Tony s

Yeah, your water looks good. Nothing you’re doing wrong. If you’re set on neons. Dans fish. Aquahuna. Excluding neons, I’ve had good results from flip and imperial tropics

I don’t believe hith or hlle (head and lateral line erosion) has a lot to do with hardness. Oscars are very commonly kept in harder water with no ill affect. Most of the US has hard water. It has more to do with excessive amounts of organic material in the water. Your nitrates can be fine, but you can still have a great deal of organics fouling the water. And oscars generate a ton of organic. Feeding oscars a diet of poor quality or inappropriate materials can also aid hlle.

Apparently Oscars will do that from time to time. John Hudson, kgtropicals, says his oscar will do this after water changes. His oscar get ticked off that his tank has been disturbed. An intelligent animal just throwing a fit. Not saying that’s what yours is doing, but it’s a possibility.

You’re probably right, or very close to 2ppm anyway. Either way it’s definitely close enough. I’ve heard for easier reading, look down the center of the tube longways. The colors are easier to distinguish. I haven’t tried it that way though. But planning on it next time i can’t decide a color.

Get him some clean water and see if that helps. Go ahead an do the 4 days of 50% water changes or more. Add in the prime. See if he perks up some.

Depends on his energy level. If he’s been sitting there for a week and doing nothing, it doesn’t look good. If you think he’s not going to make it, you have 2 options. Both your choice. Either way you need to get the ammonia down so he’s comfortable. First one, do nothing. Let him pass naturally. Second, when he’s passed the point of recovery. You can assist him and put him down. This is the humane choice, but it’s never easy. Nor should it be

yeah, unfortunately that's the case. sometimes you need to buy twice as many as you want. if they survive the first three months, they're usually fine. I have given up.

Yeah. You can stop worrying now. You’re good

It’s much easier to do it for the whole tank’s volume. Easier to do and remember the amount. Just for consistency

No reason to worry at all. With the levels of chlorine in tap water it takes hours to kill simple bacteria. Longer for fish. Adding dechlorinater before, during, or after a water change is just fine. as long as it gets done. That's why the whole rinsing sponges and filters in tank only thing is a myth. Tap water for cleaning sponges works great. as long as it's done quickly it has little effect on your beneficial bacteria. If you leave your sponges soaking in tap that's a different story. so, no, just ordinary exposure won't do anything at all.

When I hatched my recent clutch, I fed them … nothing. They did just fine on the surface algae in the tank. It was in a 75g tank though. Which had a lot of surfaces for them to clean. In smaller tanks, I feed them algae wafers. Or sometimes sinking carnivore pellets. Same thing I’d feed the adults. They’re so small when they hatch, they don’t require a lot of additional feeding if you have the algae for them. And congrats, they’re a lot of fun to watch wandering around the tank.

Your fish should do fine in your soft water. Honestly, with that water you could do some very sensitive species. Like discus, rams, appistos, or even wild caught South American species. You can get around your kh issues and do smaller, more frequent water changes. Keeping your nitrates and organic content at super low levels.

I think this is a safe way to go. You can also add baking soda to the water. Both products won’t raise your gh any. You’ll have to use them every time you change water though. With the 2 buffers you can actually target a certain ph when used together. You can use equilibrium to add gh back into the tank as well. Up to the level you desire. The problem with some of the more natural additives is that there is not a lot of control. They absorb up to the point they can’t absorb anymore. Possibly way higher than you actually want.

Ok thank you so much ! That size group would be great! But I’d find some really small floating food for them. Maybe even fry food. I think when people have problems with new chilis it’s usually from too large of food. Or food that sinks too quickly. They’re going to have very small mouths and require very small food.

2 options. 1. I’d start with a couple of large water changes. 50% at least. Remembering to add dechlorinator in after the last. Prime for that would be the best. When your ammonia is under 0.5 , I’d start your treatment. Then when you get ammonia above that, I’d use the prime again to detox the ammonia. That should last the entire treatment period. Especially with just one betta. 2. If you have a clean 1 gallon bowl or bucket, you could put your betta in there and leave the tank to cycle by itself. If you just have the 1 betta to take care of, he’s not going to produce much waste. Clean water might actually help him more than anything else right now. Do the treatment in there. If the heater will transfer, go ahead and move it too. But be careful the sensor is underwater or you’ll end up cooking your betta. Bettas can survive in room temperature. It’s uncomfortable for them, but most bettas do that before purchasing. If you can transfer an air stone that would be best. Bettas can also us atmospheric oxygen, but in your guys shape, he may not be able to. If you’re going out to petsmart/ petco for the prime, grab a bottle of QuickStart or safestart bacteria and add to the tank. help it to cycle.

@Colu

Agree. If you’re worried about sloshing around. I might pull the hardscape and put in a bucket

See this is what happens at 3am. Sorry I missed it.

Just curious, would the inkbird controller give you a rang of temperature settings? While giving you much better accuracy

Still leaves you the problem of what to do with your fish. Somebody has to go to a different tank for the long term health of the oscar.

Assuming that to be true, here’s coops read on that https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/hole-in-the-head That also attributes it to water quality, stress, and poor diet. As well as several different infections agents that step in to erode the tissue. first thing that I would do would be to clear up any excess organics in the water. Note, this does not mean your parameter numbers. But any extra bits of gunk floating around. Trust me, not throwing shade here. Lord knows I could use the same advice. Parameters can be fine while the tank is still a mess. Then switch to a high grade cichlid pellet to improve the diet. Ones from sera, extreme, north fin should help. Or a combination of all three. Then third, I’d watch the trimac very carefully. If it’s causing a lot of stress, it may need to be in a different tank.

Could easily be a bite. But could it also be head and lateral line erosion. Or hole in the head? Usually caused by increased organics and the hexamita parasite. @Colu

Yes, you can test parameters with meds in. You can also use Seachem prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite in case they climb to higher readings. As long as they stay down, I wouldn’t worry about a water change during treatment. But start the treatment with clean parameters.

Whistling in the background ….. quietly moves fish….. although mine is on 3/4 inches long now

I believe that methylene blue is used for fungal infections. Fin rot is usually caused by gram negative bacteria. Maracyn2 or kanaplex treat this. Current water parameters would be helpful for us as well. @Colu