Fishy Situation!

[wildfish]

hello all, one of my smaller fish are staying at the bottom of the tank i notice when i woke up and started to feed them...Ozzy was showing me were he was.(Ozzy Is My Oscar)well he wasnt picking on him rather a pushing him up off the bottom sorta trying to get him to move then i noticed my oscar was a lighter color not dark so to me he was stressed...MY tank has been cloudy past couple days i just started my tank 6 days ago i let my tank setup for 7 hours i added what was needed to the tank to allow me to put fish in (note:I wasnt thinking at the time)the same day...So i put the fish into my 10g which i have had setup for 10 days is doing great just a Ag.eater in both tanks.So my Question is with me putting a cichlid in with tropical fish do any harm?

 

[daveedka]

Read the cycle sticky and or any other info you can find on the nitrogen cycle. Find out your ammonia, and nitrite levels, and let us know what they are. additionally what size is the oscar tank (do you have two tanks? it was hard to understand) what other fish do you have in what tanks.
Dave

 

[sumthin fishy]

Ah, so this answer the question in your other post if you are cycled or not, kind of. Did you use bio-spira? If not, you are NOT ready for fish, (let alone the extreme overstocking you have). Take back ALL of your fish, accept mabey the barbs, go to the top of the forum and read the cycle sticky. If you want to keep the barbs(I recomend this because they are the smaller of your fish) you will be doing a "fishy cycle" This requires daily testing and water changes. You really should try taking back ALL the fish and do the "fishless cycle" as you won't be harming your fish in the cycling process. You cannot keep 5 large cichlids in a 20 gallon tank. I'm sorry if you got bad advice from someone at a petstore, and if you simply didn't so your research and got pets without knowing how to care for them, then you can do the right thing and let some of the folks here help out.

 

[wildfish]

i have a-
10g
2- black skirts
2-neon gourmis

20g-(Overstocked)

2-JD
2-rose barbs
2-Green terrors
1-Oscar 4" -Name is Ozzy

 

[stingray4540]

As a general rule any fish that can fit in another fishes mouth will end up in the other fishes mouth. I've heard oscars are relatively peacefull, but are eating machines. so if the tropical fish won't fit in his mouth I would think it would be ok. Also, what exactly did you put in your tank to cycle it. Unless it was gravel or plants from a well established tank or bio spira, I don't think your tank has cycled yet. That cloudiness is probably your tank cycling it will get cloudy for a while possibly a couple of days then clear up. If both your fish were in the tank with cloudy water they are probably suffering from too much amonia or nitrites. I would suggest taking them out if you have a tank that has already cycled and put them in there, or if not, a friends tank, and get some giant danios for your tank to finish cycling it. In order for your tank to cycle it needs to have fish in it, but if the fish are to fragile they will die, like Ozzy's buddy. Dannios are really hardy and will live through the process. Just do frequent water tests (the lfs should do it for free) like once a week at least, and when your amonia and nitrites are at 0ppm and nitrates are less than 20ppm your set! through Ozzy in there and let him snack on the dannios or bring the dannios back to your lfs for store credit. (most lfs's will do this, but check first)
P.S. about 3 dannios per 10 gallons. (e.g. 30 gallons = 9 danios)

 

[Pretender]

I should say that your 20G is overstocked.

Ozzy, by himself, will probably need about 55G. He will get to be a foot long or so. And those Rose Barbs are going to end up Ozzy food if you don't separate them soon.

The cloudiness is probably a bacteria bloom and is part of the cycling process. It's not bad. You have other things to worry about.

 

[PumaWard]

Ozzy, by himself, will probably need about 55G.

Try a 75g . Oscars get 13''+ and 55g are only 12'' wide... it would be uncomfortable and difficult for them to turn around in a standard 55g. I, personally, would much rather see an oscar in a 50g Breeder than a standard 55g solely because of the width of the tank.

I didn't see anybody recommend this, but you should start doing 1-2 50% water changes daily, it will help your fish until you can figure out what you are doing to do with them (hopefully you will return the oscar, JDs, and GTs). However, hopefully you will return all of your fish and fishless cycle as oppose to fishy cycle.