Search "aquatic remedies microlife s2 " You'll find on Amazon or go to some good aquatic shop.
Please help.
- Thread starter Vivekcichlids
- Start date
Yes you're completely correct, I keep extremely sensitive fish - discus, dolphin fish (one in my profile pic), etc.. and am able to do 50-80% even weekly with no indication of stress. I also use the python water changer so I don't think it's that the tank is recycling unless you are directly pouring tap water into the tank. To be honest this is difficult to assess but should be an incredibly easy fix.
It's just that we don't have much to go off of. Fish die for so many different reasons. Maybe it's been so long since you got a new fish you didn't slowly acclimate him to your tank. The oscars could have already been on the brink of death from the store you got them from. It really makes a huge difference. To really figure it out you have to do process of elimination to narrow down your guesses. If all your fish are still alive and it's only the new oscars, then it could be the supplier, or they are starving to death or not being acclimated properly. If everything in your tank is dying it is 100% the water chemistry. Mind you fish can acclimate to almost any water condition given enough time - I have discus thriving in 8.5 ph. So given enough time your old fish could have acclimated to the high nitrate levels in your tank and if they all died after a water change, then that's what the issue was - high nitrates/ammonia/nitrite.
Hard to know for sure without testing but you know it is water quality. Also, if they were baby oscars, if they were too small they might be very fragile, even though oscars in general are hardy. Fish are not made to have a 100% survival rate. They do not expect that. That's why they lay 100's or even 1000's of eggs, so if it is a baby it might just be very fragile and sensitive to any changes in water chemistry or underfeeding. Anyways goodluck, hopefully I helped troubleshoot some stuff.
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Thanks for replying. All the Oscars I brought did really well for almost 3 days. Ate readily. One used to come to the water surface just by looking to my hands movement. They all died in similar fashion. All started gasping a little heavily one morning, seemed lethargic, did some erratic swimming, like shocked by something and died. Others are well. One convict and a pleco are healthy and kicking.
That reminds me of how I lost all my African cichlids. I suspect it was an internal parasite brought in by new additions. Hadn’t been much new that looked unhealthy for a while, these things can go hidden for a long time.
Oh! You could be right. Because I had added an Oscar with the old one recently. But why, the pleco and convict are not infected?
Just how infection works. Most of my loaches remained unaffected by the disease, when I finally got medicine weeks later (covid likes to make things slow) they were still fine.
Some fish are slower to get infected without rhyme or reason.
There are certain bacteria, protozoa, or nematodes, and thus "diseases" that are species specific.
Many Lernea prefer Cyprinid hosts, but bypass cichlids.
Below a Tetra with a Lernea parasite in the caudal, in a tank with cichlids that never were infected..
Back in the 60s Columnaris was known as "live bearer disease", probably because there was so much hybridization, and immune system genes were being scrambled, and it hit those live bearers harder than others.
Same thing happened in the 80s when FHs were being being developed, Columnaris became known as FH disease, and duck lips when cichlids started being more commonly stricken than previously.
Some diseases are pH specific.
When I was growing certain bacterial strains in the lab as a microbiologist, growth media often had a very narrow pH range for certain bacterial species, some as narrow as pH 7.8+/- 0.5. for certain bacteria.
If your tank is successful when fish are small at say, 7.2, all might be good with 1 water change per week.
But if after your fish grow, and the same water change schedule allows your pH to slip into the high 6s or raise because of excess minerals to 8.2 because of extra waste buildup, those same fish may succumb to disease.
Many Lernea prefer Cyprinid hosts, but bypass cichlids.
Below a Tetra with a Lernea parasite in the caudal, in a tank with cichlids that never were infected..
Back in the 60s Columnaris was known as "live bearer disease", probably because there was so much hybridization, and immune system genes were being scrambled, and it hit those live bearers harder than others.
Same thing happened in the 80s when FHs were being being developed, Columnaris became known as FH disease, and duck lips when cichlids started being more commonly stricken than previously.
Some diseases are pH specific.
When I was growing certain bacterial strains in the lab as a microbiologist, growth media often had a very narrow pH range for certain bacterial species, some as narrow as pH 7.8+/- 0.5. for certain bacteria.
If your tank is successful when fish are small at say, 7.2, all might be good with 1 water change per week.
But if after your fish grow, and the same water change schedule allows your pH to slip into the high 6s or raise because of excess minerals to 8.2 because of extra waste buildup, those same fish may succumb to disease.
