Hi ive recently purchased a 400 litre tank, done all the setup like filter, heating, air pumps etc, left it running for a while got the water tested and eveything was fine. So i put my 2 oscars in there, again everythings fine, theyre eating fine and look quite happy, but as you know theyre very messy eaters usually spiiting out half the food they eat. Over rescent days ive noticed a white fur developing around the chewed up food that lies on the gravel, does any1 know what this is and give me some guidance on what too do the oscars still looking fine but would rather get rid ov this problem if in fact this is a problem.

thanks and regards

paul

im not sure if its fungal or bacterial, but that white fuzzy stuff on your uneaten food is quite normal, ive seen that in my own tanks before so dont be converned about it. what is more concerning is that you have uneaten food laying on the bottom of your tank lol. that cannot be good for your water quality, and if they are spitting out half what you feed them, perhaps your are over feeding, while oscars are kinda messy, they generally arent that sloppy with their food. you need to use your gravel vac and remove that uneaten food before it starts to rott (that whie fur is a clue its rotting) and foul your water.


ideally, we remove what they dont eat after 3 minutes. i know nobody really likes to do it, but that simple step does go a long way toward helping maintain good water quality.

Hi thankyou for your reply although it sounds nasty im glad some1 else has this problem too be able too tell me solutions so now i will make sure im not over feeding them and make sure i gravel clean more regular at the moment i do it once a month how often could i do it without ruining water quality, again thank for your reply much appreciated.
thanks and regards.

paul

Take more care how much you throw in is the easy cure.

geeza2006 wrote:


i vac my gravel every week during my weekly water change. infact, by the time i have vac'd the gravel in my whole tank, i have removed about 25-30% of my water, which is just about perfect for my weekly water change.

alright for some....sumthing tells me ud win a water change race mine takes me a while lol

This is only a problem cause of uneaten food. Only feed what they will eat in 2 or 3 mins. Also clean the gravel every 3 weeks or so (some do it more often)

askhammatt wrote:


lol not really, i have the cheapass syphon from walmart and its only like half inch tubing. it takes a while for 50-60 gal to go thru it, which is about what i remove weekly from the big tank, there are also 4 more tanks that i do as well lol.

fair enough

marcus has a point regarding how much u throw in..
i wanna stress out even more, bcos my baby oscar does the same thing(spitting out half of the food).
i found that i can actually prevent this. heres wat i did..
i find that if the oscar is still chewing food(freeze dried tubifex in cubes in my case), and it sees more food being thrown in, it spits out wat is in the mouth and go for the newly thrown in food. this is out of greed i suppose..
so i throw in a mouthful, wait till it swallows everything, then throw in another mouthful.. problem solved.