Oscar is sick!

[fo8squad]

Hi, i have a fresh water tank with two oscars, a white and black one in a 100 gallon tank with some other fish. My black oscar has been getting these circular flesh wounds on him. They look like something is tearing off circular pieces of his skin off, so now his skin is white in those places. He lies on the ground when not eating, but he has been alive for 4 weeks. I dont know what to do or what the disease is. Can someone help identify it? I cant post a pic because i dont have a camera. THey are just circular flesh wounds all over his face.

 

[ferret]

We need to know what the other fish in the tank are to accurately give you any ideas.

 

[tmanguy]

sick oscar

i moved over the new year and now my oscar just lays his side all the time. before he had a cool personality. he would always swim the look at me anytime i entered the room. but now looks lazy or sick.

 

[tmanguy]

sick oscar

i moved over the new year and now my oscar just lays his side all the time. before he had a cool personality. he would always swim the look at me anytime i entered the room. but now looks lazy or sick.

 

[Fruitbat]

Uh-oh....you moved?? This suggests that your tank is newly set up...is it all new water? Did you allow it to 'cycle' before you put the fish in it? Probably not....since you had to have someplace to put the fish. Curious minds want to know.

 

[tmanguy]

sick oscar

When i moved i cleaned out the tank and used fresh distilled water. I moved the oscar in a 1 gal water bottle. Cleaned the rocks and set up the tank. Once the water was 70'f, i put him in. Its been about 12 days now and he still looks sick or sad. I'm new the having fish and don't want to kill him. Please give advise and what is 'cycling'.

 

[Allivymar]

Cycling occurs when good bacteria colonise your fishtank to help deal with nitrogenous waste. All fish give off nitrogenous waste (ammonia), but cannot live in it; its poisonous and kills them. Basically, unless you remove all the water every day (and who does that??) the poison will build up. There is 2 types of bacteria which feeds on 2 types of nitrogenous waste which occur in all fishtanks and help minimize the poisons. Theres a great explanation of the nitrogen cycle here: http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html