A club for owners of Parrot Cichlids

About 2 months ago, our male oscar, Ivan, started acting strangely. He stopped eating, became lethargic and all tippy-looking, and plunked down on the bottom of the tank and would not move. I did a big water change, cleaned all the parts of the tank and sump that don't usually get cleaned and he recovered. So I assumed it was nitrates building up.

Then yesterday he started acting oddly again! It had only been 1 week since his water was changed, so I was very worried. I put a sample of the water in a bottle, then did a big water change, right down to his ankles. While it was draining, I brought up all my test kits from the basement and started testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. All were totally fine. The nitrates showed a faint color, but ammonia and nitrites were clear. Then I noticed a phosphate kit. "What the heck, I'll test for those too." WOW! They were off the chart.
After finishing the water change, I checked it again. The phosphate level had gone down but only slightly. This can happen when the concentration before the first water change was so high so high that the remaining water in the tank contaminates all the new water.

So I did ANOTHER huge water change. This time the concentration went down to an acceptable, though not perfect, level. I would do another water change but I ran out of steam. And Ivan was looking perkier.

I started reading on the web about high phosphates and oscars. Other people have had the same issue - a puffing, panting oscar, and very high phosphates. I learned early on not to trust the products that guarantee to lower this or that unwanted chemical, they never seem to work. So I rely on water changes to reduce levels of bad stuff, being careful to keep the temperature constant while changing the water, to avoid shocking the little guys.

So Ivan is back in action, yelling angrily at me in fish-speak for not feeding him every time I walk by the tank, and tearing up the expensive tank ornaments. Galadrial (his girlfriend) is happy too. All is well in Oscar-land!