Fish Gasping For Air At Surface...

[Cooky_luvs]

Hello everyone,

I have been having a problem in my tank for the past couple days and I am completely lost. I figured I'd stop by and ask the experts so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Firstly some info about my tank. I have an unplanted 110 gallon tank that has been established for 8 months now. Now I had a lot of problems with low ph due to the water in my apartment, but have recently resolved this with adding crushed coral to the tank, now my ph is stable around 7. Since I've been able to get the ph stabilized the fish have been doing excellent and have even grown quite a bit. I currently have 1 distichodus sexfaciatus, 2 prochilodus, 1 bush fish (who is unaffected), 2 severums, one chalceus, and one cigar fish so my tank is no where near overstocked.

Unfortunately since tuesday my fish have been gasping at the surface for air non stop after doing a normal routine water change the night prior. I tested the tank and all of the levels for nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia read fine. Baffled I just threw in some prime to be safe and waited. The next morning my fish were acting the same so I did another 15% water change and turned off the heater all day to keep the oxygen levels up. The fish looked better after the change, but the next day they went right back to gasping at the surface. This time I tested the water and suddenly the nitrates and especially the nitrites were very high. So lost for ideas I went ahead and changed the carbon in one of my fluval filters (not both since I don't want to kill off too much bacteria), and then threw in a large dose of prime. The fish even looked better after this, but come today they are back to sitting at the surface gasping for air. The nitrates and nitrites are still both reading high so at this point I don't know what else to try. I am lost as to what is raising them in the first place and I'm afraid of making the problem worse by doing excessive water changes. Any ideas what could be going on? I've been keeping tanks for about 4 years now and have never had anything like this and I hope I can get it resolved before I start losing fish.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

try bigger water changes? lower the temp maybe if its high, as warmer water is less dense and doesnt contain as much oxygen. in addition, you can add an airstone and pump and see how that works. water changes mandatory.

 

[karin]

Your fish are gasping due to nitrites and these, at the moment are more deadly than your nitrates. (It would be helpful to have the exact numbers on these by the way. It is likely that you, for some reason are experiencing a mini-cycle. Somewhere along the line you have lost some of your nitrite metabolizing bacteria. Doesn't matter why right now but the only thing you can do is massive water changes until you get through the mini-cycle. It is unlikely your tap water has nitrites but you can test.

Now why is this? Sometimes mini-cycles happen, sometimes it occurs because of filter failure so double check your filters for proper operation.

Good luck.

 

[Cooky_luvs]

Your fish are gasping due to nitrites and these, at the moment are more deadly than your nitrates. (It would be helpful to have the exact numbers on these by the way. It is likely that you, for some reason are experiencing a mini-cycle. Somewhere along the line you have lost some of your nitrite metabolizing bacteria. Doesn't matter why right now but the only thing you can do is massive water changes until you get through the mini-cycle. It is unlikely your tap water has nitrites but you can test.

Now why is this? Sometimes mini-cycles happen, sometimes it occurs because of filter failure so double check your filters for proper operation.

Good luck.

Unfortunately my test strips don't give exact numbers. The nitrates aren't too bad the nitrites are in the 'stress' range. So I'll try doing a bigger water change today and I hope that helps. The fish do seem to be improving but are still hanging around the surface from time to time so hopefully one big cleaning should clear it up since it seems like this mini cycle is almost over. Still wish I knew the cause but so long as it goes back to normal is whats important. Oh and I do have two airstones in the tank and a powerhead, forgot to include that in my original post. But thank you both for responding, I'll let you know if I see any improvement.

 

[Ryefish]

You need to do a big enough water change that you have no reading or only a trace of nitrites. Itll be more manageable but youll still have to do another waterchange every day until its sorted itself out

 

[karin]

With this tank and your valuable fish it is time to invest in a liquid based test kit to get more accurate readings. This is the natural progression for a fish-keeper and water manager. Keep doing water changes until that nitrite level is down because nitrites will kill fish.

Good luck

 

[AstonN24vantage]

Your fish are gasping due to nitrites and these, at the moment are more deadly than your nitrates. (It would be helpful to have the exact numbers on these by the way. It is likely that you, for some reason are experiencing a mini-cycle. Somewhere along the line you have lost some of your nitrite metabolizing bacteria. Doesn't matter why right now but the only thing you can do is massive water changes until you get through the mini-cycle. It is unlikely your tap water has nitrites but you can test.

Now why is this? Sometimes mini-cycles happen, sometimes it occurs because of filter failure so double check your filters for proper operation.

Good luck.

Unfortunately my test strips don't give exact numbers. The nitrates aren't too bad the nitrites are in the 'stress' range. So I'll try doing a bigger water change today and I hope that helps. The fish do seem to be improving but are still hanging around the surface from time to time so hopefully one big cleaning should clear it up since it seems like this mini cycle is almost over. Still wish I knew the cause but so long as it goes back to normal is whats important. Oh and I do have two airstones in the tank and a powerhead, forgot to include that in my original post. But thank you both for responding, I'll let you know if I see any improvement.

you NEED a liquid test kit. go for api master test kit.