my oscar stopped eating.

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my oscar stopped eating.

Postby 808-hawaii on Tue Jul 11, 2006 3:46 pm

Aloha,my albino oscar has stopped eating for about a week now.He or she is about 2 years old.About a month ago the other oscar stopped eating and died about a week ago,we got them as a pair.I watched him die and immediately removed him from the tank and did a total tank and pump cleaning.There fed Cichlid Gold pellets and once a week feeders.I have another oscar sharing the tank with him and he doesn't eat like before .I don't do a water test on the chemical balance,I was told the water in Hawaii is pretty good,maybe I should. The tank is 55 gallon,with 2 Emperor 400 and one 350 Magnum.I do a water change once a week and clean the pumps once a month.I don't know what to do,any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Mahalo and Aloha.
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my oscar stopped eating.

Postby DanRad on Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:40 pm

First thing is to check your water parameters. If you have test kits do it yourself. If not, many fish shops will do it for you. Your immediate concerns are ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. Ammonia and nitrites should read zero, and nitrates below 40ppm. I'd also skip the feeders indefinitely, at least until you find out for sure what's causing the problem. Do you see any unusual physical signs? Little white spots on fins? Pits around the face area? Let us know. Good luck!
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my oscar stopped eating.

Postby 808-hawaii on Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:38 am

Aloha,Dan thank you for the quick reply,I purchased a test kit and this is the results.Ammonia 0 ppm,Nitrite 0 ppm,Nitrate 40 to 80 ppm.The color card goes from 40 to 80 and might be somewhere between that,the pet store does test samples for you so I'll have them do one and see what they come out with.But I think the Nitrate could be lower anyway.For unusual physical signs,yes they do have pits around the face and head ,looking at the pictures on the forum its the HITH disease.Aloha and Mahalo.
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my oscar stopped eating.

Postby DanRad on Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:25 pm

Aloha! Couple of suggestions: First, you want to get those nitrates down. My water change routine is about 50% twice a week. If you're fanatically careful about feeding, less could work, but I've liked my results with this regimen. Pretty much the only ways to reduce nitrates in a freshwater tank are plants (good luck with Oscars) and water changes. Get yourself a Python and can the buckets! For other approaches to the disease check out:
http://www.cichlidfish.com/portal/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21652

Good luck! Keep us posted. Aloha!
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