I just did a ammonia test and it reads 6 should my oscars be dead and how do I lower it my ph is at 7.2 temp is 80

I'm surprised they are not dead. I would carry out a few more tests may be an hour apart just to make sure it wasn't a one-off. However, with ammonia this high, I would be expecting the Oscars to be gasping at the surface, are they doing this? If not, are they breathing very heavily?

they seem fine although my tank is a bit cloudy they seem to be very active when I put the test strip in they both nipped at it and no they don't seem to be gasping the test strips I bought are mardel 5 in 1 plus ammonia please help I don't want my fish to die

dont suppose you know what ammonia smells like have a good sniff at your water mate ive dont this in the past when fish were playing off and carried out water changes and checked for excess food/dead fish

hope this helps

Yeah I gave it a sniff and one nipped at my nose, I can't smell anything, should I do a water change and if so how much, I am gettin worried even though they seem fine the levels say they should be dead

If I was you, I would get some liquid test kits. If the ammonia is six, I can't see how the Oscars would not be showing signs of stress due to poisoning. Are they opening and closing their mouths a lot?

I must be doing something wrong so I am going to take some of my tank water to the fish store to have it tested right now I thank you for your input and will let you know the results later again thanx

Be careful on the validity (a test that measures what it is supposed to measure and nothing else) and reliability (how acurately it measures what it is reading) of test strips. You may have no ammonia at all in your tank. To be safe, I would do daily partial water changes until I get a liquid test kit.

No smell, no strange behavior, seems to me a strong evidence in the direction that your tank is not holding 6PPM of ammonia.

Keep in mind that even with liquid reagent tests you could get false positives.

For instance API Freshwater test for ammonia, and most out there, use Nessler reagents, which under certain circumstances, e.g. after medicating with formaline (present in some Ick formulations), or adding water with chloramines (e.g. a faulty dechlorinator product), give false positive readings. These liquid test kits, however, are valid and reliable enough to be quite useful for our purposes.

Fish are quite intolerant to ammonia and nitrite poisoning. Their behaviour should tell you something about this.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

bet you a weeks wages that with a liqud test the ammo will be much different to the strips ...the strips are no good for accurite readings ....

nevertheless, if you are not sure with your water, carry a regular change
to make sure your fish will be okey. remember, first and foremost defense
against fish illnesses is pristine water.

cloudiness in your water sometime can be attributed to the way you carry
on the cleaning of your tank and filtering system. filter should not be
always cleaned unless necessary to maintain good bacteria colony.

biggamehunter wrote:
[quote]bet you a weeks wages that with a liqud test the ammo will be much different to the strips ...the strips are no good for accurite readings ....[/
quote] Dont take that bet I still owe him a weeks wages... the test strip are no good throw them away far away