ich or other?

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sl - 20 May 2004 22:44 GMT

have an oscar tank, my oldest had a cloudy spot on his side fin
for a while. today i noticed that it is spread to a nearby spot which
haas eaten through the fin. 2 other oscars have this cloudy spot on
their side (dorsal?) fins. but only there, and only three of 4 oscars
have it on one side only. checked water yesterday, and the nitrite
was .25, the ph 7.4 and all else at 0. i don't have a hardness
tester, but bein in the city, it's soft.

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Mark Stone - 21 May 2004 03:52 GMT

> have an oscar tank, my oldest had a cloudy spot on his side fin
> for a while. today i noticed that it is spread to a nearby spot which
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> was .25, the ph 7.4 and all else at 0. i don't have a hardness
> tester, but bein in the city, it's soft.

By "Cloudy Spot" do you mean mold (Grey, perhaps stringy, fuzzy)? I
have the feeling, given the information that you've supplied, that you
have a small tank that is overcrowded with 4 Oscars, and the "cloudy
spots" are injuries overgrown with mold. Grey mold often grows over
fresh injuries in aggressive aquariums. If this is not the case, then
tell us how old (i.e. what size) the Oscars are, the size of the
aquarium, whether it's aggressive or calm, etc --

--Mark

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sl - 21 May 2004 16:46 GMT

>By "Cloudy Spot" do you mean mold (Grey, perhaps stringy, fuzzy)? I
>have the feeling, given the information that you've supplied, that you
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
>--Mark

cloudy i just mean white kinda like clouds are white. if it is
regular mold that still doesn't account for the hole that just
appeared. if aquarium mold is different i don't know. the biggest is
approx 8" and the other 3 are 5-6" max. there is some aggression on
the part of the biggest, who was there first, but generally, calm
reigns. 110 gall tank. and if it were an injury i don't know what
could cause it, because there are no little fish that would fin nip,
in the middle of the fin. these are not in the outer edge, clearly
within the boundary of the fin itself.

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Mark Stone - 22 May 2004 04:25 GMT

> cloudy i just mean white kinda like clouds are white. if it is
> regular mold that still doesn't account for the hole that just
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> in the middle of the fin. these are not in the outer edge, clearly
> within the boundary of the fin itself.

I can't think of what it would be, but I'm certain that it's not Ich,
neither is it HITH. Here's what to do: First, increase your aquarium
temperature to between 80 and 82 (you should be running it at about 78
normally). Head down to your local LFS (fish shop) and get a general
aquaria medication; I strongly suggest "Clout", which is an
anti-protozoan med that is mighty, mighty powerful. FOLLOW THE
INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY, including removing carbon from filters, doing
the water changes, etc. Things should return to normal.

THEN, be brutally honest with yourself about your aquarium
maintenance, because diseases in aquariums are always (always) the
human's fault. Whenever there is a disease in one of my tanks, I can
look back and identify a cause; perhaps I had fallen into a pattern of
overfeeding, or I put in a new fish without proper quarantine, or
allowed something to happen that increased stress levels. After you
identify what may have caused the disease, then correct it and you
should be good to go.

Good luck! Keep us updated

--Mark

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Jonathan Wood - 25 May 2004 06:27 GMT

Ich usually looks a bit like someone shook some table salt on the fish. What
you have sounds more like some type of fungus.

Jonathan

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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / May 2004

ich or other?