wow my dads oscar really likes to get into trouble! we cleared up his fungus which was good. did more water changes

now i woke up.

hes got a white cut in his head, and his face looks like its all scratched. his mouth and head is bruised as wel

has he been jumping in the tank?

just tested my water.

high reading of ammonia at .50

ill do water change now. but is this normal ? he looks like frankenstien

NOTE: we are getting a 5foot tank soon but cant set it up rite away, oscar in a 3ft tank by himself. hes about 20cm long. how long can he last in 3ft?

We need a pic, it could be HITH, or it could be an injury. You need to get your ammonia down to 0, regardless of what caused the 'cuts'.

Also, get the oscar out of the smaller tanks as soon as possible. I don't mean to rush the cycling of the bigger tank, but don't keep him lingering in there any longer than you have to.

yah weill get a pic soon. pretty sure its a cut. hith is more uniform in little holes isnt it? this is one 1cm opening base of dorsal.

how long would it take to cycle and wat would it involve? do i need bacteria in a bottle etc?

also is it better to use bare bottom tank or with substrate? (in terms of helping bacteria grow, however iv found bare bottom is easier to clean)

etwee wrote:


HITH can come in the form of 'cut' like incisions too...

cycling involves buying some cheap guppies or tetras from your local lfs and keeping them in your designated tank for about 40 days. basically they poop, and create ammonia, and the helpful bacteria grows throughout those 40 days. there's several more links throughout the site like this, bgh posted some graphs in the water parameters section too.

you'll get more bacteria w/a substrate, but yeah, bare bottom is easier to clean. definitely not as appealing though.

if you transfer the filter youare running now on your 30 it will significantly speed up the cycling process. your existing filter(assuming its cycled) is full of the beneficial bacteria you need for thenitrogen cycle.

necromancer4 wrote:
in addition to that, try to import water tank from the cycled tank as much as you can. use it as seed water and will expedite cycling.

the process entails gradual filling: what you can import from the cycled tank, add equivalent water, run for the day, add same quantity every day until the required level had been reach. test the tank. if okey, you had cycled tank.

what i might do is.

use existing filter i have on him now, transfer all the water frmo his tank to 5ft tank and leave him in there. i will do water changes whenever the ammonia is high.


is that ok?

Also is oscar jumping and bruising normal? or coudl ti be conditions hes in.

etwee wrote:
if you can do that and run the existing pump as necro had suggested, that would be perfect. instead of water change, just keep adding the water 50% of the existing volume to avoid new tank syndrome. make sure the depth of your water is enough to cover your fish. 30 gal is way too small for the 5 ft tank. your fish might show the fin above water.

there are some factors why oscar do that:
1. chasing flying insect;
2. escaping poor water condition or parasite;
3) natural character of oscar