here is the history

1.5 week back both my oscars(Jumper & Sparkle - both 4 months old) got into a fight.... and jumper got badly injured. Her fins were eaten..... and her skin too.... she swims.. but only when the filters are off... she would stay around the filter and rest all day. She breaths normally but has stopped eating... she only has a bite or 2 in about 2-3 days time. Sparkle now is caring for Jumper and brings her food in her mouth, but jumper still wont eat. I tried hand feeding but she still wont eat.

Foods that i have tried - Pellets, shrimps, blood worms & flakes

Jumper used to be my hyper active oscar cause she would always jump around... its really sad to see her....

questions -

1> Would adding salt help?
2> Anything that I can do to help her get some nutrients


Tank size : 90 Gs with 2 oscars

is there any sign of severe injury? if she still taking a few pellets
ever now and then, just keep the water in good condition and she will
be fine. salt is being used to comfort the fish but should have correct
dosage, otherwise, it is also harmful if applied too much.

any info about ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and temp.

The injury was severe but she is showing signs of progress. She takes about 1-2 pellets in 2 days time.
Here aret he details that you requested

Temp : 80 C
Ammonia : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 0
PH : 8

I checked twice and these were the results.

Am I over-cleaning my tank? I do a 30% water change every week. Should i be reducing the water change?

i am worried about nitrate, there should be some... 10ppm is ideal....
if it doesn't breath heavily,no need to worry.... just keep an eye
with the bullying... it may happen again while still recovering

make sure you have some rippling in the discharge point or an air stone
to agitate the tank a little. warmer water depleted the oxygen in tank.

Thankyou.... yes i do have aggitated water in the tank.. got 2 filters and a stone which do a goo job.

Paul about the water change question.... should i reduce the amount of water that i change? i clean the filter media too once a week

correction.... Temp : 30C

nitrate level is always the indicator of water change.... some people
people peg it at 40ppm, do 60% w/c, others do w/c 20% when hit 20ppm.
if it is 10, no need to do w/c.

cleaning filter weekly will be fine...just make sure it is done quick
to avoid bb to die, otherwise, you will have minicycle.

v_2rahjo wrote:


IMO. Depending yon what filter you have, there is no need to clean it more than once a month. Then just rinse the media in dirty tank water

Your tank, (From your water readings) is not cycled. Please read the section on the forum about cycling a tank.

And as long as she is eating at all, She will be ok.

you know what..... she started eating today lets hope she gets well really soon

You need to re-test, you cant have ammonia, nitrite and nitrate of 0. Can you re-test please, if you are using the bottle testers follow the instructions exactly (including shaking times), if you are using test strips throw them away as they are inacurate and get the bottle types

clean your filters less often, you should be looking at anywhere between a month and 3 months depending on how much filtration you have and how dirty them get

I have the bottle testing kit... tested again.. still "0" its been "0" since 3 weeks (Thats the time that I shifted to this new 90 G tank)

I think i am over-cleaning the filters.

v_2rahjo wrote:

when you shifted to the bigger tank, did you use all filtering stuff as is?
no cleaning in tap? the reason for asking is that if you used all new: new
tank; new water; new filter; then you are just starting to cycle. if not...
i am at lost here too...