Oscar sideways with random swollen eye

[Etown612]

We've had an albino oscar for about a month now, he's about 4 inches long, in a 55 gallon tank with a Pleco, Pleco has been in tank about a week and is about 3 inches. I am using aquaclear filter for 70 gallon tank 200gph and do water changes from about 35%-50% weekly.

Last night when I got home from work Oscar was laying sideways which he will randomly do for a few minutes at a time or after water changes, but when it lasted over an hour I tested the water, nitrates were the only reading that was off and it was at 10 ppm, Oscar was in same position this morning but twitched a few times...I left for work and my significant other called and said his eye was swollen(within an hour) and he was completely sideways, she did a 75% water change cuz the nitrates spiked to about 40ppm, tested water again, levels were perfect, within an hour he had no swollen eye again and he was swimming, an hour later swelling was back and he was on his side(Pleco even tried to stick to the Oscar), swelling has gone down significantly(about 6-7 hours later)but he is still on his side, also the Pleco has been going to the bathroom A LOT the past 2 days, is the worst over and Oscar just stressed? I can't do anything till morning regardless. Thank you in advance!

 

[Oscarr19]

Plecos are dirty fish. Atleast we know that it was caused by spikes in water levels. I personally wouldn't recommend an oscar in anything less than a 75G but seeing as it is still small its ok. The oscar should be fine but monitor water levels for atleast a week.

 

[Etown612]

Planning a move soon and have 110 gallon ready, but thank you for quick reply=)

 

[Oscarr19]

110G! Glad to know your upgrading. I'm Putting an oscar in a 75G. Would get bigger but my parents would freak lol Still can't decide whether to get a tiger oscar or albino tiger oscar...

 

[Oscarr19]

Oh and i realized i wrote plecos were dirt fish lol i meant dirty.. *fixed

 

[Etown612]

Yaa, I had to have my dad help me pick up the 55 and he freaked when he saw it, then 3 weeks after I bought the 55 there was a beautiful 110 gallon in a rich neighborhood with stand, tops, and 2 penguin filters for 40 dollars!!! LOL i woulda dragged it home for that price, or lived in it for a day or 2 till I had something big enough to move it, do u think I should get rid of the Pleco tomorrow morning? I just wanted some sort of cleaner in the tank but if he's doing more harm than good...

 

[Oscarr19]

See if your LFS can take him for store credit. Also BN are at risk of being eaten by the oscar once its grown. I want to try adding stripped raphaels with my oscar when i get him/her. You can try those if you'd like.

 

[Etown612]

The Oscar I had before this one would beat the snot out of anything I put in with him, armored Pleco, clown knife, Dempsey, the only fish that held his own was a smaller aggressive cichlid, but this Oscar seems quite timid, I put a gourami a third of the size in with this Oscar for about 15 minutes and he was freaking out swimming upright and backwards with just his bottom fin moving.

 

[Mogurako]

It just sounds like stress from nitrate spikes to me. Rehome the pleco there really isn't a need for it, if you get allot of algae buy a couple of snails. Also you need more filtration in that tank, the filter/s need to be able to turn over the total volume of the water 10 times or more per hour. Your total volume is only getting turned over roughly 3 times an hour. Ocars are very dirty fish and require lots of filtration and 1-2 50% water changes a week to prevent HITH and HILP.

 

[Etown612]

Thanks for all the quick advice guys, Pleco will be gone tomorrow and I'm adding another filter to the tank, it ended up being popeye, then it started with a white ring around the eye(cloudy) so I started treatment immediately and 2 days into treatment hes acting normAl again swimming around=)again thanks for the quick responses

 

[Mogurako]

I am glad he's doing better.

 

[Oscarr19]

Anytime glad to see hes doing better

 

[Etown612]

So it's been 4 days of treatment and Oscar seems to be doing a lot better, eating out of my hands and everything, but he still has random massive twitches and darts from one end of the tank to the other, is this normal? Thanks

 

[Oscarr19]

Most fish do that. If he is doing a lot better then i wouldn't worry about it but keep an eye out for him.

 

[Etown612]

So today is the 7th day of melafix, there is still a little white in the oscars eyes, but it's doing much better, should I continue melafix until it's gone or will it still go away if I stop the melafix and do the water change? Thanks=)