this is my first pariste in 3 years as a proud fish owner
set up in november
tank size: 220gal
filtration: 4 tank side 330cfm filters
air: 2 100gal air pumps
heat: 3 300watt heaters
add cycle with every water change
use aquarium salt
4 live plants(now dead from meds)
fish: 17" grey catfish
17" pleco
14"pleco
9" tiger oscar
9" tiger oscar
5" albino tiger oscar
5" red oscar
6" pacu
6" pacu

i do not currently test levels( i will as soon as i can afford the kit)

i will start from origination of problem

i had 1 8" oscar, 2 4" oscars, 1 13" pleco in a 55gal

they were getting too big so i bought a 220gal on craigslist with a leak and i patched it. along with it came fish and the owner ran the tank cold

i had all the fish in my 55 for 60 hours( i know this is horrible, but it's all i could do)

set the 220 up added the fish, noticed white spots around begin of jan and had my 14"oscar die that night, so i did research.

i bought quick cure, coppersafe, and maracyn two.
as soon as i started treatment signs started dissapearing.
i dont have the carbon filters in so i do a 20% water cange before every med daily. i have been medicating for 6 days now

heres my question
2 fish(9"oscars) still have 1 or 2 spots on their fins. the quick cure says dont stop until 3 days after signs go away.

my fish are showing signs of gill disiese and popeye.

the maracyn two instructions say maintain proper filtration,

when can i start the maracyn? will it hurt to stay in the water not filtrated or is it ok to do the quick cure with filters?
fishy4fishy

Okay, where do I begin? Your tank is well and truly overstocked. Your tank is just not big enough for the amount of fish you have got. Okay, You have got to test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Thi should have been the first thing you did before medicating the tank. Many illnesses are brought on when fish are stressed due to poor water conditions. Poor water conditions often arise when there are too many fish in the tank, like in your situation. . I would prefer to know what your water water conditions. If your water conditions are not good, then medicating the tank is fruitless.

It does rather sound like you added all these fish without cycling the tank, it's no wonder you started having problems from the word go. Popeye, is often brought on by poor water conditions, again, we need to know what your conditions before medicating. Medication don't work properly when conditions are poor in the tank. I would suggest that you increase your tank maintenance doing a small water change every other day making sure you use a water conditioner. Get yourself some test kits as soon as possible and test the water, make sure you do the nitrate test properly, read the instructions carefully, you will often get false readings if you don't shake the vile and bottles for long enough, the readings can often be zero. I've often seen people boasting that they don't have any nitrate in their tank, they then realise they haven't been doing the tests properly.

White spot can often be cleared up by increasing the tank temperature to 30°C and leaving it like that for 10 days. There's a very good section on the website which talks about website, read it very carefully

I would strongly advise you to reduce the amount of fish you having your tank. Did you know that pacu can reach 3 feet. Okay, they normally only get this big in the wild, however, I've seen them at nearly 2 feet in captivity, they are truly gigantic fish, totally unsuitable for most home aquariums. Your problems are only going to get worse as the fish get bigger.

yes i know this space is too small, i planned to just have the 2 pacu's and both or only one of the pleco's, i had the other fish on craigslist for a new home but then the tank got infected and nobody want's infected fish. i will get test equipment asap and write you back

welcome to ofl.com

personally i feel that testing my water is the most important part of my fish keeping,by doing regular water tests u get a early warning b4 things go horrably wrong.

ill be honest with you and tell u with the amount of fish u r keeping there is no way u will be able to keep yr water in a good condition.

pacus r beutifull but as ofl has all ready mentioned they get huge and obviously make alot of mess which is gonna shoot yr amonia levels thru the sky.

220g is probably suitable for 4 fully grown oscars.

i understand these fish will not get any better until i remove some or most of them and yes it was stupid for me to impulse buy, which is what i did when i saw fish in the tank that I bought.

is there any orginizations that take sick fish in the US (Washington state) that anybody know's of?

ok my tank is currently down to 6 fish, 4 oscars and 2 plecos, i also did my first water test. ph 7.8 no2 .25 no3 0 amonia 0
this was while the cat fish and 2 pacu's were still in the tank after 20% water change. I have used maracyn-tc for 4 day so far, my fish seem bloated. i have 300gal worth of air now, more centered in the tank.


any feedback, or recomendations?

thank you fishy4fishy