Tiger Oscar

[michaelplantinga]

I recenty got a tiger oscar he is about 4" long. and 2nd day in my 55gal he is still showing signs of stress (brown color not black) and stays at the bottom of the tank. why is this? i did numerous water tests by myself and with petsmart and the PH is a little low and ammonia a little high and the nitrate is a tiny bit high... but doesnt seem like enough to bother him, or is it? there is a school of 5 zebra danios in the tank along with 4 blackskirt tetras. is it the other fish bothering him or the ammonia/ph/nitrate levels?

 

[elisew]

I recenty got a tiger oscar he is about 4" long. and 2nd day in my 55gal he is still showing signs of stress (brown color not black) and stays at the bottom of the tank. why is this? i did numerous water tests by myself and with petsmart and the PH is a little low and ammonia a little high and the nitrate is a tiny bit high... but doesnt seem like enough to bother him, or is it? there is a school of 5 zebra danios in the tank along with 4 blackskirt tetras. is it the other fish bothering him or the ammonia/ph/nitrate levels?

When you say the ammonia is a little high, what's the test results for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

Anything above 0 on your ammonia and nitrites needs bringing down ASAP with water changes no matter how much you need to change or how many times you have to do it. Danios are regularly used for cycling tanks but your Oscar will be too sensitive for this. How long has your tank been running?

Can you please post the test results so we know what we're looking at dealing with?

 

[michaelplantinga]

I recenty got a tiger oscar he is about 4" long. and 2nd day in my 55gal he is still showing signs of stress (brown color not black) and stays at the bottom of the tank. why is this? i did numerous water tests by myself and with petsmart and the PH is a little low and ammonia a little high and the nitrate is a tiny bit high... but doesnt seem like enough to bother him, or is it? there is a school of 5 zebra danios in the tank along with 4 blackskirt tetras. is it the other fish bothering him or the ammonia/ph/nitrate levels?

When you say the ammonia is a little high, what's the test results for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

Anything above 0 on your ammonia and nitrites needs bringing down ASAP with water changes no matter how much you need to change or how many times you have to do it. Danios are regularly used for cycling tanks but your Oscar will be too sensitive for this. How long has your tank been running?

Can you please post the test results so we know what we're looking at dealing with?

my tank has had fish in it for 3 months ammonia if fine now. and the nitrate reading is a tiny bit up. nothing extreme. petsmart said nothing is bad. its just not perfect. should i water change? or?

 

[bullit]

what are the actual results including nitite?

 

[Jenste]

buy your own test kitt and ignore what the pet store says - - chances are they are using paper test strips which are just rubbish. You need your own liquid test kit. ANY ammonia and nitrite is poisonous to fish. "A little bit" is NOT okay and needs to be taken care of immediately.

waterchange waterchange waterchange...and when in doubt, do another waterchange!