Oscar community

llurgy · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

Hi,
I have 4 Oscars, 1 parrot fish and a medium sized catfish.

2 of the oscars are about 5 inch long, the other 2 are about 3 inch
long, the parrot fish is 3 inch and the catfich is 4 inch.

The tank is 35 gallon (I know, too small now)and has an air stone and
a Fluval 304 (70 us gallons)running.

My problem is that until the other day my water was crystal clear, I
had no problems at all. Since the other day my water has gotten
really cloudy. It doesnt look like an Algi bloom or a disease, the
cloudyness is more grey than anything, not white or green.
Is this just a matter of over feeding? I feed once a day, all the
food is eaten but obviously with having Oscars it does get a little
messy.

What I cant understand is that until the other day the water was fine
and had been fine for months. Nothing has changed, I dont feed
anymore than usual.

Cleaned the filter, but quite honestly it wasnt all that bad.

Since the filter cleaning the tank has cleared up a little but it is
still far from good.
The fish are a 'little' subdued but seem in the whole quite happy to
be swimming in the murk.

The thing worrying me is the sudden change from crystal clear to murk.

Any help or advice gratefully appreciated.
Mandy

Archived from group: alt>aquaria>oscars

Cookie · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 19

llurgy@yahoo.com (llurgy) wrote in message news:...
> Hi,
> I have 4 Oscars, 1 parrot fish and a medium sized catfish.
>
> 2 of the oscars are about 5 inch long, the other 2 are about 3 inch
> long, the parrot fish is 3 inch and the catfich is 4 inch.
>
> The tank is 35 gallon (I know, too small now)and has an air stone and
> a Fluval 304 (70 us gallons)running.
>
> My problem is that until the other day my water was crystal clear, I
> had no problems at all. Since the other day my water has gotten
> really cloudy. It doesnt look like an Algi bloom or a disease, the
> cloudyness is more grey than anything, not white or green.
> Is this just a matter of over feeding? I feed once a day, all the
> food is eaten but obviously with having Oscars it does get a little
> messy.
>
> What I cant understand is that until the other day the water was fine
> and had been fine for months. Nothing has changed, I dont feed
> anymore than usual.
>
> Cleaned the filter, but quite honestly it wasnt all that bad.
>
> Since the filter cleaning the tank has cleared up a little but it is
> still far from good.
> The fish are a 'little' subdued but seem in the whole quite happy to
> be swimming in the murk.
>
> The thing worrying me is the sudden change from crystal clear to murk.
>
> Any help or advice gratefully appreciated.
> Mandy

Do you do partial water changes weekly? I change roughly 12 gallons of
water from my 50 gallon tank once a week. I also siphon the bottom
bi-weekly. Have done this for a while and the water has never gone
cloudy. Maybe your filter is not powerful enough. My filter pumps 400
gallons per hour. Maybe its over shot, but back when I was pricing
filters, for $10 more, I could get 100 gallons more per hour. And with
oscars, you can't really go overboard. BTW, I have a Topfin Power
Filter 60 (box filter.) It does mmechanical, biological, and chemical
filtering. Does your filter do all three? If not, and just one or two,
then the other one is lacking and can cause cloudiness.

Another slight possibility might be a colony of copepods, cyclops or
similar tiny tiny water crustaceans. That may be why the water is
gray. Look VERY closely, do you see tiny tiny white things jerking
about?

Hope this helps,

--Cookie