Help

[Kerry147]

Hi all
I have a temperate aquarium and one of my fish seems to be gasping all the time, is staying near the bottom often and doesn't appear to be eating. I've done a partial water change, change the filter and treated for ammonia. Any ideas on what else I can do?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

How do you mean you treated for ammonia? What did you use?
When you changed the filter, does that mean you changed all of the filter media inside for new?

Is it just the one fish? What kind of fish, and how are the others acting? How long as the one fish been refusing food and gasping?

 

[Kerry147]

Hi all
I have a temperate aquarium and one of my fish seems to be gasping all the time, is staying near the bottom often and doesn't appear to be eating. I've done a partial water change, change the filter and treated for ammonia. Any ideas on what else I can do?

How do you mean you treated for ammonia? What did you use?
When you changed the filter, does that mean you changed all of the filter media inside for new?

Is it just the one fish? What kind of fish, and how are the others acting? How long as the one fish been refusing food and gasping?

I used an ammonia remover. Yes changed the filter and media. I have a few fish, all the others seem to be OK. The poorly fish has been like this for a few days

 

[Kerry147]

used an ammonia remover. Yes changed the filter and media. I have a few fish, all the others seem to be OK. The poorly fish has been like this for a few days

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Hi, Kerry. First of all, welcome to the forum! We're glad you're here. You've come to a good place for help.

The way your fish is behaving sounds like a water quality issue, most likely. Start with a big water change, at least 50%. Be sure the new water is treated for chlorine and the same temperature as the water you took out.

Do you have a test kit? It would be helpful to know exactly what's happening with your water. Test strips are better than nothing if that's all you can get, but it would be worthwhile to invest in a master test kit, as they are more accurate.

A few other questions that might help us help you:
How big is your tank?
How long has it been set up?
What species fish are in it, and how many? What species is the suffering one, and how long have you had it?
What kind of decor?

 

[Colin_T]

FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally (landscape mode) so the footage fills the entire screen and you don't get black bars on each end.