hello,
I've posted to a few other forums but am not having too much luck with current treatment, and wondering if anyone here had additional advice.
Briefly, I have about a 7-year old oscar that has had decreased appetite, labored breathing, and mouth sores for the past week. He's in a 75gallon aquarium with an FX5 canister filter. I immediately did about a 50% water change, followed by 30% next day, which is when I noticed a mouth sore. About 5 days prior I had tried adding an airstone and he got hold of one of the suction cups, so I thought that the sore was maybe due to this..but that maybe it got infected hence the delayed effect of decreased appetite?
Anyways nitrites and ammonia have been 0, nitrates were 20 but some recommended a new test kit as it was about 3-4 yrs old. So I got a new one which still said 20, but now with the water changes it's down to 5. Of note, he does have "chronic" HITH disease for the past 5 yrs since I got him from my friend which has remained mostly unchanged and he has always eaten well.
Advice was to continue water changes, salt (about 1 tablespoon per 10g vs. per 5g), increase temperature, all of which were done without improvement. While at times he might look a little better in the morning, later on he'd just be sitting on the bottom breathing rapidly. I'm actually surprised that he has had the energy to breath like this for a week. Yesterday i finally decided to treat with antibiotics since I felt things were getting worse despite good water quality measurements, and all the other suggestions. Currently giving kanamycin and triple sulfa.
He appears more active this evening, but the mouth sores are definitely getting larger and breathing is the same. He did manage to eat a few pieces of banana earlier (felt pellets would be too hard), some of which he spit out.
Any other ideas???? I was thinking possible columnaris (less virulent form) affecting gills and breathing. He also has several white patches on his tail. TB mouth sores? The only other thing maybe worth mentioning is that today I noticed what looks like increased slime coat on some of the plastic plants and filter, which I'm not sure is cause of the 70% water changes I've done recently (due to conditioner?) vs. reactive increased slimecoat production from stress vs. somehow medication related.
Sorry for the long post any help would be appreciated!
The last pic is the mouth sore about a week ago compared to today (first pic). I also have a video of the breathing if needed.
I've posted to a few other forums but am not having too much luck with current treatment, and wondering if anyone here had additional advice.
Briefly, I have about a 7-year old oscar that has had decreased appetite, labored breathing, and mouth sores for the past week. He's in a 75gallon aquarium with an FX5 canister filter. I immediately did about a 50% water change, followed by 30% next day, which is when I noticed a mouth sore. About 5 days prior I had tried adding an airstone and he got hold of one of the suction cups, so I thought that the sore was maybe due to this..but that maybe it got infected hence the delayed effect of decreased appetite?
Anyways nitrites and ammonia have been 0, nitrates were 20 but some recommended a new test kit as it was about 3-4 yrs old. So I got a new one which still said 20, but now with the water changes it's down to 5. Of note, he does have "chronic" HITH disease for the past 5 yrs since I got him from my friend which has remained mostly unchanged and he has always eaten well.
Advice was to continue water changes, salt (about 1 tablespoon per 10g vs. per 5g), increase temperature, all of which were done without improvement. While at times he might look a little better in the morning, later on he'd just be sitting on the bottom breathing rapidly. I'm actually surprised that he has had the energy to breath like this for a week. Yesterday i finally decided to treat with antibiotics since I felt things were getting worse despite good water quality measurements, and all the other suggestions. Currently giving kanamycin and triple sulfa.
He appears more active this evening, but the mouth sores are definitely getting larger and breathing is the same. He did manage to eat a few pieces of banana earlier (felt pellets would be too hard), some of which he spit out.
Any other ideas???? I was thinking possible columnaris (less virulent form) affecting gills and breathing. He also has several white patches on his tail. TB mouth sores? The only other thing maybe worth mentioning is that today I noticed what looks like increased slime coat on some of the plastic plants and filter, which I'm not sure is cause of the 70% water changes I've done recently (due to conditioner?) vs. reactive increased slimecoat production from stress vs. somehow medication related.
Sorry for the long post any help would be appreciated!
The last pic is the mouth sore about a week ago compared to today (first pic). I also have a video of the breathing if needed.
