Hello, new user here please bare with me.
I have had my beautiful tiger oscar for over a year now (same time as my baby boy was born "Oscar") and she is very much apart of the family.

Yesterday I noticed she was laying near the heater hardly moving, I checked temp 28-29 degrees, fed her (she ate a little) left for a few hours. Still barely moving (which is out of character)so I did a half tank water change. She moved to the other side of the tank towards the surface and has been their has been little change since except maybe once in a while she does a mighty Thrash and appears stressed

I did all my tests this morning, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate all normal but my pH levels were seriously LOW! like 6.0. I rang my local Cichlid specialists who advised me to get their product 'aquasonic carbonate hardness generator' and use according to amount of water, possibly over 4 days.

I have done all this and I am now waiting...is there anything I can do to make her more comfortable? Obviously it isnt an instant solution and Im wondering if it is possible she wont survive the 4 days it might take to resolve the pH levels. I have no idea how the water levels dropped so much, ive never had any problems in over 12 months Ive kept this tank.

I appreciate any advise or support.

Thankyou!!

Hi and welcome.

OK What were your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?

what is the pH coming out of the tap?

These answers will give us a start...
Thanks

Welcome to the site. Okay, where do I start? Firstly, your so-called Cichlid expert doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. There is absolutely nothing wrong with 6.0, that is exactly what my pH is. Oscars would actually prefer the lower pH to the higher pH. Also, if you ever have a problem with your filter and you run into water quality problems than the low pH will actually protect your fish because ammonia is a lot less toxic in low pH. Please don't try and alter your pH in any way, just leave it as it is.

As to why your fish is behaving like this, I'm not really sure. Could you please give us the exact readings for ammonia and nitrite. Even if you did happen to have the ammonia present, it would have to be very high before it caused a problem.

Hi OFL and Nickisue,
Oh no..that doesnt sound very good..okay Ammonia Nitrate and Nitrite all tested 0ppm on the colour charts.
I just tested the ph coming from the tap and its 7.6. Now im confused. I use API stress coat as a tap conditioner, I also have Api tap water conditioner (which ive never really used) and a API sludge destroyer (which I have used a few times not often tho).
Maybe I should do another water change and test pH again?

Thankyou.

I just tested tank water again and its gone up slightly about pH6.4
She is still moving and swimming towards me a little when i go towards the tank but otherwise pretty much in the same spot since yesterday except the rather violent thrashes every now and then. Ate a little yesterday, nothing so far today.

What you have got to remember is that just because your tap water is 7.6, it doesn't mean that your aquarium water will be exactly the same. The water companies govern what water comes out of your tap, once you start using it for other purposes such as in a fish tank, it will often change. Fish waste will actually lower pH, as will some types of wood. It is quite normal for your pH to change so you mustn't worry about it at all. You have just tested 6.4, that is absolutely perfect, a lot better than someone who has a pH of 8.0 or even 7.5.

can you give some info as to what time you usually observed him being idle?
at night time, my oscars remains idle, either on top of the filters or under
the discharge point area.

one thing i noticed is that you said zero nitrate? that is impossible
for an establishes tank unless you do not have beneficial bacteria in
there...please do re-check again.

Hello! Thankyou for helping!
My Oscar has been Idle all day (so far) and yesterday. She is still swimming and comes to me when I approach her, however her current behavior is very uncharacteristic in the 12 months Ive had her. Esp the Thrashing and going around in circles once in a while.

I re tested everything (was out for a while). The ammonia and Nitrite levels are in the colour chart of 0ppm however the Nitrate still comes up very yellow which indicates 0-5.0ppm (closer to 0 tho!).

What does this mean?? This must be the problem??

Thanks again.

OK, I am guessing that you have either not had the tank set up all that long, or that you cleaned your filter.

When cleaning your filter you need to just rinse the media in a bucket of tank water. NOT IN TAP WATER!

Your Nitrates are at between 0 and 5 ppm that is low... They need to be between 5ppm and 40 ppm. until they get to that point, you will not need to clean your filter.

I only clean my filters about once ever 2 months or so.. (I have Canister Filters)

I hope this helps.

i am with Nickie on this.... have you clean your filtering system lately???
if so... how did you do it? wash in tank water or tap water???

Nickisue wrote:


I think you mean nitrates

What type of test kits have you got for testing nitrate? Remember that the nitrate test requires you to shake the bottle for 30 seconds and then the vile for one minute once you have added all the solution. If you do not shake it for long enough then you get a false reading, normally indicating you haven't got a lot of nitrate present.

If you have been carrying out quite a lots of water changes then the chances are your nitrates will be quite low.

Is there any other fish in the tank, and if so any bullying going on?