Agreed.Bazinga;4769183; said:
Get a test kit and do water changes accordingly.
DO NOT WASH FILTER MEDIA IN TAPWATER. Always use tank water.
New to Oscars, HELP!
- Thread starter makoshoemaker
- Start date
Get a test kit and do water changes accordingly.
DO NOT WASH FILTER MEDIA IN TAPWATER. Always use tank water.
Nitrites 0ppm and ammonia is at .5-1. Which means my bacteria hasn't built up. I do need to keep a certain level of ammonia in there while im trying to cycle my tank correct?
yes i believe so. either way you shouldn't do the water changes, so i think that's alright for now. i'd keep testing daily, or multiple times a day if you feel it's necessary. keep an eye on it.
The guy at my lfs said to just leave it be until my fish start looking groggy. then change it, cause the ammonia is what helps the bacteria grow and if i keep changing the water it wont let the tank cycle. He eats now, he only eats if i soak the pellets in fish water for a bit to make sure they are soft. If it is hard she wont eat it...thats what she said.
makoshoemaker;4769937; said:
Ha! That's what she said. Nice.
Honestly I wouldn't waste your test strips testing every day. At this point, what can you do but wait it out. If you have the liquid tests then sure test it every hour if you want, those last a while. You don't want to do water changes due to cycling and I assume you have nowhere else for the oscar to go or you would have done that already. Truth is, you're probably going to lose the oscar. Tally one for the lessons learned thread. Wait till you're fully cycled to add a new one. BUT I have seen some pretty resiliant O's so it might just pull through! Hope it does. Best of luck to you!
When cycling tanks, I always say water changes are necessary. I usually recommend a small amount every week. If your ammonia is at 1 and you change half the water, it will be at .5 which is ideal for cycling an aquarium and will not harm anything.
Working at a LFS, the #1 problem customers have is with cycling. Normally, a 10 gallon tank can be cycled with 3 or 4 hardy fish, I advise these customers to water change a small amount every week or if anything gets out of hand. They do, and four weeks later everything is fine. Recently, I had a customer who didn't water change at all during cycling, and in his case it took relatively long (6 weeks). When he got his water tested, the pH dropped to 6 because of all the detritus left over and now he has to deal with that.
Working at a LFS, the #1 problem customers have is with cycling. Normally, a 10 gallon tank can be cycled with 3 or 4 hardy fish, I advise these customers to water change a small amount every week or if anything gets out of hand. They do, and four weeks later everything is fine. Recently, I had a customer who didn't water change at all during cycling, and in his case it took relatively long (6 weeks). When he got his water tested, the pH dropped to 6 because of all the detritus left over and now he has to deal with that.
makoshoemaker;4769937; said:
if he's hungry he'll eat. if it's too hard for him to eat right away he'll let it soften up, either in his mouth or on top of the water. when my O was still small i had tried putting in some shrimp pellets along with his cichlid pellets, and they would be hard. he'd take it in his mouth, let it sit there until it expanded and force his mouth open so i'd worry that he'd choke, and when it was soft enough he'd spit it back out and suck it up. oscars eat
cichlid_starter;4770012; said:
He is swimming around just fine, not a care in the world. I will change some of the water tomorrow morning. I just wanted to make sure that I wasnt changing too much water. I will do about 30 gals just to be safe. I am leaving for a couple days, but i figure I better make sure the water quality is good before I go.
Industrial;4770085; said:
I plan on changing some water about 25% every week till its cycled. And sucking up poop and extra food to make sure it doesn't poison them. I have a 65 gallon with a 20 gallon sump, and I figure that the volume of the water would keep the ammonia down to a tolerable level. But I will change some water tomorrow morning just to be safe.
I did a 15 gal change. And i noticed there is some ditrutus in my sump, probably from my faulty drip plate that i replaced. I should clean that out tomorrow 
