Fish gasping for air

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Blackpearl

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Oct 16, 2003
Messages
97
Location
Saskatoon, Canada
Hi everyone,
I haven't been around for quite a while so maybe no one recognized me.
Well anyways, I'm just curious that some of my platies sometimes swim up to the water surface and kind of gasp for air, just like my dwarf gouramis. Is this normal or they're just wanting more food?

I noticed also, sometimes the platies like to have some sort of swimming competition.. they would swim towards the water flow from the HOB filter for quite some time. Of course the water is quite strong so they never really reach the filter that way. It is just weird to me. Does anybody else experience this with their fish?
 
Welcome back, Blackpearl! It is normal for a gourami to breathe at the water surface. They are labyrinth fish, like bettas, so the labyrinth organ allows oxygen to be absorbed from the air. These labyrinth fish use their gills along with the labyrinth organ to breathe.

Platies are not labyrinth fish, so they shouldn't breathe at the water surface. Can you tell if they are doing this frequently, or just when you come by, like they are begging for food? When and how much do you feed? It would probably be a good idea to check your water parameters -- ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.

Is the info in your signature area up-to-date? I would say that you are overstocked. That is a lot of fish for a 10 gallon tank. How many platies do you have? Some plecos can get much too big for a 10 gallon tank. Plus, plecos also produce lots of waste, which can lead to an ammonia spike if your filter is not adequate. This could be a reason why the platies are gasping. What size filter do you have? Start off with testing your parameters. From what I have to go on now, I would say that you will need a bigger tank or tanks in the future.

I don't have platies, so I can't answer your second question, sorry.
 
I just tested my tank yesterday after the water change and there's no ammonia.

The platies gasp for air not very often. I'd see it like once a day when I'm sitting in front of the tank. I feed them twice a day, so they should have enough ?

Yeah.. it's hard having livebearers. I got the platies as a newbie, not realizing how fast they'll breed.. :( The gouramis were birthday presents and the loach was xmas present from my loved ones. I have just sold 10 of my platies to LFS. More will be going there when they're big enough. Thanks for the advice. I'm considering getting bigger tank in the summer when I move out of this apartment.
 
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