Hi all, first post here, hopefully somebody can help.

Trevor the Oscar isnt looking too good. Pics should be visible in my profile photo album. He's about 8 inches in size.
Diet:
Staple is with Hikari Cichlid Gold. Occassionally some prawns or some live bloodworm or daphnia. And any plants i attempt to put in the tank!

Tankmates:
1x big Pleco, approx 14" or so.
Convicts. I've just rehomed 21 1.5" babies, so i have 7 left in the tank, plus 2 batches of fry. The fry will be getting rehomed once at roughly 1" (maybe 6 weeks time) and the females will be going with them, which will leave me with 5.
Plec was first in, followed by Con's then the O.

Tank:
4' x 2' x 2', roughly 400litres, less a bit for the rocks/gravel etc, so maybe 360 litres.
Been set up here roughly 6 months, however it was in use before then (with the plec) by the previous owner and was moved here with the filter remaining wet, only 2 hours total between taking tank down and putting tank up.

Filtration:
Eheim Pro2028, good flow, spray bar at one end pointing toward other end to create a current.

Water:
25c
Tested with API Master kit..
PH8.2 (always has been)
Ammonia: between 0ppm and 0.25ppm
NitrIte: 0ppm
NitrAte: 0ppm

I change roughly 100litres (minimum, 120 max) each week, using API tap Water Conditioner.

He's feeding well! And doesn't seem to be bothered, however the white patches are getting worse. At first, i thought the Convicts may be giving him some trouble, but now i'm not so sure. When i'm finally able to remove the remaining females, it should stem they're aggression anyway.

I have some Waterlife Octozin at the ready if required.


Any advice greatly appreciated

welcome to the site.

so to begin with your tank and filtration seems to be adequate for your stock list in your tank. the first thing that caught my eye was your water parameters. an ammonia reading like you have combined with the high ph might suggest ammonia poisoning however the lack of nitrates suggests you do not have a cycled tank.

is it possible to retest your water and repost the results. in an established tank you will always have a nitrate reading and if you dont then it is usually because of ether an uncycled tank or a mistake in doing the nitrate test.

if yuo can repost these reading it may help in figuring out what may be wrong in you setup

hi there
I did the tests moments before posting. Last water change was sunday, roughly 120litres

edit: its hard to tell the colour on the ammonia, i would say the yellow was nearer to 0ppm than 0.25ppm

if that is the case then i would think you have a uncycled filter. like i said previously an established tank will always have some kind of nitrate reading,

when you clean your filter how do you go about it? and have you added any med that might have destroyed your beneficial bacteria???


and four days after a water change with your stock list you should have a nitrate reading for sure. are you following the instruction and waiting the proper amount of time for the nitrate test.

ok, i feel a bit silly now... i really should have read the instructions in the box, rather than just the 'add x drops' on the bottles!

ph:8.2
ammonia: odd colour, nearer 0ppm than 0.25ppm
nitrIte: 0ppm
nitrAte: 20ppm

photo of test bottles in my album

Great info given on the 1st ever post. all the right stuff. ))) I think Trevor is getting picked on by the breeding cons? they look like bite marks. the tests colours look ok.

I aggree with marcus. A breeding pair on convicts will be very very aggressive, they are fighting your oscar to get him away from the eggs/babies and are injuring him. Assuming you want to keep the oscar the solution is to rehome some convicts. Only keep convicts of the same sex or you will end up with a pair and more trouble

forgot to say welcome to the site, drop a hello post and introduce yourself )

delboybully wrote:


yup, that was one of my conclusions, hence when the last batch of babies were rehomed on tuesday, the mother went with them, and the recent 2 batches (less than a week on at mo) will be going as soon as they are big enough, again, along with they're mothers... that will leave me with 5 males and no females, and no reason for the cons to be aggressive.

dcurzon wrote:


5 male cons in one tank is reason enough for aggression but with any luck it will be with each other and not your oscar

lets hope so...
do those water readings look better now?

now that your showing a nitrate reading your water parameter look fine.

jsut keep an eye on your oscars and you should notice an improvement with him rather quickly.