Fresh water tank is cloudy and fish are dying?
Our Oscar tank (2 fresh water fish) have particles clouding up the water and killing the fish, with these small mm sized lines on the glass, possibly worms but to small to see, whatever it is its moving. It was cleaned already once and the next day was back to being cloudy. We need help diagnosing this!
One is bloated in the belly really badly and the other is near dead with a slight cloudy ish spots or film on him. They’ve been swimming near the top of the tank recently kinda heads up, very oddly like a human would do trying to breathe for air.
Anyone know what this is? Parasite? Bacteria? Plant life? ???
they get cleaned very often least 2 times a month along with all the other tanks we own,hmmm.
and yes we know about ammonia spike which is why they were cleaned immediatly the first time
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It sounds like your water has gone real bad, if you do a water test I imagine there’s quite a dramatic ammonia spike. The tiny worms are a sign your tank maintenance has lapsed and there’s too much waste in the tank, either dead fish, waste food or poop, or a combination of all. They will either be planaria or nematodes, if they’re just on the glass it’s probably planaria.
When you cleaned the tank did you rinse out the filter media in tap water? This would have killed off your good bacteria and thrown the tank into a cycle, this would cause the fish to hang near the top and gasp for air.
Do another 50% water change after you’ve tested the water. Make sure the filter and heater is working correctly. When you do the water change make sure you do a thorough gravel vac.
Oscars are very very messy fish, their weekly partial water change cannot be missed and they should have well filtered tanks, preferably over filtered, especially for two Oscars. For two Oscars you need at least a 100-150 gallon tank.
edit: 2 times a month is NOT enough for an oscar tank! it needs at least a 30% water change and gravel vac once a week, this is the cause of your problems, lack of tank maintenance.
You seam like your slacking off. you really need to clean your fish tank. if you do get new fish you need to clean it 1-2 months.. good luck with your fish
Oh Boy! Oscars are very messy fish….can i ask,do u have carbon filters,like a whisper or a canister filter? If not,u really need to invest in one….this should clear up ur cloudy water….also have u been using a water conditionar? This helps soften the water and adds the essential slime nessecary for the fishes scales…
You have a serious water quality problem. Oscars are large, carnivorous and messy eaters and need much better filtering and more water changes than normal fish.
All the symptoms you describe are related to the poor water quality.
I suggest you increase the partial water changes to 50%, evey day to start with, back to twice a week in the future if needed.
You dont mention the size of tank, or how it’s filtered, but two adult oscar really need a tank around 90gallons and a large cannister filter (one designed for a 150gal tank preferably)
I dont know if you will be able to save your fish now, they may be too far gone with the skin and internal infections, but if you replace them you really need to work on the water quality.
Good Luck
Ian