My cousin was telling me that his african cichlids keep on gasping near the top of the tank and only water changes can help. He has an overstocked 350 gal, but Im not sure exactly how many fish. I told him its probably that the fish need more oxygen. Do you think thats the case? Also, what would be a good way to aerate the water? Im going down to see him tommorrow so we can try to fix this so any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks
help! fish gasping
- Thread starter yemista
- Start date
yemista;2190135; said:
Ammonia, Nitrate, waste overload from "too many fish"..sounds like that is the problem..you can add more airstone, more filters by increasing filtration etc .. double up with more water changes...although not to the extreme.. because once the water has become poor quality everything has to be done qradually or you could kill the fish.... they need a slow gradual change for the better...and most of all decrease the number of fish...otherwise problem will continue to exist and occur...
If it is because of too many fish, how will more filtration help? how do you know if you have enough filtration? as long as it is able to convert the ammonia to nitrate fast enough that you never detect ammonia?
first things first, how many fish does he have? small medium or large cichlids? the obvious answer would be air, unless he also has fish dying off. next would be check nitrates, nitrites, ammonia but i think oxygen would be first. get a picture or a count on the fish and types and that'll help us figure out what's wrong
yemista;2190169; said:
having extra filtration just would help for temporary basis... not long term... all things that are done to help have to be done gradual... fish can die from shock of water being better quality too.. they need better quality but slowly acclimated to it... the best solution is too thin the population.. especially that you mentioned there were too many fish...this is what they do ..gasp for air if too many.... i am giving you my opinion... based on what you say..
Red Devil;2190161; said:
Well, hang on for a minute. It might not be overstocked at all.
We really need to know more about your tank first. Specifically: what fish, how big, how many. Also, what is your temperature, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate.
Could you throw a picture up by any chance?
I dont see my cousin much and I dont remember exactly about the tank, but I know he has large african cichlids and it is definately overstocked, and when we spoke on the phone he said it was overstocked. When I go down Ill try to get a picture of it and fish count, but Ive never kept africans myself and dont know about the different types, so hopefully he will recognize what he has in there. Based on my own research and what you guys say, I think it is either oxygen, or too much nitrate or nitrate or ammonia that is making them sit up at the top
Any chance you could send your cousin to this site? Don't get me wrong, but they are his fish, if he wants them to thrive he should be the one doing the work and research.
I know, I myself have not been on this site very recently and really like the forums here, and am definately gonna show it to him so he can register, but I also want to help him while I can because this is seeming like a serious issue right now