Fish on surface....?
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
-
pandalove182
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 36
- Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 8:15 pm
- My Puffers: 1 GSP "Sir Puffington II"
1 five spot chiclid
1 jaguar chiclid
1 african chiclid
1 overweight guppy
2 firemouth chiclid
2 bumblebee chiclid
2 angel fish - Location: bloomingdale, Il
- Contact:
Fish on surface....?
I had a GSP a few weeks ago and before he died he spent most his time at the top of the surface. After, he died I bought a guppy to keep the bacteria alive and I noticed that the guppy spends all of its time at the top of the surface. Since I had the puffer I changed the gravel out for sand thats all. my parameters are all perfect nitrate:20 nitrite:0 pH:8.0 alkalinity:400 Im not sure about ammonia. Do you have any idea why this fish is acting this way?
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Fish on surface....?
You need to know the ammonia too. Is the filter aggitating the surface of the water at all?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
apachepufferman
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:28 pm
- My Puffers: 1 fahaka 2 gsp
1 arrowhead 4 dwarfs
1 sap and thats just the puffers!!! So i'm a little fish crazy - Location: boise id
Re: Fish on surface....?
It sounds like the water isn't getting enought oxygen in it. I think thats what PP is getting at as well. I nearly lost my fahaka this past week to poor oxygen level. My airpump decided to quit working very well and it took me 4 days to figure out why my fish were doing so poor.
adam
Re: Fish on surface....?
Its normal for guppies to stay at the surface of the water, but still be sure the surface is agitated.
Re: Fish on surface....?
Ammonia can also be a cause for a fish to have difficulty breathing (and therefore stay on the surface).
Also, did you treat you water for chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals before adding it to the tank?
Also, did you treat you water for chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals before adding it to the tank?
-
Agnate
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1203
- Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:44 pm
- My Puffers: -
1 Abei Puffer [Monotrete Abei]
(Captain Abe) - Location: Ontario, Canada
- Contact:
Re: Fish on surface....?
Honestly, I can't emphasize how important it is to oxygenate your water. Just adding an air pump with a standard stone doesn't always cut it! I find that the finer you can get the bubbles, the better it will work. My roommate's fish were doing *terribly* and he couldn't figure out what the problem was. After doing a bit of research, he moved the airline tubing (where he just had a pump and a standard blue stone already in his tank) underneath his Koralia (allowing the impeller to chop the bubbles into tiny little ones, and then shooting them across the tank). Within hours, all of his fish seemed to dramatically improve! He was a bit angry at himself, as he just assumed they were getting enough air because he was running the air pump.
The AquaClear powerhead I have sucks in air if you hook up the airline tube to it (I don't even need an air pump, as it pulls the air through the tube and doesn't need to be forced). It creates extremely fine bubbles and aerates the tank amazingly! My MaxiJets, however, *suck* at pumping in air. They just aren't as effective at this as my AC powerhead is.
So just as a head's up, make sure you're providing a lot of oxygen to the tank!
The AquaClear powerhead I have sucks in air if you hook up the airline tube to it (I don't even need an air pump, as it pulls the air through the tube and doesn't need to be forced). It creates extremely fine bubbles and aerates the tank amazingly! My MaxiJets, however, *suck* at pumping in air. They just aren't as effective at this as my AC powerhead is.
So just as a head's up, make sure you're providing a lot of oxygen to the tank!
Did our staff successfully help you? The Puffer Forum is an incredible resource and is run completely on the donations of its viewers. Proceeds from the Puffer Forum store go towards future contests and keeping the site running. Donations may also be made via PayPal.
- Paul
40 gallon - Future home of Abei Puffer
28 gallon - 1 Abei Puffer (Captain Abe)
5 gallon - 1 Betta (Frederico)
- Paul
40 gallon - Future home of Abei Puffer
28 gallon - 1 Abei Puffer (Captain Abe)
5 gallon - 1 Betta (Frederico)