Cichlid owner's worst nightmare!

[slugguts]

Hello, I'm a beginner at raising fish, and I liked the look of the Oscars. I bought a Red Tiger Oscar and a Red Oscar (same sized). I brought them home and introduced them into my new 50 gallon tank. there were 2 plastic plants and 2 brick halves forming a miniture cave. I had about 10 goldfish and 5 guppies swimming around in the tank for about a day before i bought the oscars to make sure my filter and everything was working. The water was really cloudy but this was becuase it was a new tank and a new tank can take up to 4 weeks to clear (Read from onther Cichlid site). I left the goldfish in the tank when I introduced my Oscars. My Oscars immediently went to the bottom back of the tank and that is where they pretty much set up camp. They would periodicaly swim around or go to the surface to eat (only after I had placed food there and left the room). The next day, I noticed all the goldfish just swimming along the surface, with their mouths our of the water "eating air". Later that night I noticed the Oscars doing the same thing. The next day, they were still doing that but would retreat if I stuck any part of my body over the surface of the water. That continued all that day and I woke up today and BOTH of the Oscars were dead in their tank. Also (I don't know how smart this was, but I can get the link if you want it) I read from somewhere that you should make the water brackish with 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallon. well this sounded dumb to me (amazon river is freshwater) and so I only put one tablespoon in (this was the night before death). I also have a placatemous (algea eating sucker fish) in the same tank. Any ideas on why the Oscars kicked off? I had the tank at about 73.6 degreese, used 1/2 distilled 1/2 tap water when i filled the tank and let the tank run one day before putting fish in. Or is it posible PetSmart just gave me bad fish?

[Pam Chin]

Hi Slugguts,

Well, I think you made a couple of boo boo's. Goldfish and Oscars are really dirty fish. You set up a tank and since the filter hadn't cycled, it really couldn't clean the water, and basically your fish died from what we call poor water conditions. If you ever see fish trying to eat air again, do a water change. You can't do too many water changes, and you can't have a filter that is too big. Also goldfish are notorious for carrying diseases, and even if you get a predator fish, you should never feed these, they always cause more problems then they are worth.

Okay, so back to the drawing board.... Oscars are not a good choice, since they are going to out grow your tank in nothing flat. So unless you have plans to buy a bigger tank in the next three - six months, you might want to look at smaller cichlids!

I am not very good at telling you what you should work with, but I can tell you why or why not a choice will work in your tank. I think it is best to pick a cichlid, and then build your tank around that one that you like best. You can pick other cichlids that are found with them in wild, and decorate your tank with wild type conditions. These biotope type tanks are fun and great to watch.