sicklids

[funwiththefish]

My friend has a 55 gal tank. He's got a 4" oscar, a 3" oscar, and a 4" african. His 4" oscar has been really sick for the last few days. He's very listless, keeled over to one side. His eyes are completely clouded in the center. His abdomen looks like it's flaky. I've tried to find out the problem/cause in my fish guide, but can't find something that seems to fit. Is it possible that the fish's underside is being nibbled? His fins are intact and there are no white spot growths on his body. No fungus, either.

Sorry I can't help with tank parameters. I can't really say how competent he is with his tank. His tank has had an ick outbreak and I'm pretty sure his first few fish died of ammonia/nitrate/nitrite poisoning. Is his oscar simpy suffering from a similar toxin poisoning? Or does someone know of a particular illness affecting this fish?

Sorry for the vague info, and thanks for any help!

 

[TankGirl]

Yes, I would definitely say there are water quality issues that are causing this. What I would do is use aquarium salt in the tank (1 tbsp/10gal) and do a series of water changes over the course of a week. Eye cloudiness almost always means poor water quality, and that is easy to happen with these cichlids, even though right now they are pretty small.

A large-volume water change might be bad because assuming there are high nitrates the fish have become somewhat acclimated to this, and if the tank is mature there might also be a drop in pH, so slowly improving water quality with water changes will be the way to go.

I would say the other fish are picking on this one and that is the problem wtih the belly. If they can put in a tank divider for the time being to protect this fish from the others that would be ideal. I think the whole tank needs to be treated, though, and don't see much point in removing the fish to quarrantine unless a tank divider is not possible.