45 replies to this topic

[Pyro-San]

For the past week and a half my Oscar has been sulking at the bottom of the tank, I've only seen it eat very little since it started doing this. Prior to this it was very active and always ate as much as it could as soon as I put it in the tank, now it hardly looks at the food I put in the tank.

I did manage to hand feed it about 5 mealworms yesterday but it would only really take them when I was holding on to them not really when they were just floating in the tank.

I'll get the water params tonight but on Wed I did a 90% water change and got a lot of the crap out of the substrate. I'll probably do a 25% water change tonight as well.

If I'm missing anything please let me know and I'll look into it asap. I'll also take some photos and post them up here when I get home.

My GF is off on site at the moment, if she gets back to find a missing Bunny (the Oscar) she will kill me >.<

[jack]

shouldnt change more than 50%. 90% percent is extreme i wouldnt recomend doing that again

[Pyro-San]

Yeah, I know 90% is pretty extreme but I think the tank needed it.

Anyhow I've just done the water param tests and here are the results

Nitrate: ~2.5ppm (at a guess the color was between 0 and 5.0 but def more 0)
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
pH: 7.6 (although when I tested the tank on wed night it was sitting around 6.4?)

Photos soon.

[FishGal]

shouldnt change more than 50%. 90% percent is extreme i wouldnt recomend doing that again

I do 100% water changes on both my Oscars tanks every week and all I have are very happy and very healthy big Oscars with huge appetites, so sorry but I'd have to disagree.

Have you added anything to the tank recently, changed anything around? Before your 90% this week, how often were you doing water changes before and how large were they? What size tank are we talking here?

[Pyro-San]

Weekly changes of between 25% and 50%
I have not made any changes to the tank in the past 2 weeks. I put a new canister filter in the tank around the 24th of Dec but that is about it.

The tank is 4'x18"x18"
Bunny is about 4" long excluding tail (Long finned Oscar)
Sharing the tank with a Jack Dempsey (same size) and a Featherfin Catfish (again same size)
They have been happily sharing the tank for a few months now.

[Blakey]

it is commen sense that 100% water changes are not to be done... unless the water is fully conditioned with a godo quality conditioner that removes chlorine and heavy metals... and also a water ager..

Tap water in perth is pretty average and i would NEVER do a 100% water change.. if you want to do 100% water changes... i suggest you get a few 44 gallon drums... keep them out in the sun... fill them up add your conditioner and ager and then seal them and let them age even further (make sure they are dark blue or black to kepe the light out so algae doesnt grow)

The most i will do is 50%.. and even then i add a heap of 'Stress Coat'.

For example... fill your pool up with just tap water and have a swim in it... it is pretty crap it makes ya skin dry and itchy and ya eyes burn.. it is all wrong it needs to be treaded with buffer or acid and a touch of chlorine to kill off any bacterias... Same goes for fish... the water needs to be treated.

[FishGal]

Each to their own as I say but I have 5 tanks of extremely healthy fish that say otherwise

I DO treat my water when I do my water changes....but why does it need to be aged? Exactly what benefits does this reap? Does everyone on here age their water? We've never aged any of our water and never encountered a problem.

As for the pool scenario...we humans have skin and fish (most) have scales, bit like comparing apples with oranges.

I must be doing something right, most of my tanks have had fish spawn recently and in the past.

[Blakey]

healthy but could they be healthier?

You may be a lucky one... but 100% water changes are sure to bring on ammonia spikes, white spot outbreaks, sudden temperated variation...

Better to be safe than sorry in my books...

[jack]

thanks blakey for backing me up

[FishGal]

No, trust me, they are extremely healthy fish. All with excellent growth rates and large healthy appetites.

And could you explain to me how it could bring on Ammonia spikes????

As for WhiteSpot, never had it on ANY of my fish in all my time fishkeeping.

And I think by temperated variation you mean temperature? If so, my fish actually swim through the cold water coming back into the tank, always have done.

I'm not arguing, just putting my point across. You say it's common sense but you have to remember there is more than ONE way to keep fish and I have evidence swimming in front of me to say my way also works.

[Blakey]

i wasnt backing you up.. it isnt a gar warfare or anything. I was just saying from my experience and knowledge.

Ageing water is just really another technique for de-chlorination... If you let it just sit the chlorine dissapaits (spelling?). As water ages all the heavy metals and minerals sink to the bottom of the water... so the water you pump from the top of the drum is as pure as heck.

You would be oh so surprised at the amount of sediment you would find at the bottom of a 44 gallon drum after letting it sit for a week.

I personally dont use this technique anymore... unless i cant afford water conditioner... but i use extra dosage of water conditioner to make sure it is all good.

The point of me raising this topic is because...

Although a 100% water change works for you.. it is not the correct way to teach someone new to the hobby how to do it and is a bad habit to get in to. 100% water changes every week would surely have a negative impact on the bacteria colonies in your filter system

[FishGal]

Hmm killing off the bacteria colonies would only be an issue if there was no decholorinator going in and it was straight tap water, which it isn't.

I should probably point out that I don't drain my tank totally and fill it back up. I gravel vac and siphon out about 50% and then set the water running back into the tank at a rate just ever so slightly faster than the water coming out. Yes the water going in is mixing with the old water so some new is also coming out.

[Blakey]

Well it wouldnt be a 100% water change then would it?

If you have been doing such large water changes, weekly, since you set the tank up it would not have even had a chance to cycle properly and your fish would basicalyl be living week by week and if you suddenyl had to skip a week... the ammonia and nitrites would spike and bam dead fish.

What im trying to say is.. the perfect environment for a fish is a stable environment. With such large water changes the variations in temp and ph you may be unknowingly stressing your fish out (although it seems your not).

Just to clarify this is not the preferred way of cleaning a fish tank and although it varies through out the community.. people would generally agree that 20-30% a week is about right.. or 40-50% fortnightly. Some people will take 10-20% twice a week. The whole point is to keep your water changes to a ROUTINE and it will keep your fish happy. Also.. dont forget that your rocks and gravel take up ALOT of your water volume... so if you empty half your tank... you have done more than a 50% water change.

[Noddy65]

Pyro...the good news is that your water should be ok...the bad news is that there could be almost anything wrong with your fish from bacterial infection, parasites, viral..almost anything really.

As has been suggested maintain good water qulaity and keep your fingers crossed.

If it dies before the gf gets back you could always scoot down to the LFS and get an identical replacement?

Mike

[Blakey]

Pyro..

I apologise for things getting a tad off topic mate!

Oscars are actually a very intelligent fish and they do actually have mood swings.

oscars are known to 'Sulk' this involves them literally sulking at the bottom of the tank... even at some stages laying on to their side. This behaviour will carry on for up to and around 4-5days... but after that they tend to smart up and are fine. I dont know exactly why they do it... Mine used to get it when i would put in a frozen whitebait and he would eat it whole... i think the cold from the frozen fish would upset his stomach nd he would sulk for the next day or two.

If your fish isnt showing any signs of parasites, infection, bloating... and looks totally normal just sooking at the bottom just dont feed him and he will be fine!

[slink]

Yeah well it's not good at all for oscars to get frozen whitebait. You should really sit it out for a little while before you feed it to them. I had that problem before I was told that it was not good for them.

[Blakey]

yeh they get defrosted now

[Donna]

There is no such thing as common sense. When people start saying that they are trying to use their intellectual authority over you which is not on.

There are common knowledges perhaps, and they are not always correct. Like you can't go swimming after eating. There is no scientific evidence to support that except that parents don't want to supervise kids after lunch in the pool/beach. Common understandings have all sorts of origins and reasons.

What works for one, will not work for another.

There are very few things that are common

I think we should appreciate the views of every experienced fish keeper here.

Take what you need, and move on. Maybe try something different. If it doesn't sound like it will put your fish at risk, give it a go.

[slink]

haha fair enough may i ask what else do you feed your oscars?? haven't had mine for too long but want to give them something else. change it up a bit.

[Jeromy_Syndrome]

Hey Donna

I dont want to disprove your point but the quote you used to prove it wasn't quite true.

Like you can't go swimming after eating. There is no scientific evidence to support that except that parents don't want to supervise kids after lunch in the pool/beach.

There are reasons, like for instance once you have eaten you need much more oxygen and while swimming underwater etc you will run out of air a lot faster than usually expected which could be a killer for a child or an inexperienced swimmer.

I am not disproving your point only the quote you used to prove it

Jeromy