Ash Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Hi all, A mate of mine put some hardwood branches similar to hardwood into his tank and then left town for work. They had been soaking for over a month prior to draw out any tannis/toxins, however within 2 days of having the wood in the tank (2 days after he left) the oscars went off colour, went off their food & the tank went cloudy. They were also breathing heavily. As he's out of town for another few weeks I've got the job of nursing them back to health, as much as I can. The tank was well and truely cycled with a neutral PH prior the wood going in & now it's got a PH =<6.0 and big nitrite/ammonia readings! What I think happened is there was a toxin in the wood that dropped the PH AND killed off the bacteria colony. This kinda was good & bad as the low PH probably de-toxified the ammonia to a degree (I think?) and even though they were made sick at least they wern't killed. His family were also overfeeding them as well (by double or so) so I set them straight on feeding correctly, did a big water change ~70% and swapped the filter with one of the others from his larger tank (multiple filters) to help restart the cycle. Now the water is clear again, the fish look healthier and their breathing is back to normal, they just aren't eating and still seem spooked/shy. My questions are... Does the scenario about the wood sound plausable? Did I do the right thing with the water change/should I do more? How long would it take them to get over the shock & start eating again? Anything I've missed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Hi Ash, Sounds to me like you have done everything right. It is possible that the wood contained pesticides or the like which may have leached into the water. Also some wood contains it's own toxins as a deterent to insect damage (eg. turpentine etc.) The overfeeding obviously made things worse. Toss the wood to be sure. Continue to monitor the water and adjust as necessary. He was lucky you were there . merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saudukar Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 More then likely theres nothing wrong with the wood. The oscars are probably sulking because of the change to thier environment. They are very emotional creatures and can go into depressed mode for a number of really dumb reasons. Sulking can involve going off food. If the food collected enough it would produce nitrite and ammonia. But surely the person feeding them would have noticed the excessive food build up and stopped feeding them or at least cleaned the tank. The drop in pH can be attributed to nitrites and ammonia build up. Just because you have high nitrite and ammonia doesnt necessarly mean your bacteria colony is dead. Only feed them what they eat and clean up the rest. Give them some small fish to push around. That usually gets there biosterous behaviour a kick start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierced Soul Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 tannins which are leached from the wood will also decrease pH, which is the reason people generally dont use them in african tanks. despite the fact it was soaked for a month tannins will still be released for a while depending on the wood. I ahve one piece which has was soaked for several months, and has now been in tanks for over a year and it still stains the water. SOme people believe that certain wood is not good for a fish tank. This could *possibly* be a factor though I dobnt know if this can be proven. It's likely that the overfeeding is what has risen the ammonia and nitrite levels, and most likely what's affecting the oscars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phatoscarlover Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Hey guys, IMO id chuck the wood to be sure too! Not worth risking the oscars just for a bit of wood in the tank. I wouldnt be too worried about the oscars not eating, in nature its not uncommon for them not to eat for periods of 3-4 days so if them not eating is a resulting of them sulking id give them another couple of days to get over the sulking and they should be eating again normally soon. Maybe leave a feeder goldfish in there tank in the hope to spark them back up again.(i agree with sadukar on this) With regard to the water changes i would prob do another 30-40% 2-3 days after the first one. Oscars are preety tolerable to water changes but can be preety unhappy in low PH water so IMO your better to make them put up with another water change rather than leave them in a low PH enviroment. HTH and let us know how they are recovering. Cheers Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted June 3, 2004 Author Share Posted June 3, 2004 The wood's out of the tank, that's the first thing I did, should've mentioned that. The person feeding them did notice the food buildup but didn't do anythign other than stop adding more food. I've cleaned it all out. I wouldn't think overfeeding in a 2 day period would cause an ammonia spike & PH drop that bad, only 2 days remember? She was roughly feeding them double what they normally get & stopped when it wasn't being eaten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colfish Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Hi Ash actually the wood saved the oscars lives, it lowered the ph, thereby reducing the toxic effect of ammonia caused by overfeeding. but quick thinking and smart moves saved an almost certain end to the oscars. glad to hear all is well. regards; colfish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 If your mate is dead keen on keeping the wood, then he may have to resort to the old way of boiling the heck out of it. If it's too big to boil, then section it and boil it and re-assemble it with stainless steel pins / bolts / fixings. That generally gets any naturally occuring resins / terpenes (sp?) etc out of it. Os are happy as larry at anything from ph 6.0 to 7.5, so long as the change in pH is gradual (ie avoid osmotic pressure due to rapid pH change - plenty of research info out there on Google and similar if you're keen to know the details). If they are sulking, just wait and they will get over it. As soon as they are hungry enough they will snap out of it. :D They're OK for up to ten days without eating, but they usually stop being petulant after up to six days. In general, if he is planning to use wood in the tank from the paddock, try to find the stuff that was felled a LONG time ago and is really well weathered. It's probable it won't have any problems other than being hard to sink at first (can take a while, but it will waterlog eventually). Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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