Can anyone tell me whats wrong with my tank?

[nauras]

Im very new to the entire scene. Did a bit of research here and there but once by 3 inch oscars started outgrowin my small tank i bought this 1mtr tank about a month back. In total i have a pair of weather loaches, few chichlids , 4 oscars, 3 catfish, 1 crayfish and nother 4 more of which i have no idea what their names are. Ive kept a 100w heater and a quite long airstone.
have kept a Fluval 103 Canister Filter (http://www.aquariumguys.com/fluval-105-canister-filter.html). thats pretty much it.

problems/questions:

1. the water is very unclear as you can see in the pictures. I dont know if it is advicable to do a water change, its been only a month since i got the tank.

2.i feed them 2 mins-4mins in the morning at 9 and 2 mins at 8 at night. There are totally 15 fishes in the tank and ive already finished 500gms of floatin stix within a month...and most of it is being consumed by oscars and then the loaches. Also i feed the crayfish frozen prawns/carrots/beans/but it seems like the prawns.

3. One of catfish is havin a damaged nose or its red and looks very bad so i moved it to a small tank and added a bit of salt and methelyne blue...ive also added a bit of methblue to the main tank. should i add salt to the main tank to prevent any diseases??? if i add salt is it going to stress out my loaches?

4.i still have to figure out a place where i can a pH meter and test the water. If anyone on the forum is from Dubai (UAE) please lemme know where can i pick up one.

5. what medicines should i pick up?

6.have not added any real plants coz of the oscars and the crayfish. should i add any plants.

for now its just these. but i guess after seeing the pix someone can tell me what all i should do/change in the tank.

cheers

these pix below were taken 2 days back:
its slightly blue coz of the methblue which i added.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1148.jpg

the big guy
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1155.jpg




http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1175.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1170.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1168.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1176.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1165.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1152.jpg


These are few pix when i just bought my tank just over a month back:

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/P1010007.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/P1010001.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/P1010003.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/P1010005.jpg


These are the pix of my old tank which i jus changed the entire thing and added few chichlids ( is it ok to feed these lil guys to the oscars??)

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1162.jpg

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd209/staind181/DSCN1161.jpg


THANK YOU IN ADVANCE

[elks]

Too small a tank for the # and type of fish
Too little filtration for that # fish
Cut down feeding to once a day, every other day.

[nauras]

^^
thx
its a 1meter long tank. should i get a longer one?

[Squawkbert]

A single Oscar will grow large enough to provide a full bioload for a 70-90gallon tank. For your stock, I would be looking for a 1m Cube (that would be 1000L or ~260 US gallons)!!

Also - there are lots of good filters out there - unfortunately, the Fluval 1xx series are not among them. They aren't even a good choice for a 20g tank, much less what you have. I'd either get a much larger tank or give away the oscars & large catfish and grow out the African Cichlids in the 1m tank, leaving the cray (who's probably responsible for your catfish damage) alone in the "old" tank.

[The Zigman]

I would get rid of the crayfish. they will eat, or try to eat anything within their grasp.

do you have carbon in the filter?

[lucy42083]

Tank is way too small and way underfiltered for the fish you have. I agree that at least 75 US gallons is needed for just one Oscar alone, due to their large adult size, territorial nature and the fact that they are waste machines. I'd also agree that for your stock you'd need a minimum of 240 US gallons, but that might not even work with 4 adult Oscars due to aggression. And, while the crayfish might eat anything small in your tank, I'm pretty sure your Oscars will eventually kill all your crayfish while they are moulting.

[nauras]

^^
thx guys for the quick replies...
the crayfish only comes out usually when i feed the others...i jus leave its food just outside its "cave" and it picks it up and goes back inside. its been quite active after its moulting. i bought the oscars whn i had a very small tank. cant i jus return the rest of the fish and jus keep the oscars and the loaches coz ive got pretty attached to them ?

getting a 240 gallon here will be quite a different thing coz not many shops hav such huge tanks here unless i have to get it custom made from a glass/furniture shops and also the cost will be way too much :-(.

dont know if there is carbon in the filter ill need to chk. could anyone please suggest a good filter i can use with this current tank ?

[lucy42083]

Still not sure exactly what the volume is on that tank, assuming it's between 30 and 40 gallons, if you are actually considering keeping 4 adult oscars in that tank I'd say at least something like a Rena Filstar XP3 (maybe more with that kind of bioload) canister filter which will run you around $100-$150. However I don't believe that you can keep 4 adult oscars in that tank, no matter if you take every single other fish out of it. They will get 12" long easily, which is 1/3 the length of your tank. Four of them will be so crowded, there will be constant aggression, likely resulting in eventual death (due to stress or being beat up) of all but the 'dominant' one. Oscars are very dirty fish and to even keep the water halfway livable for them, in that tank, you'd be doing at least 50% water changes every other day - probably still wouldn't be enough. You really can't even keep one oscar in that tank much less 4, if you care about them, as hard as it may be, you need to find them new homes or get a much larger tank, period.

[crazycanuck]

i would say hed be fine in a 210 for the future,that size tank is readily availible in most petstores.. but for now,just increase water changes and stepup filtration.. have you tested nitrates and ammonia recently?? what wer they??

[nauras]

^^
the guys who setup the tank jus said take out the filter in 3 months jus rinse it n den ure done...im tryin to find a place where i can get test kit...none of the stores nearby got it and gettin one delivered to this part is quite difficult...im just goin to one of the stores to ask them regarding a new filter and the kit..

[nauras]

got an liquid test kit...gonna do it 2mm and will post the results..

[nauras]

ok did the test and these are the results did it with...INTERPRET - Master Test Kit
amonia 1.2mg/l
nitrite -0.25mg/l
ph 8.5mg/l or lil less
nitrate 25mg/l

[lucy42083]

That is not good. At all. Ammonia should be 0, nitrite should be 0. Anything above 0 is toxic to fish. Above .25 is very toxic and could be lethal, and is certainly damaging your fish. Do partial water changes until they both get down to 0!

[krytan]

I would strongly consider re-homeing the fish. Those fish need a MUCH bigger tank pretty much immediately, your water is toxic to your fish and even with large daily water changes your filteration still won't cope.
If you intend to keep these fish they will need about 1000 litre tank.

[Rbishop]

You should be doing a minimum of 50% water changes 3-4 weeks with that stocking, small tank and undersized filtration.

Start slowly right now and do 15-20% daily until the ammonia and nitrites are at zero.

[nauras]

thanks guys..

another ques...after doing the test the guy at the store asked me to get some solution to reduce the amonia level...should i pick it up?

i will be returning the catfish, the 4 tinfoil bars and get a spearate tank for the crayfish.

any idea what will be the measurements of a 1000L tank aprrox? is it better to get a tank custom made or pickup a off-the-shelf tank?

thx

[krytan]

8' x 2' x 2' or 2400mm x 600mm x 600mm

[wataugachicken]

you should do water changes to reduce the ammonia level, adding chemicals will only make the situation worse. if you can't get one large tank, you should at least start looking into getting a few 75's or a couple 90's or 125's. that way you can keep the oscars and maybe loaches but they won't be so crowded. if you want to keep your fish, you need to go bigger. they simply will not LIVE much longer in there. until you can get these other tanks, you need test kits, 50% or more water changes weekly or more often as needed, and additional filtration.

please be honest with yourself as far as your ability to keep these fish in a way that allows them to thrive and live to their full potential.

[Niljore]

Me also was having same kind of problem, as remedy i went for an undergravel filter, make sure the UGF covers the whole bottom and 2 internal power filters on each side of the tank and i have abt 40% of water change every week and it works fine, the water is crystal clear.

[oscaremmy]

Me also was having same kind of problem, as remedy i went for an undergravel filter, make sure the UGF covers the whole bottom and 2 internal power filters on each side of the tank and i have abt 40% of water change every week and it works fine, the water is crystal clear.

The water clarity is nice for us, but not much help to fish, unfortunately...the mechanical removal of debris/cloudiness does nothing for nitrates/ammonia levels. Quite quickly, the biological colony in the UGF will be unable to cope with so much ammonia. I kept one oscar in a 4 ft x 2ft x 1.5ft tank in the UK, with no other fish. These are fantastic characters but are one of the fastest growing fish I have ever kept. LFS's that sell multiples or even singles without ensuring the tank/filtration are adequate are just plain irresponsible.

[nauras]

^^
thank you all for the updates...
i have moved 7 of my fish (friends got a bigger aquarium)...will be changing the water over the weekend. Also will be returning 2 oscars to the petstore. I have another question...is it ok to feed oscars live small guppies?urrently im giving them sticks and pellets.

[wataugachicken]

if you are growing your own nice healthy guppies (or getting guppies from someone that you know keeps their tanks clean), go ahead and throw some to the oscar. don't buy feeder guppies at your LFS unless you plan on quarantining them for at least a couple weeks. they potentially carry a lot of diseases that you don't want your oscar to get simply because they are meant to be eaten. since the breeders and stores don't expect them to have to live very long, they are treated badly and allowed to be unhealthy. one time i bought 2 dozen feeders and QT'd them - not one made it past 3 weeks.