Oscar strange spots on head

G

guppy gigantis

guppy gigantis
Oct 1, 2006
14
0
0
Sacramento Valley
Hi,

I have a 4-yr-old 13-inch Tiger Oscar. A few months ago, I went through a bout of HITH with her, and after doctoring her tank for a few weeks, along with some good advice from some posters in this forum, she recovered nicely.

Now she has developed a couple of weird rings on her head and face. They are less than 1-inch across, transparent but with a whitish rim.

She has been off her food for over a week, and although she will take a food stick, she spits about half of it back out and won't take another. She is usually a good eater, and will normally take 4 to 6 sticks at a feeding.

I have looked for info on this, but can't find anything. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Thanks.
 
do you have other fish in the tank with her? my oscars nip each other and leave marks that sound like what you're descibing. my guess is that it could be the HITH coming back or something affecting the slime coat. do a water change and treat her with some melafix. that stuff works wonders when my guys get a little beat up.
 
Can you get a pic? I agree it could be the HITH coming back. Have you been giving her a varied diet? What do you feed her, besides the sticks? How about WC's..have you been keeping up with them?
 
GG has always been the only fish in the tank. She was left behind by my granddaughter when she moved out. I never asked for a foot-long-plus fish to take care of, but nevertheless, I have grown quite fond of her. I'm disabled, but I have done my best to take care of her.

The rings don't look like the HITH she had before. They were kind of pitted litte hole things. These look like a smooth ring with just the color of her skin in the center and a whitish perimeter.

I do a 30% water change once a week and use a gravel vacuum. The water is clear and the levels are OK, although I would like to get the nitrates down a bit. They were at 40ppm before the water change today. I haven't checked it yet since I added the new water.

I have always fed her the cichlid sticks. I used to feed her earthworms too, but she eventually quit eating them. So all she gets now are the sticks. It says on the can that they are a balanced diet for cichlids? Should I be feeding her something else?

I'm sorry I can't take a picture right now as a friend has my camera. I'll try to get it back so I can send a pic.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Well, really I am thinking it doesn't sound like HITH either...they usually are "pits" I believe, I have no personal experience with it just read up loads on it when I had my Oscar it was a big concern I had since I knew it was common in them.

Kudos to you for taking care of her, they are fun fish to have I just love the personality of them..how they seem to know who you are and watch ya when your around.

I would suggest doing bigger water changes personally. I usually did 50% a week myself..if it is to hard on you all at once you could just maybe do 2 25% a week or something like that.

They really need a variety in their diet. Sometimes they can get picky though and they will stop eating a certain thing for a while. I used the pellets and sticks..then I also gave him frozen shrimp, scalops, beefheart, and different fish I found on sale (be sure to thaw them before feeding though) easiest to just get a bowl of tank water and let them sit in there. He also liked zucchini and peas (shelled) Give me a few, I'll try and find a link that had some good info on their diets and stuff.
 
No, that doesn't look like it. It's larger than that. There is one on the top of her head, and one on the upper left side of her face. They are just flat areas with a whitish color around the edges. They are generally circular in shape, but the edges are a bit uneven. I can't find anything on the net that matches this.

Thanks, I appreciate your help.
 
Just keep your nitrates low and keep clean water. I would feed very meaty food and lots of healthy live foods. Keep an eye on it and see what happens. There are also articles on here about Oscars including mine...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155606 As far as live foods, earthworms, mealworms, beefheart, crickets, brine shrimp are all good live/meaty food you can feed your Oscar.
 
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