hello.

Basically i have had 2 oscars of same size roughly for about 3 months. both eating an growing well. about a month ago i noticed that the smaller of the 2 was hiding under a rock all the time and only surfaced to get food and then straight back down again. I hadnt seen him for a couple of days and i checked under the rock and couldnt see anything, being concerned i lifted the rock and saw nothing, then noticed that he was stuck on the filter ( dead) i removed him , also noticing he had no eyes and was pale white, rather than his black colour, and the smell was rancid, I am still in the process of cycling the tank, and my results are getting better. apart from the nitrate, see below.

gh 180
kh 180
ph 7
nitrite 0
nitrate 40

are these results apart from the nitrate acceptable? if not what am i doing wrong?

Kind regards

leeroy73

Sorry for your loss

Your water parameters are ok. You may want to keep the nitrates down around 20ppm, and try and get an ammonia (n03) reading as well.

Your oscar may have been unlucky and caught an unfortunate disease, but because he was hiding you never knew.

I'm sorry you had to find him that way.

sorry to hear of your loss.

as for your readings an ammonia reading like art said is one of the important one to have when cycling a tank. if you can get us that one then we can help in telling how much longer before the cycling is finished.

sorry for the loss.... but that is life. the system takes it toll.
if i may ask, what type of filter do you have? what is the capacity?

since you do not have any idea when exactly it happen, you can not
ascertain why it was in the suction line. did it died before being
sucked? or did it died because it was sucked?

sickly fish could easily be suck even by mild current in the suction.
but healthy fish has no guarantee that they wouldn't be sucked by
strong current.

dis-colorization may be the effect of being dead for few hours plus
the effect of suction force. same is true with the eyes being gone.
it is the weakest part of the fish body followed by the abdomen.

as the guys had requested, we need the water parameters to evaluate
why your fish acted that way before it died.

sorry for your loss matey

important to post ammonia reading, one of if not the most toxic element to our tank, so important to know it

Matt

Leeroy73, let me guess, your using them water test strips.
if so, get rid of them and get a proper water testing kit.
those test strips are not accurate and also dont show ammonia levels.
how big in lenth were your oscars? its strange for an oscar to get sucked in by the filter, so i assume its either still really small or he had a disease like ick.
Symptoms include:
cloudy eyes, loss of appetite, hiding abnormally, flashing, rubbing and scratching against objects
when you say your still cycling your tank, why did you put 2 oscars in before finishing the cycle.
this can be very damaging for the fish.
but sorry to hear about your lose.
keep an eye on your other 1