What's happened to my fish tank??

[smoutylad22]

My partner got me out of bed yesterday afternoon after I'd done a night shift to tell me something is wrong with the fish. I raced downstairs to find that most of them were swimming at the surface, a couple of amano shrimps were lying upside down at the bottom of my tank! I was thinking what the hell is going on.

My tank has been up and running for 15 months having done a fish less cycle. I've had no problems at all in this time. I do water changes on a Monday and Thursday religiously, vacuuming the substrate etc.

I immediately did a huge water change about 3:30pm to see if that would solve the problem. All was well after the water change, the fish were swimming fine and acting normal and the shrimp were fine too. Just before I was due to leave the house for work at 9:00pm the fish and shrimp looked in real trouble again, my german blue rams were at the surface along with the shrimp. My 3 remaining cardinal tetras (I lost 2 while this was happening) and 2 peppered corys were just fine as were my 3 endlers.

Straight away I tested the water and the readings were spot on as they always are. I'm mystified as to why things are starting to go wrong with my tank. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

I had to leave for work and I'm really not looking forward to seeing my tank in the morning 😕




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[mom2reds]

Sounds like the temperature of the water may have been to high, causing a lack of oxygen. Make sure your heater is working correctly and that there is enough movement in the water if your temps are higher than usual.

[smoutylad22]

I've just got home from work and all the fish and shrimp seem fine which is a big relief. I will check the heater, the temperature does seem to fluctuate too much in my opinion. At the moment it reads 25.7 degrees celsius, last night I'm sure it was reading 26. something. Is it possible that this could be causing the problems?


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[DazF]

How do you have your filter outlet set up?
Do you have any airstones in the tank?


Must... Resist... MTS!!

[ImACoolguy]

I think it's just lack of oxygenation.

Do you use test strips or a liquid test kit?


Caleb

[PoppaRyno]

Heat can cause a lack of oxygenation in the water. Im not a celsius guy, But some shifts in temp are fine. They see bigger shifts in 24hrs in nature. But i agree it does sound like an oxygen issue. Keep us posted.

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[Mebbid]

I agree about the oxygenation issue.

The easiest way to fix it is by adding an airstone.

You could also add a second filter, drop the water level to create more surface agitation, or angle the flow upwards if you have a canister.

[ScotJudd]

My quarantine tank sits under a roof window and I sometimes forget to pull the blind. The temp goes from 25c up to 28c and once even 29c but the fish and shrimp are fine but I have a lot of water surface agitation. I also have an air stone which not only agitates the surface but replenishes the air between the water surface and the hood. If the top of your tank is a fairly good seal then you need to keep the air circulating as well as the water. An air stone does both.


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[smoutylad22]

Originally Posted by DazF

How do you have your filter outlet set up?
Do you have any airstones in the tank?


Must... Resist... MTS!!

The outlet is pointing up to the surface so I do get movement there. I'm not running an air stone at the moment.


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[smoutylad22]

Originally Posted by ImACoolguy

I think it's just lack of oxygenation.

Do you use test strips or a liquid test kit?


Caleb

I use the API master test kit


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[smoutylad22]

Thank you all for your help and advice. Everything seems fine with the tank at present, I'm still not sure what happened. I'm just lucky I didn't lose ALL my fish.


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