Cleanest fish?

[Dmaan.]

to be honest with you, you should change you water more than once a week,
whether the fish is the nastiest guy on the planet or the cleanest.

maintain a pH and get all that poo out the water.

 

[MonsterMinis]

tsk tsk... The first question that should have been asked in response is the commonsense.. filtration system, gravel/depth of it, heating, ect ect... "What is your normal routine, and what type of equipment do you use? " It is true oscars are very big and messy fish. In a perfect world everyone would do 50% wc's weekly at least. haveing many tanks as alot of other mfkers do sometimes you have a week it just doesn't happen.

Live plants, overfiltration, understocking, food.

I will agree that if you are getting cloudy water regularly their is another issue to your problem then the fact you have "dirty" fish. You may simply need to change some of your equipment, or simply your overfeeding, or feeding bad foods. 2 oscars and a JD ime is also a recipe for disaster.

The fish mentioned I will agree are all "less dirty" But if it's the that is the issue, or feeding regime. You will run into the same problem again. The water changes seem to be the tip of the iceberg persae to me. and a symptom of something else that is your "problem"


The people here are very knowledgeable and helpful. and at this point imo no one has your answer.

More info is needed here.

 

[Iffrat]

haha...oscars are so messy :

i dont get why people have such problems with O's

i have 2 8" O's 2 6" red hooks a 12" Royal clown knife and a plec in a 150 gal tank and i do a 25% WC once a month and my water is just fine .. (and thats the months that i remember to do one at all)

never had a problem with dirty water or slow growth or any other problems ..

 

[yogurt_21]

i dont get why people have such problems with O's

i have 2 8" O's 2 6" red hooks a 12" Royal clown knife and a plec in a 150 gal tank and i do a 25% WC once a month and my water is just fine .. (and thats the months that i remember to do one at all)

never had a problem with dirty water or slow growth or any other problems ..

exclusive pellet feeders will have nothing but leftovers on the bottom of their tank. it's the reason I changed to a shrimp primary, pellets once a week, freshwater multi frozen once a week and feeders when in season.

barely notice the issue now.


also everyone hear seems to forget that adding a plant tank to your sump system will take care of the nitrate issue, just like in a pond. then you could do once every 2 week wc or simply gravel filter till all debris is gone and add in only that amount weekly. no need to wast 100 gallons per tank a week. for me My water changes actually seem less like wc and more like keeping up with evaporation. 2 weeks of neglect in az and my O's would be beached lol.

 

[bigfishrcool1193]

Heh, discus are not that difficult to keep. The trouble is most people are eager to place the juveniles (smaller than 4 inches) in setups that they do not get frequent water changes and frequent feedings to be able to grow that they become ridiculously stunted. Adults at 5 inches and over are more forgiving and can withstand normal routine including twice a week water change but no more than that. Read discus section. There are many discus threads there that will cover the same topic over and over.

Yes lupin, i agree with you, how do you think discus will do with bi weekly water changes maybe evern triweekly water changes (based on OP disliking having to do biweekly water changes)?

 

[Oddball]

More frequent water changes will undoubtedly be recommended by the majority. However, to deal with the large mess of larger predators, you can bump up the tank's filtration. Go to a slightly oversized w/d filter and furnish it with a pump that provides 3-5 times total tank volume circulation each hour.
If looking for less waste producing large species, the rule of thumb is; the more sedentary (least moving) the species, the less waste produced due to requiring less food intake to maintain the species life. There are opportunistic "wait and pounce" species that may feed only once every 2 weeks. They have slower digestive systems that allow them to stretch out a single feeding, and slower metabolisms to keep them going until another meal comes along. Species like anglers and stargazers fit this category.
Of course, the downside to these types of fish is that you wind up with a tank with hidden fish and little to no movement needed for an attractive display.

 

[Egon]

Basically there's no replacement for water changes, that's the hard truth. Most of us hate water changes but that's part of this hobby. Find a way to make the water changes easer for you. 7 years ago I had a 5 gallon bucket. I went from bucket, to python, to a drain, to a DI fill line, to a drip system that requires almost no maintenance. I completely eliminated the worst part of the hobby for me.
The point I'm making is fix the bad parts of this hobby don't change the type of fish your keeping because of something like water changes! Trust me, going from an O to an angle fish might not do it for you. I have angle fish, I'm not saying their bad, it's just a very big change kinda like the difference between a puppy and a cat. I have cats too.....................LOL
I hope my point is as clear as mud now

 

[Deaths Sting]

^i agree

 

[Salutationsb]

dude... ANY cichlid is cleaner than a damn oscar is!!!

get some nice sevs and geos, much less mess and they are BEAUTIFUL fish

Tell that to my sevs, all they do is eat and crap!! Beautiful tho.

 

[yogurt_21]

Basically there's no replacement for water changes, that's the hard truth. Most of us hate water changes but that's part of this hobby. Find a way to make the water changes easer for you. 7 years ago I had a 5 gallon bucket. I went from bucket, to python, to a drain, to a DI fill line, to a drip system that requires almost no maintenance. I completely eliminated the worst part of the hobby for me.
The point I'm making is fix the bad parts of this hobby don't change the type of fish your keeping because of something like water changes! Trust me, going from an O to an angle fish might not do it for you. I have angle fish, I'm not saying their bad, it's just a very big change kinda like the difference between a puppy and a cat. I have cats too.....................LOL
I hope my point is as clear as mud now

actually live plants in a pond eliminate the need for waterchanges so there is a replacement. now in aquariums it becomes harder to eliminate water changes but you can greatly reduce them by adding a planted tank to your sump as I said above. again you all seem to ignore/forget that plants take care of nitrates.