SHARKDIVER
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Ok, the local fish store hasn't been too helpful as to why this keeps happening, seriously about once a month my fish end up with Ich. I get rid of it no problem in about a week and a half to two weeks. But sure enough a month later they get it again...Ich that is.
A little info on my aquarium may be needed, 50 gallon bowfront tank (will be a 200+ gallon tank within the next two weeks) residents in the tank are as follows 2 Tiger Oscars about 3 months old and approx. 2-3 long. 1 Albino Oscar of same age and size. Two Peacock Bass 4 months old and about the same size, and one Plecostomus about 4-5 inches long, age unknown. One air pump, supplying air to a full lenth stone (approx 35 inches long across the back of the tank) Tetra heater, and Hot Magnum filter, which I believe to not be enough filtration for the greedy messy eaters I have in the tank. Feeding goes as follows, Oscars get pellets twice daily (Spectrum sinking Ciclid Pellets morning, and Tetra Floating pellets in the afternoon) The Plecostomus seems to be more of a dominant eater when I use the sinking pellets hence the use of floating pellets too. Peacock bass get 6 small feeder fish once every other day.
Water changes are done weekly, and they are large 40-50% at a time. I deffinately don't neglect my fish. As stated above I believe my Hot Magnum filter isn't enough for the fish I have chosen, and suspect this is part of the problem. Here is why I assume it has something to do with the filter. The bass eat live fish, which I have been told is the messiest food possible to feed fish as every scale the falls off as they snatch the feeders obviously has flesh attached to it too. I've also been told that the two types of fish I have chosen are known to create a lot of waste because of their hearty eating habbits. I mean for god sake the Oscars just mash the heck out of their pellets, and since they don't close their mouths all the way food makes it back into the water. The sinking pellets also don't all get eaten some falls too deep in the gravel for them or the Plecostomus to eat. I know this because I can see it get vacumed up during my water changes. On top of weekly water changes I have to clean the sleeve in my filter weekly and the entire filter every other week. The sleeve gets dirty, and I mean DIRTY no more than 3 days after every water change.
What exactly causes Ich to occur? I'm assuming it's dirty water. Since I do 40-50% water changes weekly, the only way the water could be "dirty" is because it has to pass through all the junk in the filter.
The second reason I think it is the filter is after doing some research on Oscars, I've seen a lot of Oscar owners talking about having TWO filters and most claim each filter alone will cycle the water in their tanks more than 5 times in an hour.
So again what causes Ich to occur, why do I get it monthly, and what can I do so I don't get it monthly. I know people who don't even get it once a year, and they don't do water changes more than once a month. (Different fish in their tanks, such as danios or angels) And please don't suggest clean the filter more often, I don't have time to clean it more than once a week. And quite frankly it seems ridiculous to me I even need to clean it weekly, that seems more like a once every two weeks maybe even once monthly job.
Do I need a better filter that is, one; larger and two; filters more water? Such as an Eheim (sorry if I spelt that wrong) I'd rather spend $200 on a really good filter than clean mine more if that will solve my problem. I mean in the long run $200 is a lot cheaper than a $15 bottle of Rid Ich every Month. I mean in 12 months I will have spent $180 in Ich treatments, and since my fish can live 15 years or more...a filter seems like a more economical solution....if in fact it is the solution. Oh and that doesn't include the cost of the Nitrofurizone I have to buy because the Oscars seem to get fin rot in conjunction with the Ich.
Please help me, because I hate seeing my fish sick, and well also I'm a little embarassed to have to even ask this question because it probably seems that I don't take care of my fish and that couldn't be farther from the truth...these are my "children" and I'm starting to feel like a bad parent!!!
A little info on my aquarium may be needed, 50 gallon bowfront tank (will be a 200+ gallon tank within the next two weeks) residents in the tank are as follows 2 Tiger Oscars about 3 months old and approx. 2-3 long. 1 Albino Oscar of same age and size. Two Peacock Bass 4 months old and about the same size, and one Plecostomus about 4-5 inches long, age unknown. One air pump, supplying air to a full lenth stone (approx 35 inches long across the back of the tank) Tetra heater, and Hot Magnum filter, which I believe to not be enough filtration for the greedy messy eaters I have in the tank. Feeding goes as follows, Oscars get pellets twice daily (Spectrum sinking Ciclid Pellets morning, and Tetra Floating pellets in the afternoon) The Plecostomus seems to be more of a dominant eater when I use the sinking pellets hence the use of floating pellets too. Peacock bass get 6 small feeder fish once every other day.
Water changes are done weekly, and they are large 40-50% at a time. I deffinately don't neglect my fish. As stated above I believe my Hot Magnum filter isn't enough for the fish I have chosen, and suspect this is part of the problem. Here is why I assume it has something to do with the filter. The bass eat live fish, which I have been told is the messiest food possible to feed fish as every scale the falls off as they snatch the feeders obviously has flesh attached to it too. I've also been told that the two types of fish I have chosen are known to create a lot of waste because of their hearty eating habbits. I mean for god sake the Oscars just mash the heck out of their pellets, and since they don't close their mouths all the way food makes it back into the water. The sinking pellets also don't all get eaten some falls too deep in the gravel for them or the Plecostomus to eat. I know this because I can see it get vacumed up during my water changes. On top of weekly water changes I have to clean the sleeve in my filter weekly and the entire filter every other week. The sleeve gets dirty, and I mean DIRTY no more than 3 days after every water change.
What exactly causes Ich to occur? I'm assuming it's dirty water. Since I do 40-50% water changes weekly, the only way the water could be "dirty" is because it has to pass through all the junk in the filter.
The second reason I think it is the filter is after doing some research on Oscars, I've seen a lot of Oscar owners talking about having TWO filters and most claim each filter alone will cycle the water in their tanks more than 5 times in an hour.
So again what causes Ich to occur, why do I get it monthly, and what can I do so I don't get it monthly. I know people who don't even get it once a year, and they don't do water changes more than once a month. (Different fish in their tanks, such as danios or angels) And please don't suggest clean the filter more often, I don't have time to clean it more than once a week. And quite frankly it seems ridiculous to me I even need to clean it weekly, that seems more like a once every two weeks maybe even once monthly job.
Do I need a better filter that is, one; larger and two; filters more water? Such as an Eheim (sorry if I spelt that wrong) I'd rather spend $200 on a really good filter than clean mine more if that will solve my problem. I mean in the long run $200 is a lot cheaper than a $15 bottle of Rid Ich every Month. I mean in 12 months I will have spent $180 in Ich treatments, and since my fish can live 15 years or more...a filter seems like a more economical solution....if in fact it is the solution. Oh and that doesn't include the cost of the Nitrofurizone I have to buy because the Oscars seem to get fin rot in conjunction with the Ich.
Please help me, because I hate seeing my fish sick, and well also I'm a little embarassed to have to even ask this question because it probably seems that I don't take care of my fish and that couldn't be farther from the truth...these are my "children" and I'm starting to feel like a bad parent!!!