Help! Cloudy Oscar Tank Fish at Top

[Colleen82]

Really hoping someone can help me. Let me start at the beginning. Starting in May my 90 gallon Oscar tank got really cloudy, so I Figured it was time again to clean and change the filter (Fluval 406 canister). So memorial day weekend I cleaned everything, including emptying out about 50% of the water and replacing with fresh water and completed with a water conditioner which I used when I first set up the tank 2 years ago. A day later fish tank was brand new again.

However starting last week it became extremely cloudy again and my Oscar was at the top of the tank breathing. My cousin said maybe I took to much of the good bacateria out so to get some minnow or gold fish to help get that cycle going again. That didn't work. I am on like day 4 and I got an ammonia tester kit that read 4.0 so something called "Prime" was recommended via this website so I used a double dose of that on Tuesday and still my fish are at the top of the tank breathing and tank is still cloudy. Panicking last night I went through the filter again cleaning it out (not changing the substrate, just rinsing) this time I noticed that the tubes were EXTREMELY clogged so I completely cleaned them out with water and thought for sure that would be the fix but this morning still cloudy and my poor fish still at the top!

Anyone have any recommendations? I am so worried about my Oscar!

Thanks,

Captain Insano's Worried Mother.

 

[Angela1108]

I would definitely do a partial water change to get some of the ammonia out. Trouble breathing and high ammonia is a sign of ammonia poisoning. The best thing I know of is to keep checking the levels and doing water changes

 

[Mebbid]

First - you need to start with water changes. Do a 50% change every other hour until the ammonia reads 0.25ppm. It should take about 4 water changes. This is considered a safe level of ammonia for your fish. Keep testing daily and changing water until your tank recycles. You should also be keeping an eye on nitrite and do the same thing to keep it at 0.25ppm or below.

Second - you shouldn't hardly ever have to change the media in your filter. This is where all your BB resides and it only needs to be changes when its literally falling apart. This is a very rare occurrence, in a year I've had to change filter media once.

Third - regular tank maintenance should be a 50% change weekly. Especially for a fish as dirty as an Oscar. You can take the goldfish back as its not helping and in fact is making the issue worse.

Fourth - How big of a tank is this and what fish are in it?

 

[Colleen82]

Unfortunate news, my fish died. I can't help but feel like an awful owner at this point. Thanks everyone for the advice.

 

[Mebbid]

It happens to almost everyone at some point. The best thing to do is learn from our mistakes and move on.