Gasping fish, help!

[Honcho]

My angelfish appear to be gasping, their gills are moving very rapidly and they keep their mouths open also all the snails in my tank hav come to the just under the surface. This has all happened overnight, any idea what is happening???

 

[DeFeKt]

ammonia,
pwc as soon as possible.
Thats how we tell, when your snails are heading to the surface.

 

[travis simonson]

One quick thing you can do is to place an airstone in the tank to add some quick O2 to the water column until you figure out the cause.

 

[mattrox]

Do you have a test kit? Aquarium Pharmacuticals is a popular choice.

DeFeKt is right, do a pwc. But you also need to test. How long has the tank been set up? How often do you do pwcs? Some more info will help get the problem solved much more quickly.

 

[Honcho]

Ive just added some ammo lock, the water was changed 2 days ago...the tank has been going for 6 months. There is really no reason for an ammonia spike other than the large volumes of snails.

 

[mattrox]

If many snails die at once for whatever reason they will rot and cause a pH spike. Try a really good gravel vac too.

 

[fastfly48]

hey mattox!
Your from Australia too!
hmmm....Adelaide but, oh well we can't all be perfect.
Take it easy mate.
Ry.

 

[DepotFish]

Pwc time. I've had bad days where I change the water and then notice the fish gasping almost immediately or within two days. I wonder if the tap water could somehow have an ammonia spike. Do you use tap water?

 

[jrp1588]

I know my buddy's well water has 2ppm ammonia. He used that as tank water for a while and had mojor problems. Finally he bought a testkit and discovered the problem. Depot, you have a test kit?

 

[DepotFish]

No, I change the water once a week and don't notice any problems with the fish. The only occasional problem is when this happens, which is not very often, and then I change it out right away and the water is fine. I suppose I should buy a kit.

 

[jrp1588]

Yeah...I need to buy one too depot...along with a million other things for my new 75gal... I'm going to be so poor. lol