The Puffer Forum

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?

You need to know the ammonia too. Is the filter aggitating the surface of the water at all?

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.

Its normal for guppies to stay at the surface of the water, but still be sure the surface is agitated.

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?

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!