African cichlids - swimming nose up

[flippergonzo]

Hey all,

I have a 90G cichlid tank that has been very healthy but i'm experiencing some weird behavior in the last 12 hours. Almost everyone in the tank is swimming at the top "nose up". Whenever I walk by, they swim back to their respective hiding places but within a few minutes, they're all back up at the top.

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but it's the only thing that I'm aware of that's changed. Yesterday, I switched on of the heaters on the tank. I've always used 2 heaters, but I wanted to use a different heater because one of the originals was not submersible. Put the new (well, new to this tank - have had this one for a long time) heater in. A couple of hours later, the temp spiked from 25 celcius to about 27.5. YIKES! So I removed the second heater and put the original back on and let the temp drop overnight back to normal range.

I've tested the water and nitrite, nitrate and ammonia are all undetectable, temperature is now 25 celcius and pH is in the 7.0 - 7.5 range.

I have not yet done a PWC because I didn't want to stress anyone out, but I'm going to do a 50% change right away.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any help!!
Jef

 

[mfdrookie516]

imo, the surface of the water doesnt look like it has enough agitation.

 

[flippergonzo]

That's an interesting point. I wonder if I should redirect the filter output closer to the top of the tank so that it agitates the surface more? It's one of the outputs that's about a 15" long tube with holes every inch or so. Right now it's directed through the center of the tank.

 

[mfdrookie516]

definitely, thats how mine is... not above the surface, just right below the surface so that it causes the water to kind of splash around. I have mine so that the tube is barely above the surface, but the holes are not... gets too noisy for me otherwise

 

[flippergonzo]

thanks Jonathan!

I ended up doing a 60% PWC, rinsing the filter media and moving the output to along the waterline. Everything seems to be back to normal now.

Cheers, Jef

 

[mfdrookie516]

hope everything works out. keep an eye on them, but that should help just having the added surface agitation.