# juvie Tiger white poop & nipped fins



## ladystoneheart92 (Sep 17, 2013)

Hello, all! I have male Tiger Oscar, around 3" that is currently in my 30 gallon tank (will be upgrading to 100 gallon when my fish outgrow my current tank). I got him from a good LSF and he was a bit introverted the first 2 days in my new tank. He kept to himself in the corner of the tank, kinda sulking. Well, he was my first fish and now I have 6 other fish in the tank with him, all smaller than him except my male Kenyi (tank is all males: tomato hap, fire hap, bumble bee, creamsicle hybrid, rhoedesii, and the kenyi). Well my Oscar perked up and was swimming around, playing in the filter current, seems like a happy fish. Well he's never been really interested in eating which, for the first few days i contributed to stress/sulking. I was feeding NLS small sinking pellets and HGold floating pellets. He barely ate either of them while the rest of the fish ate it all up. I noticed the white, mucus-like poop he's been having a couple of days ago. I got bloodworms and fed my tank some yesterday and he ate them right up! so i'm glad he's eating now (he ate a little bit of the pellets since too but not as much as the other fish). He also has split fins and his tail fin looks like it got nibbled on. I don't know if he has internal parasites, fin rot, HITH, or a combination of any? The rest of the fish have heathly poop and they all act normal. my tank is new and has been cycling for 13 days now--I know that's not a long time but before I added any fish my nitrate, nitrite and ammonia were all 0. my PH is between 7.5-8 and my water temp is usually 78 give or take. everything else as far as water chemestry is up to par with what it should be. only thing is my nitrite randomly spiked to between .20-1. it's on the "caution" zone on my test kit. I added Prime to my tank, a generous amount, and did a 35% water change yesterday. I tested my tank again today (24 hours since the change and adding the Prime along with all the other water conditioners) and if anything I think my nitrite is at the same level or a bit higher! ah! I added more Prime today and Pimafix (for the Oscar's possible parasites?) and hoping something will change for the better! my nitrate was also at 0 all along except today it looks like it might be slightly higher than 0 but no where near 25 yet. 
I know my tank probably isn't done cycling and telling me that isn't going to help my Oscar with his white poopie or strange fin splitting. I wish to get some advice on how to fix my nitrite level, and what I can do for my Oscar. I've seen my Kenyi pick on the Oscar as he's the same size as the Oscar (they are the two biggest ones in the tank--the rest are under 2") so maybe the Kenyi nibbled on his tail fin but that doesn't explain the rest of his fins slightly splitting. Is that from growing or something else? help please! Sorry about the long post opcorn:


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## ladystoneheart92 (Sep 17, 2013)

chemistry* and other typos i'm sure lol


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## kaphil (Aug 3, 2006)

Ok well 2 problems here:
1. Aggression: your Oscar is being bullied, the tears in his fins are bites from the other fish. You have some seriously aggressive fish in that tank (kenyi and crabro are 2 of the most aggressive mbuna around), and even though the fish are young the tank is on the small side for that level of aggression. Most of those other fish will easily dominate a 3" Oscar. You need to get a bigger tank soon, and if you can't I think you should offload some of your fish.
2: You have introduced your fish before your tank is cycled. The nitrate is not a problem short term, the nitrite is. The spike wasn't random, it was caused by the wastes produced after you added your fish.

So I think your Oscar is stressed as a result of aggression and poor water quality. You don't mention filtration- I assume you have a decent filter on the tank. Until it is operating effectively, I think you need to do daily water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites in check, and once levels are under control you can ease off. To be honest though, I'm not sure your Oscar will make it unless you get him out of the tank pretty soon.


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## dstuer (Mar 27, 2013)

Agree with kaphil, the kenyi and crabro are way too aggressive to keep with an oscar, although they may not kill it immediately, they will stress it to death in a short time. The symptoms you describe are stress related.
And 6 fish in an uncycled tank is too many, in my opinion starting an cycle with 1 oscar is not a happy ending scenario.


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## ladystoneheart92 (Sep 17, 2013)

thanks for the responses. i have moved my oscar to a hospital tank and set it up from guidlines from this website and others. he's already doing better, having more normal poop and fins look a bit better. we had to be away for 2 days and our Kenyi (i'm assuming) really beat up the Oscar further. we returned the Kenyi as he was 3"+ anyway and all our other fish are 1.5-2". I've done 3 water changes since in one week and cleaned the gravel with the siphon and treated the water with Prime. Nitrites still have not gone down so I added aquarium salt so my fish don't die from the nitrite. surprisingly, they are all healthy looking--showing more color than ever, eating and pooping normally and generally act like happy fish despite the nitrite spike that's been going on for a couple of days now. About to do a 50% WC tomorrow. by the way, our nitrate was always at 0 even when the nitrite starting to climb but now our nitrate is at the correct level (like 15-25 range). I just can't seem to get the nirite down....


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## dstuer (Mar 27, 2013)

I know many people will tell you a tank can be cycled in a short time. If you start with sand, gravel, or media from an already cycled aquarium yes, but starting from scratch, no.
In reality, because cycling is the biological process of growing a sufficient population of ammonia and nitrite fixing bacteria, to match the waste output of the population of fish, cycling can take up to 2 months. And although water changes are needed, the bacteria are sessile, meaning they live in the substrate, so vacuuming can sometimes be counter productive.
Your high nitrite readings are an indication the tank is in mid cycle, and a 0 nitrate reading at this point, also indicates the same thing. 
To be fully cycled Nitrite should be 0ppm.
A proper nitrate reading should be 20ppm or less, anything over 20ppm, should be considered stressful to the fish.
In nature, nitrate is often less than 2ppm.


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## lamborghini (Nov 19, 2013)

I think your Oscar is stressed as a result of aggression and poor water quality. You don't mention filtration- I assume you have a decent filter on the tank. Until it is operating effectively, I think you need to do daily water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites in check, and once levels are under control you can ease off. To be honest though, I'm not sure your Oscar will make it unless you get him out of the tank pretty soon.


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## FishNoob4 (Nov 11, 2013)

My Tiger Oscar was my first fish too. I also had difficulty with establishing a cycled system but he us alive and kicking still. I think that Oscars get quite stressed when they are put in a new environment. Also, adding extra fish wasn't a great idea, but we are all learning something. 2ppm for natural water? Thats so clean! Oscars spike the nitrates super quick. They are dirty fish, but the most lovable in my opinion.


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