Need Immediate Help - Fish on bottom breathing slowly.

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steve.mate

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
16
Anyone there? I have a fish emergency. All my fish are laying on the bottom breathing very slowly. I started an air stone. Not sure what else to do. I don't have a test kit, temp looks fine (78F). I have the tank for only a week, moved a lot of water with it, fish have been fine and active.

No plants.

Do a do a PWC? Light on or off?
 
Tank is 55 gallon, I have 11 fish; angel fish, severums, corys, flying fox, pleco.

I have a fluval 304, I adjusted it so the intake is above the water now. I have one power head as well.
 
If the tank is only a week old then you are probably having an ammonia spike. Do a 50% water change and if you are on city water be sure to use a dechlorinater in the water. you're going to have to get a test kit to measure your water parameters. the API master freshwater test kit is all the basic tests that you should have.
 
Turn the light off. This will help to decrease stress.

Increasing oxygen levels will also help. Increasing suface agitation through adjusting filter output (as it sounds like you've done) and/or adding an airstone will be beneficial in achieving these ends.

Do a large water change. At only a week old with no mention of seeding the filter, you're almost certainly still cycling the aquarium. You need to get the ammonia levels down. Unfortunately several of your fish are definately not appropriate for a cycling aquarium (cories and pleco), and it also appears that you've probably added way too many fish at once. It would be best if you could return some (continue cycling with fish, but with lighter load and hardiest of fish) or all of your fish (continue with fishless cycle by providing an alternate source of ammonia). If you choose to continue cycling with fish, you need to be prepared to continue doing lots of large water changes to keep your fish safe.

It would be advisable to pick up some liquid test kits to be better able to determine how the cycle is progressing and whether conditions are safe for your fish. The API Master Test Kit is relatively inexpensive and contains everything you would need at this point.
 
Sorry - I didn't give enough background.

I bought the tank used, it had been setup for years prior. I moved approx 25 gallons of water with the tank, and kept the canister wet during the move (it took about 4 hrs).

I clean the sponges in running water (I since read that you should use tank water, so now I know). My filter has bio-life or whatever you call it as well and I did not rinse it at all.

Should I still do the 50% PWC?
 
With this addition information, it may not be as bad as it originally sounded. By rinsing the sponges in untreated tap water, at least part of your biofilter was probably killed off. As long as you didn't do this to all of the filter media, then you are probably only dealing with a minicycle, instead of full cycle. I would still do a large water change based on the symptoms that your fish are displaying. Clean water will heal most problems.
 
Thanks - I'll do the water change right now. I hesitated to do the water change because of oxygen. I was not sure if the tap water would have less oxygen, and therefore the PWC might be a bad thing assuming that I only have an oxygen problem.

Would you guess the problem is a mini-cycle, or are there any other possibilities? I have no plants so I'm obviously not pumping in CO2. I was not running an air stone - should I in the future?

I guess its hard to say without a test kit.

Thank you both for your help this eve.
 
It definitely sounds like a mini-cycle. Is the water cloudy at all? Have you fed the fish at all (don't do it anymore if you have...) DEFINITELY do a water change. 50%, see if that helps, being sure to add decholorinator and getting the water temperature as close as possible to what the current temperature is. If it was just some kind of stress from the move I don't think all of them would be laying at the bottom like that. There is no disease that I know of that strikes that quickly and does that to the fish. It has got to be the ammonia. If the oxygen was low they would be at the surface trying to get air. How are things going now? Are the fish still hanging in? And best of luck to you. I know it's hard being new and dealing with all the stuff. I hope it turns out okay for you!
 
If the oxygen was low they would be at the surface trying to get air.

Thanks for pointing that out Regen. And also the point about not feeding them.

Like I mentioned, I had first turned on the air stone, and put the filter and power head at the surface. Within 15 to 30 minutes the fish seemed better. I then did the PWC, and the fish now seem back to normal as far as I can tell.

I'm wondering - should carry out another PWC tomorrow?
 
Until you get a test kit I would do water changes every day..
 
I would also suggest frequent pwc my rule of thought is when something seems wrong a pwc always is the first thing to do it usually helps and never hurts. I would suggest useing prime as a decholrinator it is really good, especially when ammonia is high. Good Luck
 
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