Gasping and not eating

[julibob]

My fish are not exactly sick, but this is now the second morning in a row that they have hung around the bottom of the tank with rapid gill movement and refusing food. Checked the water yesterday, and all was fine:

Ph 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
Phos 0.5

Temp 77F / 25C

Did a 25% water change, and they perked up! Were their usual cheeky selves for the rest of the day, and they are the same again this morning. Rapid gill movement and not wanting food. What could be going on? Any ideas?

Julia

 

[julibob]

Ok, now I have a problem!! Just tested water again.

Ph 7 (has dropped!)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0.5
Nitrates 5

Ph has dropped and Nitrites have shot up since yesterday!!

Will do a 30% water change in a minute and see how I go.

Julia

 

[tmkx3]

HI I am really new at this too. started my tanks 3mons ago. How olng have you had your tank. has it cycled yet? I have read some stuff about tha gasping thing. The nitrites can be your problem,but I think that not enough aeration can cause them to gasp also. What size tank do you have ? whats the temp. How many fish?

 

[Fiori]

Maybe you could try carbon in your filter for a bit, in case something has got into your water.

 

[WILDER]

Need to no size of tank in gallons, plus how many fish and which type.

 

[IMCL85]

R u using some kind of medicine to ups PH? Usually in about 2 hours ph drops like 0.8 is consider high. And I dont know how u maintain ur tank(feeding/water change etc). There r alot of possibility with not eating and stay on bottom. One is over feeding, this generally because u feed them too much.

 

[tttnjfttt]

Also, do you know what the KH of your water is? The KH is the buffering capacity of your water, and tells how stable the pH is going to be. Do you know what the pH is straight out of your tap?

Looking at the nitrIte, did you remember to use dechlor when you did your water change last night? Have you added new fish recently? Have you cleaned your filter, specifically where your bacteria is kept?

I agree with the adding carbon (or replacing the old carbon) to remove anything that might have gotten into the water. Definately begin doing daily water changes, but you want to keep them VERY small because of how drastically your pH changes. I would say no more than 10% every 12 hours.