IceOscar

I have an Oscar, I've had him for about 5 months and he's awesome, unfortunatly his buddy died about a month after I bought them both. However, the remaining Oscar's eye the past couple days seems to be a little bigger than usual. Just one of the eyes. Could this be the fish maturing or getting larger, or could this be some type of fishy cold? I try and do water/gravel cleaning/changing atleast once a week, the water temp may be 5-10 degrees a little cooler at times during the week than it should be, and the nitrite/ammonia levels are pretty low right around perfect. Help what's wrong with my Oscar?!

Gunnie

It could be pop eye. Here's a FishLore link to illnesses and pop eye is included:

http://www.fishlore.com/Disease.htm

You may have to up your water changes. If you tank is cycled, you should have no ammonia or nitrites when you test your water. The nitrate level should be below 20. This is difficult to do with oscars without a lot of water changes because they are such messy fish. Hope he gets better soon!

IceOscar

Thanks... yes that definetly looks like what it could be. I try to do 1 or 2 water changes/gravel cleanings a week but I've been known to get lazy. That site says feed him some vitamin enriched foods... what could I give him to have him eat healthier? I mainly just give him the cichlid sticks, and I've only fed him 1 feeder fish since I've gotten him because I don't want him to grow toooo large!

Gunnie

You can get vitamins that you can add either to the tank water, or soak their food in it before putting it in the tank. You can also make your own fish food and add the vitamins to it.

IceOscar

Hmmm like people vitamins or from the pet store? I've heard of people feeding their oscar's like bits of lettuce, tomatos, etc... I mean he'll eat about anything I'd suppose!

Gunnie

If you can get your oscar to eat veggies that's wonderful. Mine won't eat veggies unless I hide them in the food, so I soak their pellets in the vitamin liquid before feeding them. Here's an example of the vitamins. There's more than 1 brand out there, and if you make your own food, some recipes actually call for baby vitamins you can get at WalMart:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx

IceOscar

Hmm okie, went to the store and got some medicine called "Mardel Maracyn", little tablets to put in the tank 1 every 24 hours. Put the 1st one in through a cup of tank water I took out to let it settle in (because this Oscie would probably try to eat the darn thing before it'd dissolve). Says to treat for 5 days even if signs of improvement to appear. I've noticed today even before I put in the tablet that the eye "pop" had gotten a little bit smaller...