Hi Prof

Hi Prof, I have a bit of a mystery and I have gone through all of the avenues and tried everything I could to find the cause of what is happening to my fish but I have come out blank here is the post I made in the original thread:

The original thread with all the things I have tried can be found here: http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=5078

These attacks seems to have become progressively worse and worse and it has reached the point were he is going to either kill himself in a bad way or break something.

Regards Charl

 

Hi Charl,

In South American cichlids one gets parasites which influence the brain and cause this sort of problem. It is not common in discus, but it certainly occurs there as well with the same symptoms. When the fishes get these attacks they swim around in tight circles and bash into everything as you explain. They eventually die from the problem in all the cases that I have had. The problem occurs more commonly in wild-caught discus which carry the parasite from nature, but I have had the infection spread from wild-caught fishes to captive discus also resulting in the death of the fish. If one were to have treated the fishes earlier with something like flubendazole the treatment might have been successful, but once the fishes show these nervous symptoms it is normally too late and it is the best to euthenaze the fish. It is a pity as I can see that your oscar is a really nice healthy looking fish. You can try to increase the temp a little as this may help, but medication is too late in my opinion, sorry about the bad news.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks Dirk, so you say the best would be to euthanize the fish now rather than later? And would I need to clean my whole setup and start from fresh or can I leave the tank for a week or two. Does this parasite actively stay in the water or does it need hosts to survive.

Thanks Charl

 

Hi Charl,

It is your decision whether you want to euthenaze the fish or whether you want to see if he might get better. I am a born optimist and always try.

Very little is know about the persistence of the parasite, but in my recirculating discus system it is impossible to sterilize everything and start afresh. If you leave the setup without fishes for a week that will be fine in my opinion because parasites cannot survive without a host, only the eggs can, but we do not even know how long these might need to hatch. If we assume that they would hatch at a similar rate to say gill flukes, which hatch after 4 days and need to find a host within 24 hours or else they die, then a period of 7 days would mean that they would all be dead by then.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Aah man! That is the healthiest Oscar I have seen. I think you should give him a chance and maybe he can pull through?

Really sad.

Sorry Larch

 

Thanks Dirk, at this point it has gotten only worse he has the attacks 4 times a day now so its increasing so is the intensity of these attacks. He is also getting more cuts and bruises each day and at some point he wont be able to keep up with healing those and get secondary infections at this rate. Not to mention he might break the heater or something else in the tank, its sad but I would rather end his suffering now than having it drown out into a long affair that would be really unfair to the fish.

-Charl-

 

its a sad day bro, i think many off us here have gotten rather fond of the cute little monster...

 

+1

:wondering:

 

Sorry to read this Larch

 

Thanks, I spoke to someone else now who is an Oscar breeder and been keeping them for several years and it seems to euthenaze him would be the best option. He has told me that the fish reached such a point that they go berserk and dont stop till they kill themselves or run out of energy and die.

 

Its really sad, really it is. I have seen him i think 3 times? Looked playfull lol. He/she will be missed.