are 0. I wish I could acuratly test other levels, but most of the other tests have expired. The problem is oscar hasn't eaten anything in the past 2 days since the water change. My friend said it offen won't eat on the day after. But this makes the second day.

We removed the uneaten food when we tryed feeding him the second day (today). But we didn't put any food in the day before because he didn't come for any. He is still swimming around, altho slowly. But I am still very worryed.

By the way, this is a new siphon we used to change the water, it's only been used once before.

I am looking for advice on what I should do, I can't really see anything else wrong with her.

EDIT: Also, Altho he has stopped eating the night after cleaning before, I am pritty sure he normally eats the day after that.

 

[Whiskerz]

what are you trying to feed her? .. oscars are messy and need frequent water changes to control the ammonia

 

[thomas]

cichlid pellets

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

try some live food and see if that will get her going

 

[Warrior]

i had the same problem with mine.. I treated it for Hole in the head, it recoverd within a week but then didnt eat for about 5 days. The best explaination i got was like us humans when we are sick our mind isnt on foods, and they were right, all the sudden it started to eat again, and i also chuck in 4 neons for it to get him moving.. Is this what it does, comes upto the top but just looks at the food and is unsure what to do?

 

[thomas]

This is day 3 with no change.

She is pritty much always at the top, either right near the heater or across from the filter. She is at the top buy doesn't seem interested in eating.

Also she seems to be constantly having her mouth half open. In the following picture.

picture
picture

And every now and then she tilts up slightly for a little while and goes back again.

picture

I also put up a video which I thought might be helpful identifying how sick she is.

movie (you need quicktime I think)

EDIT: Also, she is about 6 years old.

 

[ger87410]

Need to know the ammonia/nitrite levels. They can cause the gills not to work as good, or not at all. He looks like he is having problems breathing. Try adding aquarium salt. Did WONDERS for my oscar when he was sick. Did you make sure the water you used to replace the old water didn't have chlorine/chloramines in it?

 

[thomas]

Yes, we made sure there wasn't any chlorine in there. The weird thing is this happend instantly after changing the water. Is it possable that one of the buckets of water wasn't fixed for chlorine (I personally wasn't there at the time) could that cause exactly this?

As for nitrites, When I checked yesterday they were about 0 I would say.

Ammonia I can't reliably test for, but I think it's low.

Nitrate was also very low, but unreliably tested.

EDIT: Despite the fact I have been told the water was conditioned before. Working on the assumtion that prehaps one bucket contained unconditioned water, just enough to slowly kill the fish. What do you think I should do. I have read prehaps adding conditioner to the tank.

However it's still highly unlikly, the water had been out for a while there shouldn't have been chlorine anyway.

 

[bgraber]

The chlorine should have dissipated enough from the other water to not have done much harm... Some stresscoat sure wouldn't hurt tho..

 

[ger87410]

My oscar got into a BIG fight not too long ago. The addittion of a tablespoon of aquarium salt for every 10 gal did wonders for him. Try that. My oscar eats right after I do a water change. Did you test you tap water for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate? I found out the water outta my faucet has an ammonia level off the chart (found out after a water change caused a ammonia spike that killed my crab). So I have to use amquel+ to kill the ammonia level in the water a couple hours or more before I add it. The oscars like salt. They ain't saltwater but they do GREAT in salt...

 

[thomas]

Today makes 4 days

I added water conditioner yesterday, she started looking a little better, but today she's exactly the same again.

I have been thinking, what are the odd's it's a disease that has spent 4 days and hasn't shown any new signs.

Is it more likely it's the water? There was new water added to the tank when we did the clean out and thats when it happend.

Maybe we should do another water change, but if so, where should we get the water from?

 

[Lorelei]

Today makes 4 days

I added water conditioner yesterday, she started looking a little better, but today she's exactly the same again.

I have been thinking, what are the odd's it's a disease that has spent 4 days and hasn't shown any new signs.

Is it more likely it's the water? There was new water added to the tank when we did the clean out and thats when it happend.

Maybe we should do another water change, but if so, where should we get the water from?

Ok, what I'd do if this were my oscar is the following:

Do another water change and be SURE the water is conditioned properly and you add stress coat to it.

Put an airstone in that tank. If she's having trouble breathing, and that's what it sure looks like, this should help a little. Also, if you can put a Bio-wheel filter on that tank you'd get a lot more oxygen into the water.

Is she too warm?

Feed her some live food. Something interesting. Guppies, goldfish. They're meat eaters. You can also feed beef heart but that's not very enticing. I'd go with something she has to catch.

Go buy a new master kit. Spend the 15 bucks and find out what's going on in that tank! She's too beautiful to lose!

 

[thomas]

Just before reading your post I added an airpump to help get more oxygen in her tank. And I am finally getting a good time to goto the fish store to get the water properly tested. We are also going to look for aquarium salt. I think there some here, but it's a few years old and unlabeled so it's not impossable that it's a different type of salt.

I would do another water change, but it seems almost 100% positive that the water we used was conditioned. I am thinking maybe there was something else wrong with it.

Considering theres no real signs of disease we are thinking (By the way, I say we because I have a friend who helps me with this stuff) that something must have been wrong in the water we used. Something the conditioners don't change.

I will look into getting some other things there too, like more test kits. I hate that I can't do all this stuff quicker.

She is still swimming around (altho slowly) and is spending a lot of time sitting near the top gasping (however maybe not as much as before). She doesn't look any worse, but then, she doesn't really look any better.

Oh, I shall get some live food up there too (Don't worry, I am making sure there won't be any real chance of disease).

She doesn't look much different at all, the video I put up could of been taken today (except that theres now another air pump).

Thank you everyone for the help. I feel a little bit better that atleast now were finally getting a chance to get stuff.

 

[kent]

when i saw the video and pictures, i can tell that there is something wrong with the water quality. My fish behaves like that (always on top) when my ammonia or nitrites are high... Like what others suggest, monitor your water. That should solve the problem

 

[thomas]

Ok, bad news. Altho she is still alive and the same as before. We know whats wrong.

It's not a sickness (yet)

The nitrites are low and so are the nitrates.

The ammonia is way way too high (we are adding stuff to try and fix that)

But heres the bad news, the ammonia isn't the problem, like some said, it's the ph.
When the fish store tested it (we finally got our own new one two). It was off the scale. It's the biggest problem, he said to slowly take the ph down over three days. Using ph down over the corse.

There is a reasonable chance the oscar won't live. But it seems there isn't no chance.

The guy there said it's about 50/50. Which isn't good.
I still welcome any advice anyone has. And thank you everyone who posted for the advice.

EDIT: I just relised I forgot to say the cause of this problem.

The conclusion here is, that some idiot must have (99.9% an accident) gotten some stuff into the water from the area that caused the ph to go WAY WAY too high. Our water here is always rather high, but not enough to cause this.