# Help! New (again) tank owner and having foul odor problems!



## lilanglergirl91 (Aug 8, 2012)

Hi, everyone,

I introduced myself in the introductions forum, but for those of you who didn't read, I am new here. I used to have a fish aquarium throughout college, but that was years ago and I forgot a lot of things.

My boyfriend and I set up at 20 gallon fish aquarium on Saturday. Today is Wednesday, and it smells. It doesn't have a sulfur smell like I've been reading about. It just smells foul...almost like feces. It's disgusting. The water looked good until yesterday and today...now it is cloudy and smells awful!

We let the water sit in the aquarium on Saturday and slowly introduced the fish to it. We have two oscars and we had an ice blue cichlid but the oscars killed him  The guy at the fish store said to leave the fish in their plastic bags for an hour then poke a hole in the bag and eventually release them. The fish seem to be doing fine, minus that they lost their friend. They are eating regularly and very active.

We used an anti-chlorine agent on Saturday for the water. It looked beautiful Sunday! The past two days, however, it is terrible looking and smells. There is on film at the top of the water and, again, the water does not smell like sulfur - it's a different smell.

Any suggestions?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

your tank needs to cycle to filter effectively(may take 4-6 weeks) .Oscars (even little ones) create alot of waste and usally stir things up a bit.Check cycling threads, tons of info from many.Change water, say 25% a week maybe more since not cycled.Limiting food to fish will help water alittle to.


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## jshiloh13 (Dec 12, 2010)

yea sounds like you need to do a water change, im thinkin 25% twice a week since oscar are not a very clean fish. also oscars are very large fish for a 20 gallon, i know, i had one in my 29gal and he outgrew it in a year.... and i had to trade him in


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## jshiloh13 (Dec 12, 2010)

but bandit is right, look up cycling in the search and you will get better advice from a lot more experienced people


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

For 2 oscars I would suggest at least a 75 gal with lots of filtration and water changes. Those fish get up to 12 to 13 inches long and are fast growers. In the tank they are in you need to be changing about 50% every couple of days to prevent the smell and to keep the oscars happy.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Keeping an oscar tank clean is work. Two in a 20 is impossible - it can't work. You need to check the cycle, return the oscars and do a little research on what can flourish in a tank that size. For more than a very short time, oscars wont even survive in that tank.


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## Hawk1018 (Apr 12, 2012)

agree with susan and navigator...tank is too small and you should look into a larger tank or different fish.


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