What has happened to my oscar?

T

TML29

AC Members
Jan 11, 2007
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Missouri
After doing my weekly water change today I noticed there were a few holes on my tiger oscar. Two of them are located on his left gill and the other one is right between his right eye and his lips. I tried to take several pictures, hope they will give you a better idea what they look like. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing wrong with his diet (hiraki gold, shrimp, blood worms, spinach) or the water quality. I do water changes (about 60%) at least once a week. Could this be HITH???? I've noticed he's been acting shy lately. The other oscar is fine, nothing wrong spotted on him.
I'm going to take the carbon out of my Aquaclear 70 and the other filter as well. Please respond, I really need help since I'm still freaking out and not knowing what to do at this point.

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Hmm..it appears the other oscar has the starting of pop eye, unless thats just a really funny camera angle. What are your nitrates? You may want to test your tap water as well ..

Blue
 
Great, another thing that I can freak out about. Their eyes look exactly like in the pictures. What if his eyes are popping, what medication should I give him?
Nitrate level is between 8-15 depending on what day of the way (i.e. how far from water change day). How do I test my tap water? What should I be looking for?
 
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why are you going to take the carbon out? are you adding meds to the tank? probably better not to mess with it and risk damaging your bacterial colony by removing filter elements until you know what's going on.
 
interesting, but i'd want to see more evidence before i messed with the filters. do you have another type of biomedia in the tank like ceramic or sponge or something?
 
The Aquaclear still has some type of ceramic in a bag and a sponge on the bottom of the filter.
 
You test your tap the same as you would your tank..Nitrates is what you would be looking for. It appears as tho your trates are at a good level. Most of the time pop eye and hith is caused by poor water quality. Stress can also be a factor.

Hopefully some others can post as to what to treat with. Keep up water changes and keep the water as clean as possible.

BTW, the tank is cylced, right? (zero ammonia and zero nitrites)

Blue
 
I don't know about that whole carbon dust thing. If that was true you'd see a lot more cases of HITH. If you rinse your carbon before you put it in your filter you shouldn't have any carbon dust anyway. Also, how long have you had your fish. You do rather large water changes and shouldn't have a problem if your tap water is good. Is it possible your fish had this before you bought them?
 
I've had my fish for over 2 months now. It's quite possible that I got them in this condition but they were only about 2 inches when I got them so it would have been fairly difficult to spot anything. I agree with you on the carbon dust thing but it was just a precautionary measure since I am pretty much clueless as to what to make out of all this.

Also, yes, my tank is fully cycled with ammonia and nitrites consistently being zero.
 
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