Oscars

[cheesy feet]

I don't see why it matters anymore.I would just empty the tank and start from scratch...

I certainly does matter.. Learning from 2 dead fish is better than killing another 2 by not learning.

If fish die its better to figure out why. If you stubbed a ciggie on your hand and it hurt, you probably wouldn't do it again

cheesy, you have enough fish and tanks to know that people should learn rather than go into things blindly.

Squid

Why i said it is because so many different people have ideas of what it was i don't think it's going to end.Unless we go and see what his tank was like then we don't know.Oh well...We said it could of been nitrites and explained that so..

What nobody has said though that the fish might have been ill when he bought them.But from green0893 posts you should change the water at the end of a cycle,to remove any ammonia,nitrite or nitrate.This is probably why they died .

 

[Squid]

to answer some of your questions i use a 40 gallon top fin filter and another 50 top fin filter thats all i know bout the filters it had cycled since early december and i never did a water change because my fish died within five days of me putting them in there since the deaths i have empyied out most of the water and gravel vacuumed and refilled the tank and now there is ammoneia present and to the post above i wish i could ask my uncle but we r not on speaking terms because of a death in the family also i didnt feed that much because they never ate the food......

Were the filters being used in another tank then. I'm trying to understand how the filters can be cycled since december??? When was the first fish added, and when was the second added. what happened between december and the fish being put in.

Cheesy_feet - as you can see, we are obtaining more information that can help. best not to brush it under the carpet.

Squid

 

[green0893]

to answer some of your questions i use a 40 gallon top fin filter and another 50 top fin filter thats all i know bout the filters it had cycled since early december and i never did a water change because my fish died within five days of me putting them in there since the deaths i have empyied out most of the water and gravel vacuumed and refilled the tank and now there is ammoneia present and to the post above i wish i could ask my uncle but we r not on speaking terms because of a death in the family also i didnt feed that much because they never ate the food......

Were the filters being used in another tank then. I'm trying to understand how the filters can be cycled since december??? When was the first fish added, and when was the second added. what happened between december and the fish being put in.

Cheesy_feet - as you can see, we are obtaining more information that can help. best not to brush it under the carpet.

Squid

i set the tank up in early december and let it cycle......... then around late feb. i did a little water change because i thought i was gonna add fish but then cuz of work and school and stuff like that i didnt buy any fish......... the recent fish that died were the ones i bught recently they were the first fish in the tank................so the filters had been running in the tank since december they went through a little water change in feb then i added fish recently

 

[Gatorbait]

It sounds like your tank wasn't cycled.

Through the months if there is no source of ammonia then you won't have the beneficial bacteria living as there's nothing for them to eat. A few months later when you added your fish you had your source of ammonia and your tank started it's cycle.

Unless I'm misreading you.

 

[Squid]

It sounds like your tank wasn't cycled.

Through the months if there is no source of ammonia then you won't have the beneficial bacteria living as there's nothing for them to eat. A few months later when you added your fish you had your source of ammonia and your tank started it's cycle.

Unless I'm misreading you.

My thoughts exactly, which is why i asked the question. Have a look at the new to the hobby section, there is a pinned topic on fishless cycling. If the filter was seeded even slightly, it would have gone into a cycle with one oscar. Two oscars would have caused more of a problem. The nitrite was most definately present due to the tank not being cycled, and would have resulted in the two dead fish.

Squid

 

[Boids-n-more]

How big were the oscars you put in the tank , were they babies or adults or inbetween. Also i like to turn my tanks over a minimum of 5 times per hour but i stive to hit 10 times per hour. What i mean by that is i want a 75 gallon tank to have a minimum of 375 gallons an hour being filtered. Oscars are big fish with huge apetites so its better to over filter your tank. Unless you were adding amonia to your tank it was not cycled as said above. If you do a fishless cycle make sure you dechlorinate the water when you do water changes. the chlorine will kill the benificial bacteria.