Oscar skin problem

[xplosive]

I have 7cm tiger oscar in my 4ft tank. Its been getting white flaky sections of skin and ripped up fins. I treated the tank with meds to kill fungus, bacteria, etc, but this didn't really effect it. Its weird because one morning it will have the white skin, then over a couple days it goes away.

Here's a picture of what it looks like:



Any ideas of what it could be?

[wrk21]

have you got anything in the tank that is sharp??
or other fish that would be chasing him around.....??

[Benji]

yep, looks like it's been scratching itself on a sharp rock/log.

[xplosive]

Yeah, I'm starting to think it might be from being bullied/stress. Its tankmate is a little bit bigger and recently i've seen it chasing the smaller one. There is some driftwood in the tank it could of scratched itself on while trying to escape.

Thanks for the replies :)

xplosive

[Savage_roo]

I would put in some rock salt as well that should heal up those scrachers

Andrew

[Jimmy]

Salt is great, also Melafix is a great all round medication...

[Jimmy]

Salt is great, also Melafix is a great all round medication...

[Dead Fish Floating]

Well....
my advice would be to get a piece of eggcrate.
Cut it to size and use it to divide a section off the end.
It's not perfect but at least then the little guy
can have some time out.
Maybe they can get used to each other enough to take it out in a bit.
But you need to seperate the fish for a bit.
Remove the main stress.
I couldn't view your picture,
But it sounded like the flank wounds recieved on a loser in a cichlid fight.
Not able to match mouth size the smaller one turns it's flank and is almost grazed.
These wounds are very difficult to spot on lighter oscars.
They can be come infected with bacteria and fungus problem causers.
Fish with skin problems with often 'slough' their 'slimecoat'.
Some fish do this after being returned from a suicide leap
or in the wild to create a slime bubble to hide them from morays like parrot fish.
Sometimes fish will do it after recieving heater burns.
Glass heaters in oscar tanks can be worth protecting with some
gutter guard or a proper heater protector.
Melafix and salt are common treatments for cichlid wounds.
With large tanks, and fish that fight it can be more enconomic
to purchase a bag of swimming pool salt
and perhaps even dabble in 'ozziefix' alchemy.
Whatever you dose, it's worth keeping a logbook.
You need to know how much salt is in the water,
or how many days you have added melafix.
Add a mark on the tank and work out the evapouration.
Any recorded data is good data.
Salt is important because while your fish may adapt easily,
Your filter bacteria may not.
The group average for cichlids seems to be around
1 tbs per 20L of water in the tank.
This can seem like a lot.
But remember when you water change you only add salt to the replacement water.

Good food is important to oscars.
Smaller ones require more frequent feeding
to attain good growth.
Tanks with size mismatches are sometimes worth feeding at 2 ends simultaneously.
Or with mixed sinking and floating food
that way the top and bottem fish have a shot at a good feed.
I think earth worms are a worthy snack for baby oscars.
Live or frozen, whole or chopped.
Fills the belly! Little cubes of beefheart/fish/prawn are a handy snack as well.
Feeders are expensive tho fun to watch, but carry risk
as does every fish you add of bringing disease.
Oscars can live a long time if they don't catch some new disease.
So in that way it can be a risk reduction to avoid feeder fish.
If you still want feeders,
try to gutload the feeder with the finest spirulina flake
and then send it on it's mission.
That way the oscar gets it veges.
Sure the powerhead gets a bit dirtier with frequent feeds but
cleaning it in a bucket of water each day, then replacing a bucket,
Keeps the current up, water clear and wastes diluted.
Works quite well combined with another biological filter that is rarely and softly cleaned.
AIr powered sponge or a cannister or hangon for example.
Seperate and spoil,
observe and work out if these 2 fish can be friends.
Maybe the fish are 2 males,
in that case they may not get along.
AT the least you will need lots of decorations to break up line of sight
moving the ornaments around messes with their pre-programed attack loops too.
and gives them a change in scenery.