Fish At The Surface. Please Help.

[Michelleuk]

Fish at the surface. Please Help.

All my fish are at the surface. They come down a few times a day.

The ammonia levels are high. I have done many water changes and put ammo - lock in. I have cut down thier food to once a day.

What else can I try?

 

[Qays]

Do constant water changes, everyday until the levels go back down.

Is this a new tank?

 

[Michelleuk]

Its about 6mths old.

Is it safe to change the water that often considering it will be replaced by tap water.

What do you think is the cause?

Thanks for your reply

 

[carrera]

as long as you dechlorinate the tap water, its safe.

have you replaced your filter recently? or the filter media, or washed it in tap water? or possibly had a long power outage? are any fish 'missing' and could be dead and decomposing under a decoration?

 

[Michelleuk]

as long as you dechlorinate the tap water, its safe.

have you replaced your filter recently? or the filter media, or washed it in tap water? or possibly had a long power outage? are any fish 'missing' and could be dead and decomposing under a decoration?

I did replace the filter, as the old one lost power. But i had this problem beofre i changed the filter.

I moved the decor when i cleaned the tank. I did find a dead danio in the filter (No idea how she got squeezed through the filter holes), But I took her out.

 

[Bex]

Hi

Don't know if this will help but I had this problem with all my fish at tht top. My tank is a lot newer (I was abdly advised to cycle with fish) and although my ammonia was low (0.1) my nitrites were high and I was told this was the problem.

I did large water changes daily (about 45%) over 4-5 days and all my readings are down to 0. Fish all survived and swimming normally.

Basically I was told that doing lots of water changes is better than bad water and although fish were a little stressed they seem much better for it.

Hope it helps but remember I am stil very new to all this! Good luck!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, deifnately keep up the water changes, make sure you add dechlorinator and the levels should start coming down. I'd do about 30% a day

 

[carrera]

changing the filter without seeding the new one with some old media will cause a rise in ammonia as there is no biological filtering going on, also, the dead danio would have released ammonia as it decomposed

 

[Michelleuk]

Thanks for all responses.

I have done a 30% water change. It seems to have a worked. Most of the fish have come down from the surface.

I doing another 30% water change later.

How do I get the biological filter going? I have added cycle.

Is there anything I can do to keep the ammonia levels down??

 

[carrera]

never used 'cycle' myself, but any old filter media in the tank would help, though probably too late for that now. once the good bacteria is built up, the ammonia should keep itself down, other than that, just water changes

 

[SamUK]

Thanks for all responses.

I have done a 30% water change. It seems to have a worked. Most of the fish have come down from the surface.

I doing another 30% water change later.

How do I get the biological filter going? I have added cycle.

Is there anything I can do to keep the ammonia levels down??

stop adding any chemicals to your tank for starters.

99% of them are a load of crap and changing your water that way can stress the fish cos the next time you do a water change your adding totally differnt water to what there in.

if you can you need to get some filter media from a filter that has been running in a tank with fish for a while and put that in your new filter.

thats where all the good bacteria is so if you took the old filter out and put a new one in, you took away all the bacteria and it has to build up again.


since you said you had this problem before the new filter tho, are you sure they arent gasping for air?

you need to make sure your filter is breaking the surface of the water or you have an airstone causing ripples.

thats how oxygen gets into the water so if you dont have that then they will all go to the top to gasp for air.

 

[dgwebster]

i *think* ive had a fairly good response from "dual action stress zyme" myself, but that may have just been nature anyway.

certainly keep those water changes going but make sure you treat the water otherwise its pointless.

 

[Michelleuk]

The fish are not grasping.

 

[dgwebster]

i would definately say this is definately a water quality issue not an oxygen issue. fish gasp anywhere in a tank without oxygen, not solely limited to the top. swimming at the top suggests water quality and they are trying to avoid elements that are heavier than water...i know for the case of an aquarium its pointless, but it is only their instinct.

 

[T1KARMANN]

add some airation and do daily water changes