help i think he is dying

HI there, I was hoping somone could help me, my oscar really isn't looking well at all, I have had him for about 2 years now and about 5 weeks ago we got him a new tank ,i'm not sure how big it is but it is at least 4ft/2.5ft and 3ft high what ever that would hold I'm not sure. Anyway when we put him in there he was sooooo happy then we put in 3 silver sharks and 2 silver dollors,,,yes yes yes I know that didn't work,,last week he ate one silver shark,,so we put the other 2 in my daughters tank and they died in about three days but also the silver dollors died just yesterday. My biggest worrie is my oscar, as now he is just staying in the top corner of his tank and just hasn't mooved,,I have notised that under his mouth on his left looks a little inflamed and just dosn't look right it's under his gill..Today I am going to have his water tested and see if it's ok, I was getting worried that after he ate the silver shark he hurt himself as he ate it head first and bit the head off I worry something got stuck,,,the thing is until this happend they were all just great,,also I must add that he is very grey and has white stuff all over him he is still very happy to see me and will eat when I feed him,,(blood worms) I just don't want to loose him as I just adore my little guy,,,any advise would be really realy great...thanking you kindly..samantha,,

 

First questions/comments:
White stuff sounds like a fungus (if anyone disagrees, please speak up. I've never had a sick fish). You'll want to treat it for that. If you have snails, get them out of the tank, because the most effective medicines will kill inverts.

Get yourself a water test kit. the Master API kit is the favorite around here. (I use the strips, but only because I hate to be wasteful. Once I go through my bottle, I'll be switching to the API)
Test for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH,
What are the readings?
Ammonia and Nitrite should be 0, or close to. Nitrates should be, at the very most, 60 or under. 20 or under is what you're shooting for. (the numbers I'm giving are ppm)

Have you cycled your new tank? It could be that the tank built up too much toxins before the bacteria colonies could get set up to take care of ammonia and nitrites. If either of those numbers is much higher than 0, there's your problem. We can work on getting your fish through getting the tank cycled if this is the case.

Do you use municipal water? If you do, what conditioner do you use?

While it sounds like a fungus is killing your fish, the root of the problem is more likely "what stressed your oscar to the point that his immune system couldn't fight the fungus?" Any of these could stress the fish out.
If you can get to a pet store tonight (the tonight is presuming you're in the US), do so. I'd get something to treat a fungal infection immediately and start treating the tank.
Good luck to you and your oscar. I hope he does well.

 

we understand how you love your pet and hopefully he'll pull through. I don't think the problem is as much from him eating the silver shark, but perhaps from some illness one of the fish had from the pet shop. Did you quarantine the new fish before adding them to the tank?

i'm not an expert on oscars and you'll probably get better answers if your post is in the freshwater diseases forum and/or the forum for oscars. From what I know of freshwater fish diseases in general, it sounds like he has a body fungus. You can check: to see if the description of body fungus symptoms matches your oscar. There are a lot of options available to you for treating him:
- Fungus Clear - this is something that i've used. it's a good, basic anti-fungus med that will turn the water blue and dye most decorations.
- Fungus Eliminator - this is a stronger anti-fungus med that i've not used, but is made by the same company.
- Maracyn - moving up the scale (i'm pretty sure) of med strength, this is an antibiotic. It's often used with Maracyn-2 . Together they're like a "cover all the bases" treatment.
- Binox - this is strong stuff, but i've not tried it.

You could start at the level of meds that you think he needs. A smaller hospital tank lets you spend less on meds in treating a smaller amount of water, but if he's the only fish in his current tank and you feel he'd be happier staying in it, then you'll want to treat him in that tank since oscars love room to roam.

He also sounds like he could have ammonia poisoning, but without readings, I am just guessing. what numbers did you get for the water? i'd recommend:
for testing your water yourself. (You'll do the best job I think.)

What do you treat the water with? I'd recommend treating your tap water with Prime or NovAqua+ (The Novaqua+ might be best to give him a little extra boost in getting better).

A good thing might be a 25% water change, then adding the recommended amount of NovAqua+ for your tank (1 tsp per 10 gallons), then treating with the med that you choose as the instructions say.

Oh.. I forgot to mention a product that could be helpful too: . Vitachem is a product we just ordered because it's proven so helpful to a friend's injured fish.. just like with us, your oscar would probably benefit from vitamins to help get healthy.

Best of luck with you oscar (what's his name btw)? We hope he pulls through and clears out that stuff so you can see him live to the 10-13 years that oscars average.

 

HEY THERE ALL, I thankyou both for all your information and I hope I am doing what needs to be done.I have had the guy from the aquarium shop come over and he said that my water was fine and it looked as though my fish had injured himself..I did think he looked inflamed under his mouth on the left..So we have put in some fungus-ade and are hoping this helps at leat make him more comfortable..I asked about an antibiotic and was told to just wait and see how he gose with the fungus aid as he did have a little fungus but he felt it was becouse he was injured and trying to heal. The guy from the shop didn't think roy(yes his name is roy) was going to die(THANK GOODNESS) as he was still quite lively when I offered him food,,,anyway thankyou kindly for your infomation as I hope now I have the problem under control. Evern if I am getting somone else to do it...THANKING YOU KINDLY SAMANTHA...by the way i'm in Australia...

 

Best of luck to Roy and to you Samantha. Maybe after he's all recovered you can post pictures of Roy - we'd love to see him

 

Good to hear that he is being taken care of. ;D
Don't worry about having someone else deal with it. The person from the fish store has an advantage that we don't have, he/she can see the fish. If you can get them to help you out like that, it's great, and you'll be learning first-hand how to deal with this problem in the future.