no ammonia but kinda high nitrites

I dont know what this means.I used Fritzyme and Bio-Spira to start my tank up and its been doing fine.I check the water daily and today the nitrites were up but no ammonia and few nitrates.Anyone have any ideas why?I am going to do a water chage tonight but I would like to know what casued it.Oh yeah I also used gravel from my established tanks.This tank has been going for about 1 month.Its a 125 with 4 Oscars 1Bloody parrot 3 Catfish.

'wicked1' <jb at ccrtc.com> wrote in message

What were you expecting? Did you have an ammonia reading yet, or is your question because you never had an ammonia reading. The bacteria which consume ammonia establish themselves faster than those which consume nitrites. Your tank is not cycled and things will settle down with time. It's not unusual to skip the ammonia spike in some situations. Watch the NO2 does not get too high. hth

You cant just chuck in 4 Oscars and expect everything to be fine, you have too many fish in there too soon.

You also can just chuck in 4 Oscars because they will kill each other when they get bigger, you can only keep 1 on its own or a mated pair (or 9 in a 600 gal tank).

You would know all this if you did any research on how to keep Oscars properly.

Also the Parrot is a hybrid fish and is very delicate so wont live through the cycle.

It would depend on the size of these Oscars.

I've had much better luck that than keeping Oscars together. Occasionally I get one which is intolerant, but I can generally keep a small group of them together for a good part of their lives. I don't feed live foods (makes them too agressive) and when they get too rambuncious, I might turn the temperature down a degree or 2.

Mixing a Parrot with Oscars is an obvious problem in regards to keeping everyone fed. I've never observed any special susceptibilities with the Parrots in regards to water parameters though. Perhaps others can share their observations.

The key word there being 'luck'.

LOL, you can do everything by the book, and then realize later, fish can't read.

I find the biggest governing variable (beside diet & temperature) to keeping Oscars happy is raising them from juveniles together, with a mix of other fish in the tank. Moving fish around will often upset the equilibrium. Even removing one Oscar for a week and then putting him back in will often upset everything. Otherwise, tank volume is also key. My recommendations are : (as minimum tank), 1 in a 55g, 2 in a 70g, 3 in a 90g. Better would be 1 in a 70g, 2 in a 90g and 3 in a 110g. At these volumes, you can keep the other fish in there as well, which helps keep the equilibrium. Part of the problem IMHO, is that Oscars are smart, and smart creatures get bored and irritated by the constant presence of only one other creature. There needs to be other 'stuff' for stimulation, including dither, bottom-feeders, rocks to re-arrange, a changing panoramic view from the tank etc etc. JMO