HELPPPPP!!!! Poorly Oscar

[TracyUK]

One of my oscars has a problem. He has what looks like a bulgy mass of pus under one eye which is pulling the eye out a bit. Its making him swim slightly on his side. I'll take a pic in a minute if I can catch it well enough to see. What should I do?


Thanks

[TracyUK]

Here's a couple of pics of my poorly boy:help:

[2manyfish]

Looks like the result of an injury rather than pop-eye. Doesn't really matter what caused it, the treatment is the same. You need to treat him with a broad spectrum antibiotic. If you have a hospital tank the best option would be to treat him in there. If you don't, then you will have to treat the main tank but you will need to watch your parameters closely to make sure you aren't disturbing the good bacteria too. Follow the directions on the label completely. Finish the dosing period - don't stop in the middle because he's looking better. Keep up with your water changes too.

Good luck with your O!!
BTW, gorgeous O you got there!! :luxlove:

[TracyUK]

Thanks for that, will make a trip to the LFS today and get him some medicine. He certainly is beautiful and it would be a shame to lose him.

[GoldLenny]

If you can find anti-bacterial food, that will help also. Usually, Jungle's brand is available at most pet stores/LFS. It's not the best but it's OK. Here's a snip from a site I have in my favorites where they researched/reviewed the various medicated foods.


Jungle Anti-Bacteria Medicated Fish Food
Medical ingredients: sodium sulfathiazole 2.3%, nitrofurazone 0.13%
Active ingredients: sodium sulfathiazole is a sulfa drug (and an ingredient in the water antibiotic TriSulfa) Sulfa drugs are bacteriostatic. So is the second ingredient Nitrofurazone.
Use and Comments: Both of these medications may work well with infections such as columnaris (flex – caused by Flavobacterium columnare). You may want to choose another medication if you suspect an aeromonas infection. Jungle Anti-Bacteria Medicated Fish Food can be combined with a Jungle Fungus Cure or Jungle Fungus Eliminator bath treatment.

[Rue]

...adding salt and upping the temp a couple of degrees might help clear that up too...

[TracyUK]

Many thanks for all your advise. We are going to go to our LFS tomorrow as we couldn't get there today. Tonight we will set up a little hospital tank from a tank we already have which has been up and running for quite a while but with no heater so we will get it right for him then isolate him and treat him. The 'spot' has actually gone down quite a bit today and he seems happier but we will still treat him anyway as we don't want to lose him.

I'm not sure about the salt as I think its not suitable for catfish (?) and we have a few.

[cocoa_pleco]

yep, catfish cant have salt. they have skin, not scales and it hurts them

[TracyUK]

yep, catfish cant have salt. they have skin, not scales and it hurts them

Thanks for confirming that Cocoathumbs2:

[Lady Hobbs]

Whatever he has, it looks as it may pop and drain. Not long ago, there was someone posting that had a silver dollar with a huge lump on it's side. It had an absess that eventally broke and cleared up. The idea of adding salt is probably a good one as salt is a drawing agent but it does burn their skin if used as directed......(1 T per 5 gallons). He may tolerate much less levels however. I've never used salt in the quanities directed! That dosage always sounded like WAY too much to me.

[Juannie]

Whatever he has, it looks as it may pop and drain. Not long ago, there was someone posting that had a silver dollar with a huge lump on it's side. It had an absess that eventally broke and cleared up. The idea of adding salt is probably a good one as salt is a drawing agent but it does burn their skin if used as directed......(1 T per 5 gallons). He may tolerate much less levels however. I've never used salt in the quanities directed! That dosage always sounded like WAY too much to me.

I had a synspilum that knocked her eye on slate, it swelled within a couple of hours. It actually swelled and turned into pop-eye so I moved her into a hospital tank, kept water changes up, added salts and put her on meds. The eye looked so bad, it filled with blood and went white. After about a month and a half she started healing but actually lost the eye, I kept her in a separate tank for a couple of months so that she healed well and when she was healthy put her back in with my oscar & pleco. She coped really well without it, if definitely pays to get onto it straight away and hospitalise them separately. You could also try Hikari Cichlid Bio Gold & if need be purchase liquid vitamins and soak the oscar's food in it (that's what I do).
GOOD LUCK!

[Rue]

You'd do best to have a small hospital tank...easier to maintain...

This site explains things very nicely!

http://www.petsforum.com/cis-fishnet/afm/G29036.htm