ocar

Question
QUESTION: Hi Ron, I need your help our famiy fish called big fish just made it thru a rough patch of hole in the head and a diease,I'm not sure of the name but he was covered with slime. It was tough,but he made. But I'm fighting to get his alkaline & ph, up where they need to be, I've done everything I know to do. So please help me save big fish we've come to far to loose him now.
I've done a water change since, added the salt& cyclewater treament & Easy Balance Nitraban and his levels are Ph is 7.6 and alkaline is 0. Amonine is inline.
Any help would be great
Thank you
Cheryl

ANSWER: Hi Cheryl,
 Do you know what kind he is?  Is he an oscar?

 The best thing you can do are more frequent water changes. With a large fish you should be changing about 20% of the water once a week, every week to keep him happy and healthy.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: HI Ron,
Yes Big fish is an Oscar,he is in a 55 gallon tank with 2 small sucker fish, they are about 2" in lenght. And th Oscar is about 8" in Lenght. I do the water changes very regular because of the problems he has had, and the levels are still in the danger zone. And he is not happy his back tale is curved in and he spendes alot of time on the bottom in the corner, and at this point it's day 3 and he still hasn't eating anything. I think if I can get the alkaline level up it would help, but I can't find any way to do this.

Answer
Hi Cheryl,
 I don't understand why you would want to get the alkaline level up -- oscars come from acidic waters in South America.

You shouldn't be adding any salt either.  There is absolutely no salt in their natural waters.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>