CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

> WE HAVE THREE TIGER OSCARS TWO ABOUT 6-7" AND THE OTHER IS ABOUT 4".
> WE MOVED THEM ALL TOGETHER TWO MONTHS AGO INTO A 120G TANK
> ALL IS GOOD ACCEPT FOR THE TWO THAT WANT TO BREED.
WE BOUGHT SOME CRICKETS FOR THEM A WHILE AGO AND ABOUT TWO WEEKS AFTER I BEGAN TO NOTICE AT THE TOP OF THE TANK STUCK ON THE TOP GLASS LITTLE BUGS LIKE GNATS. DIDN'T THINK MUCH OF IT AT FIRST BUT NOW IT IS REALLY BAD. I EVEN NOTICE THE LARVAE SWIMMING AROUND. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THEM GETTING OUT AND FLYING AROUND BUT IF YOU LIFT THE LID SOME DO ESCAPE. IT HAS BECOME A VISIOUS CYCLE. WHAT DO I DO? I HAVE TWO VERY GOOD FILTERS WHY ARE THE NOT GETTING THEM? I HAVE THE HOT MAGNUM ON THE BACK AND THE MAGNUM 350 ON THE FLOOR. ANY IDEAS ON WHAT TO DO?
> THANK YOU

Ah, Springtime! A lot of flying critters have larvae that live and develop in the water. Given sufficient nutrients, they do quite well there. Not doing any real harm, but annoying. First thing to do is check on the nutrient level. What are your water parameters, esp nitrates? Nitrates feed microscopic plant life, which feeds microscopic animal life, which feeds things like insect larvae. If you're over 20ppm (some say 40ppm, but IMO that's a high cushion), you need to either cut back on how much you're feeding, increase the amount and frequency of water changes, clean your filters more often, or a combination of all three. Should take care of it.

I have the same problem...the green midge. I've had em for nearly 6 months, even tried life bearer. It didn't eaven phase em. I tried a salt treatment , 1 tbs per 10 gal...it seemed to cut them down a bit. Like D.rad said...water changes and good maintanance is you're best bet, short of a complete scrub down and decontamination. but then u got a re-cycle.