Fish Gasping For Air

[australia]

No, i got them from a breeder who has the exacly the same setup! exept they had twice as many fish in the same tank!!!

Just because someonelse does it dont mean its right..., It could be because theres so many fish in there and the water quality is bad....did you cycle your tank?

Whilst I understand you dont have a test kit, I would strongly recommend that you purchase one, whilst a little expensive they are invaluable when it comes to understanding what is happening in your tank and to your fishes. An API master test kit or another liquid test kit.

If you cannot get one immediately, I would take a sample of the tank water to your LFS and ask them to test it for you (some do this free of charge) and get them to write the results down for you.

In the meantime, do a minimum of a 25% water change, if possible angle your outlet from your filter so that it creates more movement, thus creating more oxygen in the water, also if you have an airstone/pump turn it on.

The fish sound like they are in need of more oxygen and/or suffering from ammonia/nitrIte poisoning. The only way to aleviate this is to do regular, sometimes 2/3 times a day water changes of 25% until the levels in the tank get to acceptable levels and your tank cycles.

okay, what do u mean 2/3 time a day? do u mean 2 or 3 times a day do 25%?

 

[kj23502]

Just b/c the test kits are out of date doesn't mean they WILL be wrong! Try one anyway. I have an ammonia one that I've had for years. I went out and bought an API and compared the two and the OLD one was right on. Just try it, it can't hurt. Also taking the water to the lfs is a good idea too! Then you can compare how accurate yours actually is!!

When my 125 went through it's partial cycle, I was doing 50% changes a day for...I don't know...about a week maybe. Sometimes I had to do it twice a day to bring the levels down. Ammonia shouldn't be higher than .25ppm and the same for nitrite. Do as many water changes as it takes to get to that level. (I'm sure you know this, but I'm adding it anyway...be sure you declorinate your water when you put it in your tank) Are the sponge filters all you have in their? If so that's not enough either. These are messy fish that poop ALOT. Oh yea....you can cut feeding down to about every other day or so and they'll create less waste and reduce the bio-load a little bit.

Just to clarify?? You do know that the sponge filters themselves don't areate the water...the bubbles dissapate as the surface too fast for them to make that much of a difference. You may need a powerhead to move the surface as surface movement is the main thing that puts oxygen in the water.

Your tank is over stocked!!!! BAD When I first set up mine all the experienced people on here said about 3.5 to 4 fish per gallon for mbuna. That puts you at about 12 fish. Unless you get better filtration and have tank turnover of at least 10X per hour to clear the water of their waste and junk. You need a canister filter. So you need something that turns the water 1600 liters per hour. Make sure you have rocks and nooks and cranies for your fish to swim through and hide.

okay, what do u mean 2/3 time a day? do u mean 2 or 3 times a day do 25%?

yep they mean 2 or 3 times per day to get the nitrite and ammonia down to acceptable levels

 

[DarkEntity]

Quick fix, do a water change. and do it every day until you get your over stocked tank sorted out.

 

[australia]

Quick fix, do a water change. and do it every day until you get your over stocked tank sorted out.

okay thanks alot everyone i will do water changes every day entill they are good

and i will test the water anyway!

 

[kj23502]

That's really a temp fix...You really NEED more filtration in the long run or get rid of some of your fish. (which getting rid of some of your fish is, i think, what darkentity was saying). In a tank that size, I think you should get some good hang on back filters or, in my opinion the best choic, a canister filter.

 

[australia]

That's really a temp fix...You really NEED more filtration in the long run or get rid of some of your fish. (which getting rid of some of your fish is, i think, what darkentity was saying). In a tank that size, I think you should get some good hang on back filters or, in my opinion the best choic, a canister filter.

thanks alot
cheers

 

[kj23502]

You're welcome!! Let us know how it turns out!!

 

[PRW1988]

So you know, many fish look like they're gasping for air, in actuallity they aren't unless they are near the surface.

Look at any fish and you'll notice their mouths opening and closing. Aswell, doing 25% water changes 3 times a day is 75% of the tank, so you may be starting mini cycles which are not good for your fish.

In regards to the cichlids, are they african cichlids? I have a 75gallon of them and it's better to overstock african cichlids so the agression is evenly distributed through out the tank. A 30-40% water change once a week will be fine, my african cichlid nitrates are always high, (80+) but that's because of the amount of waste they produce.

 

[australia]

yeah african cichlids

 

[PRW1988]

yea, so overstocking the tank slightly isn't bad. let's see you said 160L tank?? that's about 42 us gallons, so 20 fish in there is a fair bit overstocked... Not a surprise if your fish are at the surface gasping for air. I'd lower that number to about 12-14 if I was you.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

yea, so overstocking the tank slightly isn't bad. let's see you said 160L tank?? that's about 42 us gallons, so 20 fish in there is a fair bit overstocked... Not a surprise if your fish are at the surface gasping for air. I'd lower that number to about 12-14 if I was you.

Yes but to overstock you need to overfiltrate to match this overstocking, What sort of filtration have you got mate?

 

[australia]

yea, so overstocking the tank slightly isn't bad. let's see you said 160L tank?? that's about 42 us gallons, so 20 fish in there is a fair bit overstocked... Not a surprise if your fish are at the surface gasping for air. I'd lower that number to about 12-14 if I was you.

Yes but to overstock you need to overfiltrate to match this overstocking, What sort of filtration have you got mate?

i am only running two large sponge filter

 

[Ace Of Spades]

yea, so overstocking the tank slightly isn't bad. let's see you said 160L tank?? that's about 42 us gallons, so 20 fish in there is a fair bit overstocked... Not a surprise if your fish are at the surface gasping for air. I'd lower that number to about 12-14 if I was you.

Yes but to overstock you need to overfiltrate to match this overstocking, What sort of filtration have you got mate?

i am only running two large sponge filter

Well with african cichlids I think you need to aim for 10x tank turnover, so your looking at 1600 LPH

 

[PRW1988]

See that may be the problem aswell, I'd highly recommend boosting your filter system to atleast a 70gallon hang on the back filter, if not a larger one.

On my 75gallon I have 285gallons of filtration (A rena xp3 and a aquaclear 110). that's why I can overstock, doing the waterchanges that you're doing, yes you're keeping the nitrates down, but as I mentioned you may be starting mini-cycles which are actually harming your fish.

 

[australia]

See that may be the problem aswell, I'd highly recommend boosting your filter system to atleast a 70gallon hang on the back filter, if not a larger one.

On my 75gallon I have 285gallons of filtration (A rena xp3 and a aquaclear 110). that's why I can overstock, doing the waterchanges that you're doing, yes you're keeping the nitrates down, but as I mentioned you may be starting mini-cycles which are actually harming your fish.

i have add`d a wisper i20 internal filter for now! i hope this does make a difference,