Missfishy,
You may be right on this one, and if you read my post then you would see i didnt disagree completely I said to get a test kit and post the results but IMO I think that everytime someone NEW posts you automatically assume they have no clue what they are doing, and did not cycle. I respect your opinion and your advice, i have pointed newcomers needing cycling info in your direction, but I disagree with you on this one and at the same time there a numerous ways to cycle a tank other than your way, do a google search of setting up an aquarium and 100's of result come up, and there are products that speed up the process that i have used on other tanks, I personally have done a complete tear down, cleaned with bleach,rinsed , filled added cycling products whcih is stated to contain live bacteria and added fish one week later and have never had any ammonia reading and my nitrates run an average of 5 to 10ppm when i do my water changes. So being that nitrates is basically a by product of ammonia being broken down then appearantly my tank is cycled and I have lost no fish since I tore it down/readded fish 3 months ago.
Laying on the bottom is a classic newly aquired Oscar symptom as well, I know this mine did it in well established tanks. I had mollies for 8 months in that tank until the Oscars where introduced a month apart and they wwhere 2in fish when i purchased them, the first one was introduced and sunk to the bottom and sat there for 2 days, then he began feasting on the young mollies, a month later I bought the second one put him in the same tank with the same result, he sunk to the bottom and laid there for 2 days. I know how much they waste they produce I have 2 of them living with a very large pleco. I do weekly water changes and my nitrates are never over 20 in that tank, and it is going to quickly be to small for the current stock, and sorry but IMO a 2in oscar does not produce that much waste to raise ammonia levels that quickly iespecially in a 65g aquarium, the amount of watr compared to the waste would most likely dilute any ammonia very quickly.
My opinion differs from you on this one due to my experience and various posts on the Oscar forum, I do not have time to research them and post links tonight and I will be gone all weekend due to military commitents
I would say if this fish was poisoned so quickly then it would probably be dead by now.
Fish keeping is a constantly evolving hobby and IMO a big science experiment what works for you may not work for me.
The point of a forum is to take many view points and decide which is best for you.I have an opinion and I voiced it based on my experience, experiences from my youth with Oscars, based on research and on other forums, I just wish I had the information that is available now back then.
I am not trying to be rude missfishy but i took your post as implying that I am trying to give him bad advice and trying to kill his fish. While cycling may be an issue it may not be the cause of his problem.
