Bright white spots on my Oscar

[Karlsbad]

Yesterday evening after doing a water change I noticed one 1/4" diameter bright white spot on the underside of my Oscar near his pectoral fin and one also on his underside near his tail that's a thin line about 1/2" long. They are true white in color with no cottony material or anything hanging off of them.

I think they're injuries because I am about 95% sure they appeared during the water change, and I think I scared him with the python because I didn't see him when this happened, but I noticed a flash of movement right by the python like he had darted away and had been touching the gravel. I'm always(I thought) really careful to watch for him, but he's fascinated by the python so he's always hanging out near it. I started running melafix and pimafix to help heal them, assuming that's what they are.

Is this what an injury looks like and what can I do for him? I've had good results with melafix after his bout of fin and tail rot.

 

[Leopardess]

Hm. It's hard to say. Could be an injury - especially if they weren't there before and all of the sudden popped up.

Could perhaps be a bacterial infection.

Either way, the treatment is the same. I assume your tank is big (since you have an oscar) so treatment can be expensive. You might want to just dose with an antibiotic first. If you use melafix, then you find out you need something stronger, you'll have used an entire bottle of the stuff (and, here, at least, its like $7).

'Course, you could add some salt and see how it goes and if it heals well on it its own...

 

[Karlsbad]

I was thinking salt but I don't know how to use it. Is there an 'aquarium salt for dummies' ?

 

[PumaWard]

You can use regular tablesalt and add 1tablespoon/5g on the slow side (a table spoon or 2 every hour) until you're done. If you have any plecos, other catfish, or loaches, then only use 1 tablespoon/10g.

HTH

 

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

If you have any plecos, other catfish, or loaches, then only use 1 tablespoon/10g.

id even half that as i lost a 23" albino sailfin pleco when my oscars had white spot or you could move them for awhile

 

[Karlsbad]

Originally posted by Dragon_Lord_Tia


id even half that as i lost a 23" albino sailfin pleco when my oscars had white spot or you could move them for awhile

White spot is a specific disease/illness? I think I'm just going to run Maracyn 2 because I've had such good results with it particularly not killing my biofilter and I don't want to take any chances with my little guy, he had fin and tail rot not too long ago.