All My Fish Or Most Of Them Have Gone To The Surface

[stefish46]

Hi just today all my fish including flying foxes and mollies and barbs have started spending a lot of time at the surface i did nit and ph tests and they are all normal mine is acommnuity tank planted. On top of this last night one of my minnows died after losing his colours and this evening one of my odessa barbs just died iimmediately did a 20 percent water change and they all seemed to settle again but now they are all at the surface again can any one help me thanks stefish

 

[stefish46]

i should say my three bronze cories and my three albino cories and my catfish and my tetras seem unaffected and swimming normally am i panicking too much

 

[Skins]

Hi just today all my fish including flying foxes and mollies and barbs have started spending a lot of time at the surface i did nit and ph tests and they are all normal mine is acommnuity tank planted. On top of this last night one of my minnows died after losing his colours and this evening one of my odessa barbs just died iimmediately did a 20 percent water change and they all seemed to settle again but now they are all at the surface again can any one help me thanks stefish

Tank size? filteration? ammonia stats? how many fish?

Welcome to TFF, Skins.

 

[Curiosity101]

You really need to do a full range of tests...

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
pH

I would hazard a guess at ammonia poisoning as that's the one that normally results in fish gasping at the surface but it could be a few things...

pH crash

Some unknown toxin got into the water (either fell in such as an aerosol, or was introduced during a water changes)

Lack of aeration? Ie. if a filter or pump was struggling to agitate the waters surface properly.

So yeah... could be a few things, my bet is on ammonia though.

Did you do a water change in the hours leading up to the odd behaviour? If not I'd suggest it's not coming from the tapwater so doing a large, 80% or more, water change should hopefully sort things out until you can do a proper range of tests on the water.

 

[stefish46]

Hi just today all my fish including flying foxes and mollies and barbs have started spending a lot of time at the surface i did nit and ph tests and they are all normal mine is acommnuity tank planted. On top of this last night one of my minnows died after losing his colours and this evening one of my odessa barbs just died iimmediately did a 20 percent water change and they all seemed to settle again but now they are all at the surface again can any one help me thanks stefish

Tank size? filteration? ammonia stats? how many fish?

Welcome to TFF, Skins.

 

[WILDER]

I agree with the other posters we need more info.

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Full water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Make of test kit you are using.

Immediate water change and increase aeration.
If you don't have an airstone lower the tank water so the filter hits the water harder.