I purchased a male sailfin molly not too long ago and pretty much right away I noticed he spends most of his day just gasping at the surface. He's in a 20 gal with 3 females and I do a 50% WC once a week. Tank's been running for 5 years and has proper filtration and aeration and is at 78 degrees. I know my tap water is high in nitrates.. always has been straight outta the tap. Could that be the problem? I don't see any spots or fungus or anything on him. He's so nice lookin'.. so I'm hoping he gets better and gets to breeding with my females. And ideas on what could be wrong and how I can fix it?
Gasping at the surface..
- Thread starter Sandi
- Start date
roombo;2389667; said:
I've never heard of that either. That would really suck...kinda defeats the purpose of doing water changes at all.
I had the same problem with a new pleco once. I added an air stone and he was fine within an hour or so.
BTB0923;2390071; said:
Do i ever agree more!
Shouldn't it be oxygen depletion that's why theyd o that?
DEF an oxygen issue! Ive had this problem before! Add a powerhead/air stone or another filter! The reason the go to the top and gasp is because the oxygen in water is like 1/3rd the percentage in comparison to our air. When there's an oxygen difficiency in a tank the fish will congregate at the surface because that's where the oxygen is at its highest concentration. Just add something to move more water and ur oxygen should stabalize! I lost fish to this problem coz i had no clue something was wrong, horrible mistake!!!!!
I had the same problem with having too many fish! Get the fluval plus =) that's what I got, not only does it filter my water, it also supply oxygen! Secondary method to back me up.. plants =)