help reply

Question
QUESTION: hi its me the one with the oscar in the cave he does have a white mark on the side of his mouth maybe a scrath and he might have eye cloud but the medicine im treating his finrot with (melafix) cures eye cloud two sorry about the last answers i got in the net finally and saw him up close

thank you so much
ANSWER: Hi Dillon
One thing with those test strip kits, they're not as accurate as the dropper test kits.  I had to return some dead fish to a chain pet store, and they use the test strip kits to test the water quality.  They told me I had ammonia in the tank.  I used my dropper test kit, and it's showing no ammonia at all.  The test strip kits and some pet stores will say that trace or small amounts of ammonia are fine/safe levels, but not true.  Any amounts of ammonia or nitrites will stress the fish.  The dropper kits are more expensive, but worth it in the long run.  

I'm a big fan of MelaFix and PimaFix, but sometimes somthing stronger is needed. Not sure how long you've been treating, but if you don't see improvement in both the fin rot and cloudy eye within a day or so, I'd get a stronger antibiotic.  Cloudy eye can also be caused by a bacterial infection or poor water quality, like the fin rot.  Keep a close watch on that, they can lose their vision in the eye.  Maracyn Two should take care of both of those problems if you need something stronger.

Hope that helps and good luck with treating!  Let me know if you have more questions!!!

Christy

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QUESTION: its to late now when i woke up my oscar was dead!!

ANSWER: That's too bad, I'm sorry he didn't make it!  Sometimes they just get to a certain point, and they won't pull through.

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QUESTION: its fine after i cleaned my tank i bought a socolofi and a yellow lab somthing fish
ANSWER: Africans :)  Good luck with them!

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QUESTION: what do they eat i do have alot and i mean alot of fish foods
ANSWER: Well both of them should have a main staple of a plant based food, like spirulina flakes.  You'll want a low protein diet for them, Africans tend to get bloat from too much protein in their diet.  Stay away from live brine shrimp, and occasionally you can feed a few frozen blood worms.  I'd stick to the spirulina flakes mostly though.

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QUESTION: ok these are the foods i have

frozen bloodworms,frozen beefheart, tropical fish flakes, omega one super color small pellets, algae wafers, veggie wafers, cichlid flakes and pellets which ones the best i dont really have any live plants
ANSWER: I keep getting double questions from you for some reason...I'm going to reject the other question or something to see if that stops it.

Not live plants, a plant/vegetable-herbivore(that's the word I'm looking for) diet mainly.  I'd vary between the algae wafers, veggie wafers, pick up some spirulina flakes, as the main foods, then maybe once or twice a week feed them a few frozen bloodworms or switch between the bloodworms and the tropical flakes.  They don't need a high protein diet, like oscars do.  That can cause them bloat and will kill them.  

Christy

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QUESTION: because i know one of my fish is a cichlid same type as my oscar i thought. are spirulina flakes cheap. do they come in pellet form. ive never seen my fish eat from the top just when in floats down.

thanks for the help!!!!!!!!!
ANSWER: Oscars are South American cichlids, you have African cichlids.  The spirulina flakes run about 3-5.00 a can, depending on what brand.  I've never seen them in pellet form, only flakes, there may be though.  Sometimes they'll eat from the top, sometimes they'll wait for them to float down.  You can also add the flakes to the filter output/waterfall and that kind of sends the flakes around the tank if they prefer to eat from the middle/bottom areas.

You're welcome :)

Christy

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QUESTION: the problem is ive got like zero dollars i spent all of it on my oscar in the 3 month period i had my oscar i spent at least 400$ dollars on it but their isnt anything i have that they could live off of?

ANSWER: I would feed them mainly the algae wafers and veggie flakes as the main staple.  Once or twice a week, give them about half a cube of the bloodworms or the tropical fish flakes.  They need a low protein diet, so don't feed them the beefheart or the cichlid pellets.  Those are geared for South American cichlids like oscars, that require a high protein/carnivorous diet.

Christy

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QUESTION: half a cube of bloodworms that seems like alot for my fish there small their not full size yet but i'll give them more every time their done with a slice because i slice the up so i could hand feed my oscar easier but i'll try to get some of those flakes you were talking about but i put in two small wafers because my socolofi is kinda mean towards my yellow lab somthing fish he hides but comes out when he sees me because that usally meen feeding time but they are cool fish they really have their own personnalities.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: (: (: (:

by the way do they make bio-wheels for ten gallon tanks because those are supposed to be a good filter but i have a auqa-clear20 an under gravel filter and a 550 powerhead because when i get fish i take good care of them!!!

ANSWER: Yeah, half a cube would be a bit much if they're small, just use your judgment :)  Buy the flakes when you can, and just rotate them with the other stuff I mentioned.  And those are neat fish!  I miss my African tank, got rid of them when I moved.  

Yes, they make bio wheels for that size, I actually ran the 10 gallon one on my 5 gallon tank when I had that set up.  I always get a filter rated for a higher tank.  Aqua Clears are good filters too, and they have the little bag with the bio ball bacteria things, you're fine with that.  The only thing I would do, when you get in the mood to do some work, take out that under gravel filter.  I'm not a fan of those, and I know  a lot of fish hobbyists aren't either.  The problem with them, they tend to trap uneaten food and poop underneath, causing problems with ammonia spikes or the nitrates go through the roof, if it's not cleaned out regularly.  Just more of a hassle with them.  Just my 2 cents....

Christy

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QUESTION: yea im with u on the under gravel filter thing it doesnt work but with the amonia cartriges it can come in handy because thats what i use but it doesnt really filter it out but it keeps the ammonia away. but i want to get sand but what kind and where and is their an easy way to get gravel out of the tank? can i do it with my fish in their and how?

Answer
I don't like the ammonia cartridges/chips either lol...  They don't address the problem of where the ammonia is coming from.  And they'll interfere with the tank cycling too by removing it instead of allowing the beneficial bacteria to remove it.  Was it you that was telling me there was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates in the tank?  If so, that may be what the problem was because you should have nitrates in a cycled tank.  Removing the ammonia wouldn't allow the beneficial bacteria to grow to cycle the tank. Hmmm... may have a problem with your tank cycling.

As for the sand, can't use that with the undergravel filter.  What I did, I used regular old kid's play sand from Lowes.  Try to find one that says it's silica free-silica=algae problems.  Pool filter sand is supposed to be good to use-some say even better.  You need to clean it first, what I did was pour a little sand in a bucket, then filled it all up with the house.  Then slowly/carefully dump the water out.  Repeat this until the water runs clear, took me about 6 times.  Then I just poured it into the aquarium.  You can still have some water in the tank-or not, it's best to just kind of scoop it into the tank then(make sure filters are off too!!).  

To remove the gravel from the tank(sucks lol) but remove the fish because it'll get messy/murky in there.  Do a water change and vacuum the gravel good.  I'd drain at least 1/2 the water out.  I have a large fish net, I just used that to scoop out most of the gravel and put it in a bucket or container.  Then you'll see what a mess the undergravel filter is :)  

Then go ahead and add the sand.  Let the sand settle for awhile before turning on the filters.  Then let it run a bit to clear the water, and I'd go ahead and change out the filter pad then.  Then get slowly let your fish get used to the new water temperature and possible ph difference-like when buying a new fish.  And that's it.  It takes some time, depending on how large of a tank etc., that's why I said when you're in the mood to do it lol.  

Also, I only added about an inch of sand in my tanks, some areas are a bit deeper others aren't-depends on the fish.  At least once a month whereever the sand is 1+ inch or deeper, I use the handle end of my fish net and "stir" the sand.  Some toxic gas(methane I think??) can develop if there's a deep sand bed. I can't remember what can happen-either it explodes or it releases toxins in the water and can kill the fish...I know big difference just can't recall, been a few years since I've read about it.  Anyway, it's easy to remember, just do it when you do the water changes or at least once a month and you'll have no problems.  

Christy