my oscar (ozzy) is 6 ins long 7 mos old and we have had no probs untill we done a full water change on sat 21/11/09 - he started doing back flips and looked as if he was going insane, now i have noticed his eyes have started sticking out approx twice normal size, all he is doing now is laying on his side i really dont want 2 watch him die and i feel for my other oscar because he seems 2 b protecting ozzy but at the same time i am worried incase if ozzy is infectoius. i also have green terror 3 silver dollars green sevron jack dempsey 2 convicts sun cat fish and a pleck i have a 400 ltr tank
i would b greatful for any advice thanks

welcome to the site

first... what do you mean by ? did you totally replace all water, clean the tank and filter?????

how long have you set up the tank? 8 fishes in a 104 gal may be overstock
if your other fish are g fully grown.

what is the capacity of your filtration?

do you have info about your water: ammonia ? nitrite? nitrate? pH?

x2 with above.
ammonia
nitrites
nitrates
PH
These readings are needed. please don't reply with fine as a lot of people do, we need to know what is going on with the water. also did you add treatment to remove chlorine from the water?

i have had the tank for 7 mos its our 1st set up
its a dual rio 400 the filter is an internal filter that came with the tank

we emptied the tank to move it 2 other side of the room as we were worried about the sun light heating the water 2 much i placed the fish in a 25 litre tub (the 1 we use for partial water changes) they wer in ther approx 1/2 an hour the cat fish was kept seperate.

all my fish are babies 6-7 mos apart from catfish we arnt keeping him tho because he keeps scalping the silover dollars

ph is 7.1 and i dont yet know how to do ammonia and nitrate readings yet

thank u so much for ur time

we did not add any treatments if u can tell me what i need to do these readings please i will go get what i need asap

i have just done the obvious thing and read through ur site!! i will go out and buy a water testing kit ( i no i should have already got 1 ) and will let u no the results soon thanks again

Okay, firstly, welcome to our community, I wish it was under better circumstances

Now, you say that you emptied the tank. Did you refill it with completely fresh water? Also, have you been doing anything with your filters, i.e. cleaning them in tap water, letting them dry out during your tank move. I strongly suspect that you actually have very little established biological filtration [beneficial bacteria in your filtration system] and that is why you are having these problems. This is a very common mistake that newcomers make, they assume that you can just fill a fish tank with water, put fish in it, and then they will live a long happy life, I'm afraid it does not work like that. Also, most people assume that a filter is just for removing solid waste and uneaten food, it does so much more than that, it removes all the deadly toxins that your fish produce. You cannot see these toxins, your water may look just fine, but without an established biological filter, your fish tank is just a reciprocal full of water that cannot sustain life for very long.

It is absolutely vital that you get your water tested. You can either take a small sample to your Fish store, or better still, get yourself some test kits, all fish stores will sell them.

At the moment, there is very little we can advise until we know exactly what the condition of your water is. If possible, get yourself a product called Prime. Not only does this act as a water condition that [remove chlorine & chloramine] but it will also detoxify ammonia, nitrite.

I can quite understand that this is probably a lot to take in, but setting a fish tank up is not nearly as simple as most people think, it's not difficult, but it's not just a case of filling your tank with water.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have, no matter how silly they may sound, someone will have an answer for you.

you need to urgently get and add "prime" made by Seachem. this will help remove chlorine/ammonia from the water.

thank u all so much
my hubby has gone 2 the aquatics centre he was just going for water testing kit but thankfully i read ur advice and contacted him so now fingers crossed i will b able to give u the info u need this site is an absolute god send thank u again xxx

no problem, more than happy to help out. we have a great community of members that are always willing to give the best advice they can.

you will need to take some time to read about cycling a tank. i fear when you added the tap water that contains chlorine to your tank the the tanks cycle would have been lost. this is going to mean your going to need to change some of the water very regularly over the next few wks.the cycle can take 6 wks to return to the filter. we shall all do our best to put you on the right track.