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Quick background- 2.5 year old 55 gallon with Oscy & Plec each about 13"
50% water changes every week, steady temp & water forever...

Last night (3AM) Plec was sucking on the tank as usual but seemed to be sliding down. I looked minutes later to see him on his side.
This has been going on ever since! He will lay on his side or back, then swim around with some bubbles coming out, do spins sometimes like he's dizzy, bump into the top of the tank & "fall"/slide down -
But sometimes in normal position like nothing is wrong. He's breathing normal, looks normal, eyes normal-
WHAT IS WRONG???!!!

He has no symptoms! The ONLY thing is about a month ago the "skin" right underneath his sucker (what would be his "chest"-if he's sucked on the front & you're looking right at him-had a patch that looked scraped off. It even looked kind of bloody.
I watched & it healed back just fine! He never showed any symptoms of anything!

He still shows no symptoms, though that "patch of skin" has a whitish hue-as in you can see where it was, almost like a scar.

We thought he might be bloated, & the inside of his 'mouth" looks kind of red and we thoughiBut sometimes in normal position like nothing is wrong. He's breathing normal, looks normal, eyes normalBut sometimes in normal position like nothing is wrong. He's breathing normal, looks normal, eyes normal where his "bottom opening" did to, but this was in looking for something. It's not obvious stuff.

We put a bit of epsom salt (5 teaspoons) thinking/hoping it is constipation.

PLEASE HELP! WHAT IS GOING ON??!! He's been fine & ALL OF A SUDDEN...!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would do a partial water change to take out the Epsom Salts. It's ok to use them to clear constipation and to try to draw water off of them if they are suffering from dropsy, but I would not just arbitrarily add it.

Even tho you do 50% water changes weekly, lets get the nitrate level on that tank. High Nitrates can really cause health issues (over 40ppm, and especially if over 100ppm). They won't cause a die-off but can create general decline.

Now, to put the size and tank volume in perspective, I have two goldfish that are about 3.5 inches long. With 40% water changes weekly on my 36 gallon bowfront, I cannot keep the nitrates below 40ppm. I may start out on one week at 5ppm, then it climbs to 50ppm, I do a water change and get it down to 25ppm, then it raises up to 75ppm, do another water change to get down to 50ppm and I think you see what happens. It rises slowly each week.

Two 13 inch fish is a lot of body in a small volume of water, even tho the 55 seems big.

The remedy in that case would be to know what your nitrates are today, then begin a series of water changes every day or even every 12 hours, depending on your schedule. Get them down to 5ppm. Then, see how fast they climb back to 40ppm at which time they need to be brought down. With a fish showing signs of stress or sickness, I'd be wanting it less than 40ppm, like 20-30ppm or less. With that, you would need to keep monitoring your nitrates each time you do a water change to know what they are.

Ultimately, the best remedy is to get them into a much larger tank to reduce the number of times per week you have to change water. As it stands now, you may find that your tank requires two 50% changes.

Let's start there, and check ammonia and nitrite while we are at it.

Do you perform deep gravel vacs going right to the glass? It is good to move things out of the tank on one side and go deep to get into areas that may have compacted gravel. Kind of hold the tube still especially if you run into bubbles, which would be hyrogen sulfide.

I would also ask if you've had a power outage in the last month or so?

Thank you for your advise. Unfortunately Plecy has transcended. At least he didn't suffer. He was swimming & eating normally. This all happened in less than 24 hours. Have NO IDEA what happened. I know it wasn't the water-been consistant for 3.5 years! And thank EVERYTHING Oscy is fine. All I know is we love & miss him very much!!!!!!!!

Elf - please do the checks anyway. Older tanks need to be watched in terms of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Oscars tend to be hardier, but in time, even he will succumb if there are parameter problems. He may start out with HITH or HLLE, among other things.

Its simple to check them so please follow-up. I hope you will post your numbers when you have them. Good tests to do or have done at the fish store with bagged water are as follows:

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
kH:
Temp:

We can tell by the numbers if your Oscar is headed for trouble too and if environmental factors played a role in the death of the Plec.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 17-Mar-2005 17:46