whitespirit

I begin this with background....set up a 180-gallon tank 2 weeks ago. No time to cycle it without fish as it came with an Oscar (11 inches), a Golden Julie and a large feeder fish. A week later I adopted an Oscar (8 inches) from a local pet store. I wanted to wait to put it in my tank, but they had it packed up and ready before I realized it, while I was waiting for the paperwork and asking questions. So, I brought it home. It came with ICH. I do not have a quarantine tank and didn't see the spots until the next day anyway. The little guy also had HITH when it was at the store, not sure how they treated for it, but will ask later tonight.

I treated the tank with Rid Ich for about 7 days (my notes are at home for the exact time) and did 30% water changes/gravel siphon daily (because of the ich and nitrites). Since the nitrites were high and I was going to be gone a couple of days I did a 50% water change before Thanksgiving. I also added aquarium salt consistently, but within the parameters. Raised the temp some, but need another heater, so not enough. But as of last week I had no signs of Ich. And as of yesterday my nitrites were down, but still showing so will do another change tonight.

THEN when I came home after being gone two days, the large oscar, Big O, has white spots on it's left eye and there are scales missing from it's side. I have not seen it flashing or being picked on by anyone else.

Is this ich on his eye because I didn't treat long enough? Or another fungus or parasite considering the scales missing? What do I do now?

Thanks for any and all info.

COBettaCouple

welcome to FishLore. Ich should be treated for 2 weeks and raising the temperature is the key there so it could be ich. But it sounds more like a fungus. Would you be able to post a picture of him? Do the other fish show any signs of problems?

Chief_waterchanger

What kinda feeder fish? If it is a goldfish you should remove it before raising the temperature to 83 degrees farenheit to treat for ich if you decide to try raising the temperature. (Just tossing that tidbit of info out there. )

whitespirit

Hello....thanks for the replies....I have uploaded some photos of both my Oscars. The Little Guy had the same stuff on both it's eyes when I got home last night. I found out that the pet store did not treat the little one with any meds for HITH, just a larger tank and better food, so I'm watching that too. My concern is the lateral line and scales missing along with the spots on the eyes. I circled some of the areas of concern on Big O.

Bought a new heater and will be slowly heating the tank up above 80. I appreciate your concern regarding the feeder, I'm not sure what I can do with it though. It was suggested to put it in an outdoor pond this spring, but well that's a ways away. I'm looking for a smaller tank.

I also treated for Ich again with meds and did a 25% water change/siphon last night and added salt. Nitrites were much better this morning...still there, but much better at LESS than .3 (tetra water test kit). Everything else good.

Attached Images

	BigOfront-sm.jpg (81.4 KB, 21 views)
	BigOLfside-sm.jpg (99.0 KB, 21 views)
	BigORtside-sm.jpg (104.3 KB, 19 views)
	LilGuy-sm.jpg (95.4 KB, 17 views)
	LilGuyFace-sm.jpg (86.4 KB, 18 views)

COBettaCouple

i'm not totally sure, it looks fungal.. but i think lateral line disease is a possibility, especially as it's related to hole in the head disease. I'd wait to see if others confirm/refute that.

Chief_waterchanger

The pits in the head is development of 'Hole-in-the-head disease'. The oscar has probably be fed a diet of primarily goldfish. That kind of diet lacks vitamin B complex, which gives immunity problems, and makes the fish more suseptible to various parasites.

The lateral line disease Dave refers to is the same as Hole in the head, just not on the head.

Stop feeding it goldfish alltogether immediately. Start giving a varied diet, including flakes, pellets, bloodworms, veggie matter if you can get it to eat it. If not feed the feeders veggie rich diets so that they get veggie rich diets indirectly. Find a bait supply shop and find any decent live fish other than goldfish (minnows, shiners, darters, etc) to use as feeders.

whitespirit

Hello....posting an update....I had a vet check out the photos and yes, HITH and HLLE have been confirmed. Varying opinions say they either might not make it and/or there is hope. I'm voting for hope even though it is beginning to feel like I am doing hospice care at this point with the added symptoms below.

I do know before I got Big O he was fed with feeders (hence the big feeder he came with) and I'm guessing the Little Guy too considering where I got him. After doing much research and getting them home, I have not fed them feeders...not good, I know. I feed them Hikari pellets, bloodworms, beefhearts, algea sheets, veggies, fresh shrimp and brine.

I have treated the tank with Primafix and Melafix. It has cleared up some of the fungus, but I need to continue treatment for another run. Now my water is very cloudy though. I do 30-50% water changes daily or every other day depending on my schedule to keep the nitrites down. My water is still not balanced so I stay up on the changes. I'm going to do some major cleaning this weekend and take out much of the large rocks I have in there where waste is getting trapped....takes too long to siphon around them all. Temp maintaining between 83-84 degrees.

They now have more scales lost though and circles forming on the top of their heads (it reminds me of the ring salt water would leave on a surface)....possibly scale loss? not sure. The overgrown feeder in the tank which came with Big O also has scales lost. The LFS said they will take and keep the Big Feeder and test him for parasites, so I'll take him there this weekend...I know he can't be feeling very well with the temp currently and whatever else is going on.

So thanks again for all your insights. Anything to add about the cloudy water or rings please let me know.

Chief_waterchanger

The rings sound like a secondary infection to me. I would suggest continuation of the increased waterchanges and continuation of the anti-bacterial medication. Also, soaking pellet food in garlic juice and feeding minced garlic may help boost the immune system of the infected fish.

As far as the care of the fish goes, it appears to me that if you get the secondary infections under control the fish could live a relatively long and healthy life. The hole-in-the-head is not so far advanced that it is terminal yet.

whitespirit

Thanks Chief_waterchanger!
This weekend I purchased a smaller tank (55 long) to do treatments for the bacterial infection. I will move them tonight to the hospital tank. Thanks for the info about the garlic, I will add that to their diet too. I'm glad to hear that the prognosis is good...it's been a haul and they have been through a lot.

Much appreciation!