CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

by **lotzaOscars** on Wed Oct 25, 2000 6:15 pm

there is some weird fuzz on my fake plants, its sorta brownish, what could it be? Solutions? It is stringy, not more than one inch long, lots of it on my plants. any ideas how to solve this problem?

by **cichlidfishadmin** on Wed Oct 25, 2000 7:01 pm

Hi,

It could be fuzz algae. A type that grows mostly on plant leaves as separate, short (2-3mm) strands. Considered normal. Can be controlled with algae eaters such as black mollies, otocinclus, pekoltia and siamese algae eaters. Or you can try some chemicals to kill the algae like simazine etc..

------------------
Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

[This message has been edited by cichlidfish (edited 10-25-2000).]

by **lotzaOscars** on Wed Oct 25, 2000 7:06 pm

i figured it was algae, but i wasnt sure. i needed the master information dispenser (CICHLIDFISH). thanks man.
ps will a plecostomus work?

by **kickstart4** on Thu Oct 26, 2000 10:02 pm

Yea a Pl*co might munch on it if he gets hungry enough, but try the algae eater if you can, not sure what else you have in the tank with the algae problem. BUT if you have a larger sized agressive fish, he might get eaten. And don't even consider it if you have a O in there cause guess what...you can say BYE BYE to him...Good luck!
Chuck

by **cichlidfishadmin** on Thu Oct 26, 2000 11:27 pm

Yea, I agree with Chuck, might be little hard to get the pleco to clean off the plants but you can try. Might not hurt to take out the plants, hose them off, do some inside tank scrubbing if needed and some good water change....I've used chemical agents before but I usually try to stay away from them.

------------------
Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

by **DANNY** on Sat Oct 28, 2000 10:22 am

PLEASE SOMEONE IVE BEEN HAVING PROBLEMS WITH MY OSCAR, I HAVE HIM IN A 30 GALLON TANK AND IM GETTING READY TO PUT HIM IN A 55 GALLON TANK AND I CANT GET THE WATER STABLE , I HAVE FEEDERS IN THERE AND NOW I JUST NOTICED WHITE WORMS SWIMMING IN THE 55 GALLON, IVE BEEN TREATING MY OSCAR IN THE 30 GALLON FOR HOLE IN THE HEAD, AND HE SEEMS TO BE OKAY, EXCEPT HE HANGS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK ALOT, HE EATS WELL. PLS SEND ME ANY INFORMATION YOU MIGHT HAVE CONCERNING THESE MATTERS.

by **lotzaOscars** on Sat Oct 28, 2000 11:14 am

he probably got HITH ( hole-in-the-head ) from either a carbon filter or the feeder fish or a combination of both. try to wean him onto pellets, i use HIKARI MEDIUM SIZE FLOATING COLOR ENHANCING PELLETS. try to do weekly water changes, or get rid of gravel. none of my oscars have HITH or worms of that matter. I do have an algae problem but thats another story. good luck to you.....

by **Repunz** on Sat Oct 28, 2000 3:24 pm

Danny,
Live food will reak havock on your levels in your tank. It clouds the heck out of mine. Stop the live food for now. If he won't eat pellets, feed like 2-3 fish a day, which is still pushing it. Cut back his live food, when he get's hungry give him pellets. At first he may not eat them, but Oscars are very smart. If he sees you taking the uneaten pellets back out of the tank, next time he'll think twice before not eating them.
As far as HITH (Hole in the head), remove all carbon, weekly water changes, and lots of TLC (tender loving care).
When you change the water, use a siphon method, and suck from the bottom of the tank, and replace with fresh water of the same temp. When you pour the new water in, place a paper plate on top of the water in the tank, and dump the new water onto this. This prevents stirring up the bacteria in the gravel. Your water will stay more balanced, and clearer.

Good Luck!

------------------

Jen

by **cichlidfishadmin** on Sun Oct 29, 2000 1:19 am

Hi Danny,

When in doubt treat your fish in a small tank, I recommend 10 gallon tank for treatment with antibiotics, anti-parasites and/or anti-fungus stuff.....whenever you have some kind of disease it is BEST that you do a TOTAL cleanup of your maintank. I mean like take ALL the water out, hose it down well, scrub it, chlorinate whatever's hard to clean....if your fish is eating well that is very GOOD. Another thing, one reason I use 10gallons is because it requires LESS medication to reach the optimum "concentration". The more WATER to treat the MORE medicine etc.. you have to add the MORE expensive it will be ....and the more water to dump out...hope your oscar gets well. For hole-in-the-head you must do very frequent water changes, 30% or better. Excellent water quality will help them heal, adding some Vitamin B complex might not be bad either....

------------------
Joe
www.cichlidfish.com