Tiger Oscar HITH problem

K

Kakarot305

Registered Member
Nov 3, 2004
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Colorado
Hello all,
I am new to keeping oscars, but not aquariums. I have had a fish tank of some sort going since I was a little kid. My setup these days is a 55 gallon with alot of filtration (one of the filters being a marineland biowheel), 2 tiger oscars and a pleco. The tigers are about 5 inches and 4 inches (Mickey and Mallory respectively). I rescued these 2 little ones from wal mart when they were fairly young (about 2 inches) 2 months ago. My water paramaters are great, they are growing well, eating well and appear very healthy. My only problem is that Mickey (the larger one) is starting to develop HITH. He had a spot on his back then went away when I started adding vitamin D to their diet. But the next week it started to develop very quickly behind his left eye. I feed them wardleys cichlid pellets enriched with vitamin C, Tetra Cichlid floating sticks, they snag sinking shrimp pellets I throw in for the pleco sometimes and an occassional batch of cheap fish (not "feeders" but cheap tropical fish). I always quarantine any fish before adding it to my setup and disease has not been an issue.
I guess what the bottom line that I am getting at is that I do my water changes w/ a gravel vacuum, keep the water nice and warm (about 79F), plenty of filtration/airation and I watch my water attributes, etc... Why would one oscar devolp HITH while the other is perfectly fine? Is a 55G big enough for 2 oscars and a pleco? I realize in about 6 months as they are getting close to full grown I may need to upgrade to a larger tank, but they seem pretty happy for the moment. Any insight is much appreciated. I don't know what else to do for this poor little guy.

Thanks all for your time,
Ray
 
IMHO a 55 is not big enough for two O's and a pleco, you will really be better off with a 90g+ for that combo.

That aside, HITH is controllable but onc you have it it usually doesn't ever go away completely. Why one fish would get it and another wouldn't is really unknown. But in truth the cause of HITH has yet to be proven so it isn't suprising. Here is one of the better articles I have found on HITH, there is a lot of info out there, but most of it guesswork.
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/hith.shtml
dave
 
HITH is caused by bad water quality.

Probably because 2 oscars are too small for a 55 gallon tank.

Fish can recover from it, but it takes a few weeks.


(This info came from my saltwater fish book, but i have heard it is the same with freshwater fish)
 
Victimization, While I agree that hith usually shows up on fish kept in poor conditions, Whether or not that is actually the cause is still very debateable. Furthermore, the theory that bad nutrition is the cause hasn't been proven either. It is pretty much accepted that good quality water, and good nutrition in combination will ward off/ prevent HITH, the cause is really unknown. The major reason that the cause is hard to find pertains to the fact that typically fish which are kept in poor environments are also fed poorly, and often are subjected to parasites. But even then there are plenty of fish that go through life in less than desireable conditions, and never develope HITH. in addition there is the occasional fish that developes it despite excellent conditions and good nutrition.

I fully agree that the tank should be kept Pristine, and that good nutrition should be fed. the article I linked covers those two points very well, It also covers how to deal with fish that already have HITH in order to keep it controlled and keep the fish as healthy as possible.
Dave
 
We know this: HITH is caused by either poor water quality, poor nutrition, or both. You should be able to narrow this down.

Your water quality may be great nitrogen-cycle wise, but I ask you this: what is the PH/hardness of the water? If it's hard water with a of PH 7.5 or higher, this could be the culprit.
 
PH has never had a bearing on HITH in my experience. I have kept many oscars and Other American cichlids in Hard water. As said water quality (pollutants) and nutrition are the two most popular theories. Of these two the nutrition theory seems to be more accurate IME, but as said they typically go hand in hand so closely that it is difficult to seperate them. When I have adopted fish with Hith, vitamins have worked wonders, but at the same time I kept those fish in clean tanks (with high Ph I might add). I have never adopted a fish with HITH and not fed it a good diet so I don't know if water quality alone would put it in remission.
Dave
 
daveedka said:
PH has never had a bearing on HITH in my experience. I have kept many oscars and Other American cichlids in Hard water.
Click to expand...

What are the measurements of your water?

There are South American tropical fish which do NOT do well in hard water. Green Terrors come to mind, as do Pacus and Silver Dollar species. I could never keep an Oscar in any of my setups, they would always get a disease, and my water quality was always as close to perfect as possible. South American cichilds in general don't do as well in PH higher than 7.5 or so. Central American cichlids are another story.
 
What are the measurements of your water?
Click to expand...

Back in the old days when I had a lot of oscars, I was on well water that usually tested around 8.2 , MY current tap water is 7.8-8.0 once it equalizes, and that is extremely soft water. My current Oscar tank is planted and has co2 injection, so the ph currently stays a bit lower. But I wouldn't be afraid of high ph (within reason of course) in my oscar tanks.

I honestly have never had a disease with any of my Oscars, I have had ich in tanks that they were in but it was always confined to the cats, and never broke out on the Oscars. I have adopted several fish that had hith over the years, and although I don't like adopting other peoples problems, I dealt with it the best I could, and with vitamins and frequent water changes those fish healed up pretty well.
dave
 
I have very high ph and all my fish, including oscars, are fine. I have very hard water as well. The only time I've ever had to deal with HITH is when my brother was keeping a betta and didn't take care of it too well. (7th grader, kinda 'forgets' to do change the water) I used some kind of fungus med, I forgot which kind, and it stopped the HITH but didn't heal it properly. I don't think it would have healed up anyway seeing as the betta was over 5 years old, probably 6.5 years.
 
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