Donkey

I got this little oscar yesterday from someone I work with. He told me about the fish so I offered to help him treat it in my quarantine tank. Unfortunately, he doesn't know the water parameters. He just said he got it at a pet store a couple months ago, and it hasn't really grown much in that time. Within the last couple of weeks he started to notice what you see in the picture. The fish is still fairly active and eats at least a little food every day. I am guessing there is some fungal infection or something with the way the fins look and discolored areas of the fish. My coworker also recently noticed white stringy feces which you can see in the picture. I hastily dosed some metroplex yesterday, but now I'm second guessing and think I should just use salt and prazipro or something similar. I have both prazipro and general cure on hand. Would salt and parasite meds be the best option? He also said he had another oscar and two angelfish that he got at the same time. I'm going to try to convince him to let me go ahead and treat them all. I told him they weren't the best tank mates, and I will help him with that after treating. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, I am starting Kanaplex today. I spoke longer with the vet, and he agreed treating for both would be a good option. However, he is a little surprised by the appearance. He thought I would be able to see more extension from the body with epistylis. Under magnification the spots look like flat round discs. He said he has seen ich on the eyes enough to not be entirely surprised by it. Of course, he couldn't say for sure without a sample. I am not quite sure what you mean by clean the water. This tank has never gone longer than two days without a water change and over the last week the water changes have been every day. Unless you mean get all of the current medicine out, then yes, I plan on changing the water first. Thanks again.

Thanks again for the help. I went ahead and ordered the Paraguard, and I will hold out for it to arrive tomorrow. I will probably change out the water today and go ahead try a course of the kanaplex. Then add the Paraguard once it arrives tomorrow. It would be sort of a strange coincidence to have what appears to be epistylis and ich develop within a day or so of each other in tanks that shared fish. However, this tank is the newest of the affected tanks which would also be favorable to epistylis from what I understand. So I guess that can be fairly normal. Thanks again for the advice in another course to try.

Thanks for the suggestions. So I can only use kanaplex with paraguard? Unfortunately, I don't have any paraguard and nobody around here carries it. Amazon says it can get to me tomorrow so I might give it a try. The only meds available locally that look like they have different ingredients is API super ick cure which I have never used before. Thanks again for the help.

Thank you for the response. I just texted my vet friend about it possibly being epistylis. He said he didn't think it would be that because generally epistylis is more localized than ich and presents itself slightly differently in color and appearance. He said it was possible, but he didn't think so. I do have some Kanaplex on hand so I may try a treatment of that to see if the condition improves. The vet didn't think there would be a med interaction with kanaplex and ich x, but he couldn't be sure. Has anyone used Kanaplex with Ich x? From what I read it works better mixed with food, but they aren't eating very well right now. I might try cutting some shrimp up really small and mixing it with that to get them to take it. Thanks again for the suggestion.

Can someone help me confirm whether this is ich for sure or not? I have been treating with Ich X for around 5-6 days now and the condition has only got much worse in that time. I sent the photos to a vet acquaintance and he said he thought it could only be ich or velvet from the pics and the treatment would be the same either way. I had what appeared to be ich in a few of my other tanks that went away after 1 or 2 doses of ich x. I believe I spread it because I moved some fish around for aggression reasons before I noticed any spots. I continued treating for a few days to make sure it was gone and it hasn't returned in those tanks. This was the last tank to develop the symptoms. However, so far the condition keeps getting worse every day in spite of the same treatment. The spots look the same as the other tanks that had them, but they are much worse in this one. I have been doing daily water changes with the treatments for the past week or so. I am seeking some advice because I have kept fish for 30 years, but I have never had ich that has progressed this far in spite of treatment. This is a 40 gallon breeder that is set up as a quarantine tank. There are 5 oscars, 1 clown knife, 1 royal pleco, 1 fire eel, and 1 silver arowana. I have only had these fish for a couple of weeks. They are all very small still and will be moving to a 500 gallon tank once they have some size. There is no substrate in the tank, but there are some pvc pipes and potted plants, and a couple of pieces of lava rock. There is a heater and an aquarium coop large sponge filter in the tank with an air stone. Water parameters: NO2 and NO3: 0 (daily water changes), ph: 7.2, GH: around 8d, no chlorine detected. Temp has been around 78 degrees. I recently raised it to 80 degrees. Many more spots appeared after raising the temp slightly. I have been reluctant to raise the temp further because that is the only thing that has given me negative results in the past from what I can tell. As I mentioned, I have been treating with Ich X daily with the recommended dose and conditioning the water with Ultimate as recommended to avoid the sulphur reaction. These fish also went through a treatment of PraziPro. I also thought about trying salt, but was strongly advised against it by the vet and a couple friends who thought some of the fish would be too sensitive, especially with the progression. I am hoping someone can give me some advice on anything else I can be doing. I have only been doing 1 dose a day because of the clown knife and the eel. The only thing I can think of is to do more treatments a day and hope for the best. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the help. When I included epsom salt in my searches I found a lot more information. I will give the salt treatments a try.

Has anyone had any experience with egg binding in their females? I have a pair of Boesemani in a breeding tank which is a 20H. They are the only fish in the tank. The tank is empty except for some moss for them to spawn in and a single anubias attached to a rock. I use a sponge filter and a submersible heater. I have had the pair in the tank for about a week. They don't hesitate to spawn, and I have witnessed them spawning several times. They have even spawned when I had my hand in the tank. The problem is that I never see her release any eggs as they separate. She also never seems to slim down any after the spawning. I am concerned she has become egg bound. I am curious if anyone has experienced this, and if there is anything I can do? I have done some research, but haven't found much information other than it could cause the death of the female. Should I just leave the pair in there and hope in corrects itself? I kept the pair in a 110 gallon community tank for about a year before putting them in the breeding tank. The water is the same in both tanks. I don't specifically remember them trying to spawn in the larger tank. In fact, the male would chase a female rainbow fish in that tank that is not a Boesemani rather than the female he is with now. The water parameters from what I remember are: ph is around 7.2, the nitrates are around 10, temp is around 79-80 degrees, and I have fairly hard water here. I would give the exact readings, but my testing kit ran out, and I have on order that hasn't arrived. The last time I tested was two days ago. Thanks in advance for any advice or experience.