Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everybody,

this is my first time posting on the fish forums. I usually hang arount the reptile and amphibian forums.

Recently, i decided i wanted to have another fish aquarium in my living room. I went and bought a 29 gallon aquarium with a stand, the nessecary chemicals for things like ammonia, chlorine, etc. and all of the other "stuff".

I set my aquarium up and let it run for almost 2 weeks before i put anything into it. The first thing i bought were four ghost shrimp. They were still living after a few days, so i purchased a plecostomas "spelling?". After a few more days, i bought an oscar and 2 red minnows. I had originally intended for the red minnows to be feeder fish, but the oscar has no interest in them.

Everything seems to be going fine, but the oscar hasnt eaten or atleast i havent seen him eat at all in the week ive had him.

lastnight i noticed what looked like ich on the oscar, so i treated the water according to the directions on the back of the bottle.

A few hours later, i went to feed the fish. I noticed the oscar was doing backflips in the water. He seems fine otherwise, but every now and then i catch him doing these backflips, or positioning himself straight up in the water and spinning.

The red minnows and the sucker fish seem to be acting perfectly normal.

I just wanted to get the opinion of some people who are more knowledgeable when it comes to fish.

Thanks for any advice, or info y'all can give me.

Anthony

Hey Anthony. Welcome to ours boards. Typically I tell people to avoid any chemicals that say they treat things like ammonia or things like that. In your case, you say your fish is exhibiting signs of ich (by that I guess you mean white spots). It is a good thing you treated the tank, however, in most cases if your fish has ich... it won't make it through. On the other hand, if he does make it through he will be resistant to ich at least more than a fish that never had ich. Ich is a parasite that does massive damage, and is quite a horrible way to die if you ask me. I can almost positively say that your poor baby has ich, but not 100%.
I've given you a link below to read. However, there are some misconceptions on that site. 1) It is really not a good idea to raise the temperature of your tank. It may actually do more harm than good. 2) Don't add as much salt as recommended on that site. All water bodies contain trace amounts of salts, even freshwater. It allows for healthier fish. However, if you add too much salt the fish's body has to work harder to remove too many salts... thus expending more energy on osmoregulation than necessary and not enough on getting rid of the parasite in this case.

I hope this helps, and please keep us posted on how things are going. Good luck.
Ich

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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

thankyou so much for the info,

I got home tonight and noticed the oscar is doing the back flipping thing more often.
I also noticed there seems to be a cloudy white spot on one of his eyes.
I guess all I can do now is just keep trying to help and watch him and see what happens.

Thanks again for the info and I'll keep ya updated

Anthony

The white spots on the eye could be a fungus...

Did the fish look healthy when you purchased him?
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."