Gasping Swordtails

[zebthecat]

Hi

I'm pretty new to fishkeeping - We have one tank; a Juwel rekord 60 (approx 16 US Gallons). We've had the tank for 3 months with no trouble until now.
In the tank We have 4 zebra danios, 4 pentazona barbs and 3 swordtails (1 boy an 2 girls).

Lately (for the last 3 days) I've noticed that the male swordtail and one of the females intermittently gasp for air at the top of the tanks for about half an hour after they have been fed. They go to top of the tank take a few breaths and then carry on as normal for a bit before going back for some more air. After half an hour they don't gasp any more.

All the other fish are fine (including the second female swordtail) and the 2 affected fish appear to be acting normally at other times. Can't see anything obviously untoward with the fish apart from the gasping after food. Apart from the Juwel Filter we also have an air stone so I don't think there can be a lack of Oxygen.

Water reading are:
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 25 ppm
PH 7.6
Temp 78

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Charlie

 

[helterskelter]

It sounds like a lack of oxygen in the water, fish feeding uses up a lot of oxygen especially from active fish like barbs and danios.

I'll suggest adding extra aeration from either a air pump or a internal filter. aim to have a fine mist of bubbles where possible.

 

[zebthecat]

It sounds like a lack of oxygen in the water, fish feeding uses up a lot of oxygen especially from active fish like barbs and danios.

I'll suggest adding extra aeration from either a air pump or a internal filter. aim to have a fine mist of bubbles where possible.

Thanks for that - The tank has an internal filter (it spits water back into the top of the tank) and we also have an air stone driven by an air pump. We don't have the pump on all the time as I didn't think we needed it. The air pump is really for our little boy as he likes bubbles!
I'll stick the pump on all the time and see what happens.

Thanks again

Charlie

 

[theotheragentm]

It's not going to be just the size of the tank that matters. The surface area is going to matter for oxygen to dissolve across the surface. That is why long tanks are always preferred to tall tanks. The air pump puts very little oxygen into the water. What it does is it breaks the film on the surface of the water to allow oxygen to dissolve into the water. Really a filter return is enough to do this as well. You don't need to have the surface truly visibly broken. A ripple will generally allow that film to be broken enough to allow oxygen to dissolve across the surface.

 

[helterskelter]

If you got a filter that disturbing the surface then you should be fine, as long as you have enough space as already said before.

All common livebeares to spend most of their tim at the surface anyhow and it could just that they are not short of oxygen after all.

 

[theotheragentm]

It could possibly be they are looking for extra bits of food. Mine don't stay on the top, but they rummage around the floor of the tank for leftovers.

 

[zebthecat]

It could possibly be they are looking for extra bits of food. Mine don't stay on the top, but they rummage around the floor of the tank for leftovers.

I reckon you are right there - In our tank the Pentazona Barbs root about at the bottom with one of the female swortails and the other two swordtails go to the top (The Danios just go all over the place). I don't think there is any Oxygen problem at all - I've had the airstone going all week now and it had made no difference.

Big sigh of relief!!

Thanks

Charlie

 

[poopwillruleyo1]

lack of oxagen

 

[theotheragentm]

poopwillruleyo1, do you have any real content to post or are you just repeating other people's conjectures and misspelling them horribly?