Oscar cichlid problem

[fishstix]

Hey, im starting a freshwater aquarium as a school project with my bio teacher. We've got a 55 gallon tank with 4 sucker fish, 3 tiger barbs, 2 goldfish, and one oscar cichlid. The ph is 7.6 and the ammonia levels are at .25. I had the temperature at about 82, but i read that oscars need it at 72-77 and just recently lowered it. The oscar is albino, so i made it a small cave out of bricks from my backyard (dont worry, i cloroxed the bricks then covered them in bacteria supplement before putting them in the tank) to protect it from bright lights, but it seems that the light isnt really the problem. All he does is lie tilted underneath a small bridge structure in the tank. I added some bacteria supplement to attempt to lower the ammonia levels and im concerned that i need to lower my ph as well. Does anybody have the same problem with thier oscar cichlid? He wont swim up to the top of the tank to eat the pellet food i got him, so ive just been giving him flake food. Im considering buying a number of brine shimp and hoping that he will eat those, but i just dont know what is up with him.

[Scuba Kid]

You already posted two other threads about this. Cut it out.

[fishstix]

i put my first post in the wrong section (introduction) but then i realized there was a general freshwater group, so i put it there. I then discovered the odd balls and predators forum and i just wanted the right people to see the question i am asking. sorry for inconviencing you, im new to the whole forum thing

[sarahbellum]

the oscar question actually doesn't belong in the intro one, the general freshwater one, OR the odd balls one. it belongs in the cichlid forum.

[Obsidian]

But please don't repost it there. People will see it where it is and you will get answers. Leave it be

[trashion]

Oh boy. You really should have researched this more.

1. Oscars need a 75 or more. I'd get rid of it now, while it's still small and might not be stunted yet.
2. Goldfish and tropicals do not mix. They need cool temperatures, 68-72, and tropical fish need higher, around 72-78. If they're not fancy goldfish, that is, if they're common ones, they don't belong in something like a 55 either. They need ponds.
3. What kind of sucker fish are these? If they're plecostomuses, they need to go as well. They will get huge.
4. Lights won't affect your fish.
5. PH is fine.

Did you cycle the tank? Here's some articles on fishless cycling:
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article14.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fishless-cycling.htm

Good luck, let us know what's happening.

[fishstix]

yea i cycled the tank for a month before adding fish. Im Intend to get rid of the gold fish and two or maybe even three of the plecos. I know that fish dont out grow thier tank so i thought he probably would only reach 6"

[FishHead]

I would recommend reading up on fish before you buy anymore. Your barbs, goldies, cichlids do not go together. Barbs are fin nippers and semi aggressive, and are also schoolers. You need a minimum of 5-7, more toward the higher amount to remove aggression. your goldies would be ok in a 55, as long as they are not koi, comets, shubunkins, etc etc. Your cichlid requires a 75, as already stated, and is aggressive. i'm not sure if your sucker fish are plecos or algae eaters, but both get large.

Figure out what fish you want to keep and start over by researching them before sepnding your hard earned money..

[fishstix]

I think my biggest mistake was in my choice of agea eater. I researched a form of pleco that gets to be about 3" long and so i bought four of them to keep the tank algea free. I then realized several days after that they were not the fish i thought they were because they had different colored bellies. Im pretty sure, after doing some research, that these guys could get as big if not bigger than the oscar. I bought 3 baby tiger barbs (and i probably should have gotten two more) which are scared of everything and not yet big enough to do any fin nippings. The oscar is not aggressive towards my other fish, but then, its just a baby

[trashion]

Fish DO outgrow their tank, if they don't it means they're stunted, and this is very unhealthy for the fish and irresponsible.

Every tank will have algae, by putting more fish in, you'll make the algae problem worse than it is.

[fishstix]

what kind of health problems come with stunting

[JustOneMore20]

Early death is the main thing......you will be responsible for cutting the fish's life short.

They are more susceptible to infection and diseases when they are stunted.

[trashion]

Here's a good page about stunting:
http://freshwater.fanatics.googlepages.com/fishstunting

[fishstix]

Ok, in that case, i will take the oscars and plecos back. i will need to get some bearded corydoras as i originally intended or maybe some other algea eaters, what do yall have?

[JustOneMore20]

Otocinclus and Bristlenose plecos. Cories don't eat algae. You don't necessarily NEED an algae eater. If you have algae now, you should try to fix what's causing it and not count on the fish. But, if you just like bottom feeders, small plecos like Bristlenose and Rubbernose would be fine, as well as Cories.

Bearded Cories don't look too much like Plecos, IMO. Here is a link with pics: http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/sc...x_barbatus.htm. According to that link they aren't classified as Cories anymore, but they still look like them. You'll want to get atleast 6 of those guys.

[blcknwitecuban]

thanks for taking the fish back.
& yeah cories dont eat algae. someone once said, mayb it was on here, that algae eaters dont really clean the tank. yeah they eat the algae but they turn that into poop which is dirty.. and the poop then allows more algae to grow. you should try to find kuhli loaches. i have 4 and they are so cute.

& before you said your ammonia was .25 which could result in you buying all the fish at one time..