My Oscars Are Sick - Need Help Please

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You're only over-feeding if your water quality gets out of hand &/or your nitrates get too high (over 20 ppm with Oscars IMO). I feed my Oscars like you do, in return I get to change tons of water. To me it's worth it.
Jbarbaresi, I think you're doing wonderful with the water changes and checking nitrates. If all Oscar owners were that diligent all Oscars would be much better off :-) This way you can up the water changes as they grow.
 
TwistedPenguin;3293049; said:
You're only over-feeding if your water quality gets out of hand &/or your nitrates get too high (over 20 ppm with Oscars IMO). I feed my Oscars like you do, in return I get to change tons of water. To me it's worth it.
Jbarbaresi, I think you're doing wonderful with the water changes and checking nitrates. If all Oscar owners were that diligent all Oscars would be much better off :-) This way you can up the water changes as they grow.
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well thanks for the kind words. i'm pretty new to this so i'm trying my best. i love your red oscar inky btw. do you have any pictures when he was a baby?
 
jbarbaresi;3293496; said:
well thanks for the kind words. i'm pretty new to this so i'm trying my best. i love your red oscar inky btw. do you have any pictures when he was a baby?
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He's my best buddy. I'm almost embarrassed to post baby pics because when I got him he looked so pale and skinny. Poor little $6 Oscar :-( Doesn't he look pathetic?? lol See? But change lots of water with Oscars and they turn into the 2nd picture, that's nothing but lotsa fresh water :-)
Edit: He's just over 2 yrs now.

Inky_9-9-07-2.jpg

Inkysm.jpg
 
TwistedPenguin;3293049; said:
You're only over-feeding if your water quality gets out of hand &/or your nitrates get too high (over 20 ppm with Oscars IMO). I feed my Oscars like you do, in return I get to change tons of water. To me it's worth it.
Jbarbaresi, I think you're doing wonderful with the water changes and checking nitrates. If all Oscar owners were that diligent all Oscars would be much better off :-) This way you can up the water changes as they grow.
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sorry i disagree, overfeeding has no benifit for fish. You may have good water paramaters as far as nitrates etc. but the excess waste is a breeding ground for pathogens, bacteria etc. . I never measure my nitrates because I know there is no way they will never get to a high level. I feed 2-3 times a week and only 20-30 pellets per feeding and i have 16 adult fronts. I barely have any waste on my substrate/glass and probably do the same amount of water changes as OP but probably half the filtration. Your fish health is better with less feedings IMO. I also run bare tanks as I think substrate traps waste and harbors disease *puts on flame suit*:naughty:
 
My sand looks clean all the time. It might be because I'm not housing 16 Frontosa lol
I can very well see how that could accumulate waste. Take your flame suit off-I DO agree that gravel traps some nasty stuff down in it. I'll never ever use gravel again. With sand it sits on top and when it looks clean you know it is. But again-with 16 adult Fonts, there's no way to have a clean bottom.
 
i hope my red o's end up looing like your guy, absolutely beautiful gold coloring.

i hear everyone talk about how dirty oscars are, and don't ge me wrong they are, but my pleco poops 10 times more than the oscars and all he just sucks on my driftwood all day long. i do agree that with sand substrate all the waste stays on top and as long as you have a good current and do regular maintenance the sand will look clean as well.
 
i have some good news to report. its day 3 of 86 deg and 1bsp to 5 gal salt mixture added. all of the ich cysts have fallen off and no signs of any new ones so hopefully the temp and salt are doing their job. the whitish blotches on my large oscar have also cleared up almost entirely. the young red oscar still has some spots but hopefully will show some improvement in the next couple of days. i will let you know if there are any other developments and how it looks when the treatment is done.
 
It sounds like it's going good! They normally recommend leaving the salt in and heat up for 10 day or 3 days after you've seen the last spot. I think I'd go for 10 days as long as the fish seem to be taking it good. Oscars are pretty hardy fish.
 
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